LGD: Jolt the Bolts

October 25th, 2016. Frederik Andersen goes in between the pipes for the Maple Leafs, having let in about 12% of the shots he had faced in the previous four games. Something was clearly up; he wasn’t playing like he did in Anaheim, and nobody could pinpoint why. The likeliest reason was recovery from his shoulder injury, but combine some under-confidence and you had a goalie who was playing far too aggressive and getting beat up high.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are in town. Eighty seconds in, Steven Stamkos, a man who was potentially a better meeting away from signing with the Leafs, scores his fourth of the year. It was far from Andersen’s last whiff of the game; pucks beat him again, and again, and again. A guy behind me wrote Freddy off, as much as I would insist about the shoulder thing, about how this would all settle, and how this was a playoff team.

Fast forward to a few weeks later. The Leafs are taking on the Bolts again, they’re three points back of third in the Atlantic with three games in hand, and Andersen is a 0.939 in his 24 games since.

Toronto Maple Leafs lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff

Likely no changes from last night. Shouldn’t be a big deal, so long as half the forwards fare better. Last night, the Kadri and Gauthier lines were both sub-20% in the shot attempts department; they’ll need a way better effort tonight.

Tampa Bay Lightning lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff

No Stamkos, no Callahan, no Namestnikov… the Lightning are still dressing some good forwards, but the team looks a fair bit weaker when you shave some of the top off. Matthew Peca is playing powerplay minutes,  to give an idea of what the situation is there.

With that said, the defence is still relatively healthy and I wouldn’t wish facing Hedman and Stralman on my worst enemy.

Lineups courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com

Despite the hype-job I just gave Frederik Andersen in the opening paragraph, we’re probably going to see Antoine Bibeau make his second career appearance. His first game was a loss, but not one that can be blamed on him; he stopped 26 of 28 while Semyon Varlamov had the game of his life on the other side.

Tama Bay will also likely look to their backup, but that’s because Ben Bishop is injured. Andrei Vasilevskiy is going to take a chance at a back-to-back, having gone 19 for 22 last night.

Both teams are gassed, both teams are close in the standings, and the Leafs have the very slight edge in Last 10 game performance, goal differential, points percentage, and most underlying numbers. This should be a real nailbiter of a game weher the Blue and White ultimately come out on top.

Which logo, though? Beats me. Puck drop is at 7:30.