LGD: Coming Soon To A Playoff Round Near You
By ThatsKappy
6 years agoIt’s Game Day!
Tonight, the Leafs (33-19-5) take on the Tampa Bay Lightning (38-14-3) for the second time this season. It’s a tight race to the finish between the Lightning and the Bruins, who are battling for the privilege of taking on our golden boys from Toronto in the first round of the playoffs.
Frankly, the Leafs are sitting extremely pretty right now, up a whopping 18 points on the fourth place Detroit Red Wings for the final Atlantic Division playoff spot. A higher seed is still within range, but they’re pretty firmly planted exactly where they currently stand.
Tonight, however, they’ll look to even the score against the Lightning, and also look for their first goal of the season against a team that shut them out 2-0 at the ACC when last they met. This could be a playoff preview here, folks.
Leafs Lines
 ZACH HYMAN |  AUSTON MATTHEWS |  WILLIAM NYLANDER |
 PATRICK MARLEAU |  NAZEM KADRI |  MITCH MARNER |
 JAMES VAN RIEMSDYK |  TYLER BOZAK |  CONNOR BROWN |
 LEO KOMAROV |  DOMINIC MOORE |  KASPERI KAPANEN |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | |
|---|---|
 MORGAN RIELLY |  RON HAINSEY |
 JAKE GARDINER |  NIKITA ZAITSEV |
 TRAVIS DERMOTT |  ROMAN POLAK |
Roman Polak is back in on the third pairing, while the rest of the lineup remains the same. The second line had a monster of a game on Saturday, with Patrick Marleau and Nazem Kadri each scoring once while Mitch Marner put up five points. They’ll need all the help they can get tonight against an extremely deep Tampa team.
Lightning Lines
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 YANNI GOURDE |  STEVEN STAMKOS |  TYLER JOHNSON |
 ALEX KILLORN |  BRAYDEN POINT |  NIKITA KUCHEROV |
 CORY CONACHER |  VLADISLAV NAMESTNIKOV |  ADAM ERNE |
 CHRIS KUNITZ |  CEDRIC PAQUETTE |  RYAN CALLAHAN |
Stamkos and Kucherov are skating on separate lines this time around, but realistically we know that just means double the threat. Kucherov is sitting at a nice 69 points on the season and will be in the hunt for his 30th goal of the season tonight.
Starting Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy and his face
VS
Freddy Andersen and his .921 sv% and general perfection.
In all seriousness, this could shape up to be another great goaltending battle akin to the first meeting between these two earlier this season. Buckle up!
Notes
- Mitch Marner has four goals in his last four games. His shooting percentage is coming back to earth, finally, and he’s actually shooting the puck these days. Good times.
- Tampa are 7-3-0 in their last ten, while the Leafs are 8-2-0, strangely coinciding with when they began optimizing their lineup. This could be a legitimate battle between two juggernaut teams.
Puck Drop is at 7pm ET. Catch the game on TSN4.
LGD BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE PINT
Make the Pint your home for all things game day. We give away a free pound of wings during every game either home or away. 4.40$ mugs of Bud and Bud Lights.
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