LGD: Right, there’s a game tonight

ALL THE TRADES! The league is going fully insane ahead of tomorrow’s deadline, and the Leafs, having already acquired Brian Boyle, are apparently well in the mix. But there’s more than the boardroom to worry about today; the blue and white begin their California road trip against the San Jose Sharks tonight. Here’s what’s about to go down.

Toronto Maple Leafs lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff

Would you look at that fourth line! Brian Boyle in for Ben Smith. What a time to be alive. Now, about that third p-HEY WAIT A SECOND

There’s a shift up in the first two pairs! That’s really neat! Gardiner and Zaitsev looked extremely good together while Morgan Rielly was out, and I’m sure Babcock liked what he saw out of Marchenko in his first few games. I wonder how deployment will go for those two pairs, but some fun stuff could end up happening there.

San Jose Sharks lines courtesy of Daily Faceoff

I was initially considering losing sleep in regards to Josh Leivo or Nikita Soshnikov being scratched and Matt Martin drawing in, but it looks like the Sharks will dress Michael Haley tonight. Haley has the highest percentage of his team’s fights of any player in the NHL, engaging in 65% of San Jose’s fisticuffs. Martin is also Top-5 in that regard, so it makes sense to have someone to keep Haley from going after non-scrappers with that in mind.

Frederik Andersen likely gets the start. He’s been really good of late, as long as you don’t let another team get a breakaway in overtime or the shootout. This is his first trip back to the Cali region since the trade that brought him here from Anaheim, so it should be fun to see if some nostalgia kicks in for him.

Martin Jones will likely start for the Sharks. He has a 0.915 save percentage over 51 games this season, but more importantly, lost me a key game of NHL 17 Hockey Ultimate Team last night. I think it’s because I’m using the standard base gold card instead of his much improved Movember card. 

Just make sure you panic as loud as you can if anybody happens to be “sick” in the next few hours. Except if any of the big three kids are described as sick, that probably just means they deked someone out of their jock strap. 

Tonight’s game will be on Sportsnet Ontario. Keep in mind that it’ll be a 10:30 PM start; so go pick up some coffee or Red Bull before you get home from work or school!