LGD: He Can’t Carey Them Forever

Photo Credit: Eric Bolte/USA TODAY SPORTS

The Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Montreal Canadiens tonight. While their last matchup, a 2-1 loss on October 29th, wasn’t exactly what the Leafs were looking for, they come into this one with more confidence than ever while the Habs appear to be a bit weakened by recent matchups. Here’s what’s going down at the Bell Centre tonight:

Toronto Maple Leafs lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff

So the lines have shifted a bit. The Mitch Marner experience is getting the big minutes, and William Nylander will swap lines with Connor Brown. Perhaps it’s an attempt to get both Nylander and Auston Matthews some hotter-sticked linemates to help them turn around their scoring droughts. Maybe Babcock isn’t too phased by the droughts and just wants one of each wunderkind on each line. Either way, it’s kinda neat.

Montreal Canadiens lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff

Speaking of spreading out the talent, I think that’s what the Habs are trying to do here? Paul Byron, Phillip Danault, and Chris Terry don’t exactly scream “top nine”, but each line has at one or two quality players. Toronto should be aggressive about trying to create their zone entries through the weak links, though, given that they’re weaker that most third wheels.

Starting in goal for the Habs, once again, is Carey Price. I’ll concede my pre-season thoughts and admit that he is the best goaltender in the world right now; he’s putting up the numbers and his technicals are on another level. But he did finally lose a game on Thursday; the Panthers put four behind him, one of which being an overtime changeup from Aaron Ekblad caused by a broken stick. Hard to bet against 9-0-1, but the Leafs are the best offensive team in hockey right now and even the greatest shouldn’t be expected to keep up a 0.951.

Frederik Andersen returns to the net for the Leafs. He’s on a good run of form himself; since letting in seven against the Lightning, he’s 7-2-0 with 0.931 save percentage. He looked pretty good in the last game against the Habs, so the hope is that he’ll repeat the performance with a better team result attached.

The world is starting to agree that #TheLeafsAreActuallyGood, but a win tonight would be huge for confirmation. A two-goal gap would bring their goal differential back to break-even, and a win combined with losses from the Senators and Bruins would give them the third spot in the Atlantic Division.

Yes, Toronto lost the last matchup. But it was by a single goal in a building where the Habs are 10-0-1. Several of the Leafs are due for goals, including the ice-cold Auston Matthews. Could this be the night that the drought ends? Anything is possible here.

If nothing else, the highlights should be a lot of fun. Weber/Emelin and Hunwick/Polak should mean that both teams’ skilled forwards get to pull off some hilarious dekes on occasion. Not to mention, the two teams are 1st and 3rd in combined shot attempts for and against, meaning high-event hockey is almost certainly a given.

Puck drop is at 7:00 PM. Saturday night. Hockey Night In Canada. Never gets old, does it?