LGD: A New Challenge vs A Familiar Foe
7 years ago
Last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs forced their way into the third seed in the Atlantic Division. Technically speaking, a tie for second. That’s about where I saw the Leafs being at the start of the season, so having it come to fruition is definitely nice, but hey, overachieving would be great too. If they really want to go for this, and take a serious run at the Atlantic Division, tonight’s game is key.
The Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Leo Komarov |  Nazem Kadri |  William Nylander |
 Zach Hyman |  Auston Matthews |  Connor Brown |
 James van Riemsdyk |  Tyler Bozak |  Mitchell Marner |
 Matt Martin |  Frederik Gauthier |  Nikita Soshnikov |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Morgan Rielly |  Nikita Zaitsev |
 Jake Gardiner |  Connor Carrick |
 Matt Hunwick |  Roman Polak |
Nothing changes. Points in 10 of the last 11 games and they’ve looked good in most of those matchups. Why would it change? I mean, there are reasons, but they probably don’t outweigh chemistry right now, and they’d largely be difficult to chip away it.
The Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Max Pacioretty |  Phillip Danault |  Alexander Radulov |
 Artturi Lehkonen |  Tomas Plekanec |  Sven Andrighetto |
 Daniel Carr |  Torrey Mitchell |  Brian Flynn |
 Bobby Farnham |  Michael McCarron |  Nikita Scherbak |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Alexei Emelin |  Shea Weber |
 Nathan Beaulieu |  Jeff Petry |
 Mark Barberio |  Ryan Johnston |
The Habs have been great this year, but we’ll see if they remain great tonight as the basically St. John’s IceCaps. Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher, David Desharnais, Andrei Markov, Andrew Shaw, and Charles Hudon are all out; that’s a lot of talent to lose, even if Hudon himself was to be one of the replacements.
Starting Goaltenders
Frederik Andersen comes back in for the Leafs. He was great against the Devils, stopping 30 of 32, but the bigger concern there is that it happened yesterday.
Carey Price is Carey Price. He’s faced the Leafs twice this year. He was a 0.971 and that doesn’t even sound that unrealistic to happen again. Throw as many pucks as you can on him and hope for the best.
What To Look For
The Leafs are coming into this rendition of the rivalry hotter than they were the first two times. Confidence is sky high, and that’s important when facing a goaltender of Price’s caliber. It helps too that Montreal are as decimated as they are, but they still have difference makers like Pacioretty and Radulov, and if you get into penalty trouble, facing Shea Weber is sub-optimal. How will this go? It’s hard to say, but it would be incredible to sneak out a regulation win after two close-fought attempts.
Puck drop is at 7:00, on Hockey Night in Canada.
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