LGD: Return Of A Leafs Legend

The Leafs welcome back a storied member of their past tonight at the Air Canada Centre, as Seth Griffith returns for his first game against his former team. There will be many spirited battles as life-long friends become on-ice foes, and it should be a hard fought affair. As is tradition among all former marginal Leafs, Griffith will score at least one goal tonight – perhaps more – but whether it’ll be enough to beat Toronto is something we’ll have to wait and see.

Toronto Maple Leafs lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff

The only change from last night’s game looks to be Connor Carrick (thankfully) coming in for Martin Marincin. I would’ve preferred if it was one of the guys on the second pair (good god why is that second pair a thing and how are they THE SECOND PAIR), but what can you do right (this team will be the death of me).

Florida Panthers lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff

The Panthers are still battling some injuries and started slow, but they’ve come around of late winning three of their last four. Their forwards are pretty deep (especially when they make their captain a healthy scratch) and they’ve got players who can play on every line. The top six is especially scary as they’ve basically got two first lines. The thought of Polwick/Hunlack matching up against one of them is practically nightmare fuel. 

Since we’re on the subject of defence, take a look at the Panthers back-end. You’ll notice that there’s absolutely no one filling the role of “designated disaster” which is an interesting strategy that I think the Leafs should at least consider.

James Reimer gets the nod over his former team and will likely have a fire raging inside him propelling him towards a 47-save shutout. How is Reimer doing this year? Just okay. Actually, not really, I just wanted to get that joke off. Right now he’s got a .905 save percentage on the year which is much worse than okay and is in fact bad. That likely means that my other joke about the 47-save shutout is even more likely to come true.

For the Leafs, it’s likely going to be Frederik Andersen between the pipes. After a very rough start to the season, he’s been pretty great for the team and has single-handedly won some games. I mean, he owes them for singlehandedly losing some to start the season, but that’s an argument for another day perhaps.

Don’t let the 8-7-1 record fool you, these Cats are good. They’re a top 10 Corsi team, in fact they’re better than #TheActuallyGoodLeafs in that department, which is a big step-up from last season where they were deemed frauds for most of the year. Instead of doubling down on good fortune, they chased players and ideas that’ll actually help them win long term. They’re a very strong team and even though they’ve got some injury issues, the Leafs have a big test ahead of them.

It’s still early obviously, but this is a big game for the “Leafs are making the playoffs this year” crowd as the Panthers are likely one of the teams they’ll be chasing, and the four point swing will be critical to the team’s chances.

The answer is maybe.

This game should be extremely close, as the Panthers are the better team, but the Leafs have home-ice advantage at their disposal. #mymodel (which you probably know about if you follow me on twitter dot com) gives the Leafs a 50.4 percent chance of winning tonight. A virtual coin flip. Should make for an exciting game to watch. Puck drops at 7:30.