Marner, Tavares return to lineup, Nylander good to go as Maple Leafs host the Flyers

When the Toronto Maple Leafs opened up their three-game homestand on Tuesday night against the red-hot St. Louis Blues, they were not only without Calle Jarnkrok, Conor Timmins, Martin Jones, and Morgan Rielly, they were without John Tavares and Mitch Marner too, who missed the game due to illness, and were announced as out minutes before warmups.

Unsurprisingly, Toronto played arguably their best game of the season without four regulars, scoring four goals, limiting their opponent to one goal on 15 shots, and getting a hat-trick from a bottom-six player!

However, as they continue their homestand against the Philadelphia Flyers tonight, Sheldon Keefe has confirmed to the media post-practice that Tavares and Marner are expected to return to the lineup tonight, and William Nylander, who missed practice yesterday due to illness, is as well.

With the expectation that two of Toronto’s top-six forwards will return tonight and Nylander will be good to suit up, that spells Ryan Reaves and Alex Steeves as the two odd-men out against the Flyers, according to Luke Fox.

After playing such a clean, structured, mainly mistake-free game of hockey against the Blues, which earned them a critical 4-1 win and two crucial points in the standings, it would be the Leafiest thing ever if they lost tonight’s game with Marner and Tavares returning to the lineup. But that shouldn’t be an excuse. When a team gets two of their top five players back in the lineup, that should automatically give them a tremendous boost, but with the Toronto Maple Leafs, we know that’s not always the case.

Their opponent tonight is no pushover. The Flyers continue to prove everybody wrong this season and sit in third place in the Metropolitan division with a record of 29-19-6 (64 points), six points clear of the fourth-placed New Jersey Devils, who are trying to catch them.

Matthew Knies – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
Tyler Bertuzzi – John Tavares – William Nylander
Noah Gregor – Max Domi – Nick Robertson
Pontus Holmberg – David Kampf – Bobby McMann

TJ Brodie – Timothy Liljegren
Simon Benoit – Jake McCabe
Mark Giordano – William Lagesson

Owen Tippett – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Morgan Frost – Cam Atkinson
Garnet Hathaway – Ryan Poehling – Noah Cates
Olle Lycksell – Scott Laughton – Egor Zamula

Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Marc Staal – Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler – Sean Walker

Ilya Samsonov (TOR) vs Samuel Ersson (PHI)

With Martin Jones still sidelined with an undisclosed injury and Joseph Woll still slowly working his way back from a high-ankle sprain, which he sustained in a game against the Ottawa Senators, Ilya Samsonov has been confirmed as the starter for tonight’s game.

It will be his second consecutive start and seventh in the team’s last eight games. In the seven games since returning to the crease after a brief break from the NHL, Samsonov has a record of 5-2-0, a 1.99 goals against average, and a .919 save percentage. It’s only a seven-game sample size, but very encouraging stuff from the 26-year-old after a horrendous start to the season.

TSN4, 7:00 pm ET/4:00 pm PT

(Stats from hockey-reference.com)

(Projected lineups from dailyfaceoff.com)