Maple Leafs Pregame #12: 5 things to watch for as Marleau returns
By Jon Steitzer
4 years agoI miss Patty. His contract was an albatross. His 2018-19 was substandard, but that doesn’t change the fact that I miss his awkward smile and the way he excelled in the locker room Dad role. I miss him almost as much as the 1st round pick the Leafs gave up to get rid of him.
Here’s hoping that Matthews and Marner want to show up their old man tonight and put on a show. They are due and Martin Jones is appears to be the ideal slump busting goaltender, which probably means the Leafs will get shutout. (I kid because I love.)
Lineups
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 ANDREAS JOHNSSON Rating: 74.9#31 LW |  AUSTON MATTHEWS Rating: 80.4#7 C |  WILLIAM NYLANDER Rating: 73.4#44 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 76.24#13 FL1 |
 ILYA MIKHEYEV Rating: 74.7#33 LW |  ALEXANDER KERFOOT Rating: 72.6#97 C |  MITCH MARNER Rating: 79.1#9 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 75.47#7 FL2 |
 TREVOR MOORE Rating: 72.0#79 LW |  JASON SPEZZA Rating: 70.6#147 C |  KASPERI KAPANEN Rating: 73.8#40 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 72.15#16 FL3 |
 DMYTRO TIMASHOV Rating: 74.0#41 LW |  NICK SHORE Rating: 70.8#140 C |  FREDERIK GAUTHIER Rating: 69.6#105 RW | FL4 Rating Rating: 71.46#10 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 MORGAN RIELLY Rating: 77.3#5 LD |  CODY CECI Rating: 71.9#73 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 74.58#17 DL1 |
 JAKE MUZZIN Rating: 75.6#16 LD |  TYSON BARRIE Rating: 76.3#13 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 75.99#2 DL2 |
 KEVIN GRAVEL Rating: 71.1#108 LD |  JUSTIN HOLL Rating: 74.0#29 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 72.59#14 DL3 |
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 TIMO MEIER Rating: 75.6#23 LW |  LOGAN COUTURE Rating: 77.6#19 C |  PATRICK MARLEAU Rating: 72.3#60 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 75.19#21 FL1 |
 EVANDER KANE Rating: 76.1#21 LW |  TOMAS HERTL Rating: 79.0#10 C |  KEVIN LABANC Rating: 73.3#50 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 76.12#4 FL2 |
 MARCUS SORENSEN Rating: 71.3#99 LW |  JOE THORNTON Rating: 72.8#89 C |  BARCLAY GOODROW Rating: 70.3#120 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 71.46#22 FL3 |
 NOAH GREGOR Rating: 73.3#49 LW |  DYLAN GAMBRELL Rating: 73.0#84 C |  MELKER KARLSSON Rating: 69.8#101 RW | FL4 Rating Rating: 72.01#4 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 MARC-EDOUARD VLASIC Rating: 72.6#77 LD |  BRENT BURNS Rating: 78.5#5 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 75.57#11 DL1 |
 BRENDEN DILLON Rating: 72.0#92 LD |  ERIK KARLSSON Rating: 78.3#6 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 75.15#5 DL2 |
 MARIO FERRARO |  TIM HEED Rating: 72.1#69 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 72.08#20 DL3 |
First line RW Patrick Marleau? Sure. Here are five things to watch for.
1. Andersen gets the start
This isn’t a surprise. It’s the first game of a back to back, and below is essentially where we’re at with sharing our thoughts on it.
Playing Andersen in Montreal on Saturday night makes more sense to a lot of us, but we’re not going to change Mike Babcock.
2. Playing for their jobs
It will be interesting to see how the bottom defensive pairing and the fourth line play now that they’re NHL jobs depend on it. With Dermott and Hyman close to returning, it seems reasonable to expect big things from the bottom of the roster, otherwise Dubas will have too easy of a job when it comes to sending players down.
3. Does Andreas Johnsson step up?
Back to back penalties don’t really endear you too much to the fan base or to your coach, and Andreas Johnsson has run a bit cold in 2019-20, despite still having 7 points in 11 games.
The thing with Johnsson is he isn’t paid to get assists, and 2 goals in 11 games is not a pace that will keep you in the top six or the first power play unit. He’s gotta step up and hopefully that happens soon. We’ve seen Kapanen begin coming to life and if the Leafs can have their top nine clicking soon a lot of the problems with defense and inconsistent goaltending will seem a lot smaller.
4. Come back Tyson Barrie we miss you
Remember how Tyson Barrie looked in the first few games of the season and how much joy that brought us? I’m curious what has happened since then because I miss that freewheeling fun that looked like the Avalanche version of Barrie. My guess is that Barrie is hearing a lot about defensive responsibility and he’s suffering from being used as a shutdown pairing because of how great Jake Muzzin is at shutdown top lines. The Leafs need to find a way of giving Barrie the green light a lot more, because otherwise I will be shedding real tears over giving up Nazem Kadri.
5. Preaching patience vs. Time to Panic
I don’t think this debate will end after tonight, but man, a win sure would be great so we can have a night off from Leafs fans either shouting about how the team has good corsi and bad PDO, and the other side yelling about how a 5-4-2 record is unacceptable at this stage in “the process.” To some extent both sides have some truth to them anyway. Generally I think the 20 game mark is when we know what we’re truly dealing with for the season and we can choose our path of happy or angry Leafs fans then. On the other hand, the time to panic crowd has a lot of truths behind it because it’s not like it’s the first time we’ve seen what Mike Babcock brings to the table and there’s nothing in Michael Hutchinson’s history that he’s going to wake up tomorrow and be a league average backup.
Let’s just say “you do you” and watch the Leafs in your own way.
Game time is 7:00 PM ET and it can be seen on Sportsnet One.
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