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Leafs Game Day: Leafs vs. Rangers
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Photo credit: Tom Szczerbowski / USA TODAY Sports
Ryan Hobart
Oct 7, 2017, 16:15 EDTUpdated: Oct 7, 2017, 16:34 EDT
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Tonight the Leafs take on the New York Rangers tonight in the second game of the regular season. The game is the first game played this season at the ACC, as Toronto will try to continue the home-ice success they saw last year.
The Rangers are also playing their second game after losing 4-2 to the Avalance (the AVALANCHE… wow) on Thursday.

Lines

The Toronto lineup will feature a few changes from the 7-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets, as Moore and Rosen enter the lineup in place of Fehr and Borgman.
Other than that, there are no changes. It’s worth nothing that even though the morning skate lines Tweeted out by beat reporters always list Rielly-Hainsey as the top pair. However, throughout the pre-season and the one regular season game we’ve seen, they’ve been seeing less 5-on-5 ice time than the Gardiner-Zaitsev pairing.
The Rangers lines, from DailyFaceoff, are as follows:
Kreider – Zibanejad – Buchnevich
Nash – Chytil – Zuccarello
Grabner – Hayes – Miller
Vesey – Desharnais – Carey
McDonagh – Shattenkirk
Skjei – Smith
Staal – DeAngelo
Lundqvist
Pavelec
Most won’t know Filip Chytil, who has found his way into the Rangers’ top 6 after the departure of Derek Stepan to the Arizona Coyoes. Chytil was the Rangers’ 1st round pick in the most recent draft, taken 21st overall.

Preview

The Leafs definitely look like the stronger team heading into tonight’s matchup. Failing against the Avalanche is not a good sign for the Rangers, and the Leafs dominant win over Winnipeg is sure to have them riding a high. Andersen’s first game was a fantastic performance and he’s sure to look strong again tonight. Playing against Lundqvist, the best goalie in the league, will be a challenge for this dominant offensive group for Toronto, but should not be insurmountable.
The keys for Toronto tonight are:
  1. Stay out of the penalty box
    • The Rangers don’t have the strongest powerplay, but the Leafs penalty kill looked an absolute mess against Winnipeg, and spent far too much time on the ice. Zaitsev and Hainsey had over 11 minutes of shorthanded ice-time!
  2. Youth vs. Youth
    • The Rangers have started to inject some youth into the lineup with Vesey, DeAngelo and Chytil, but there’s no question the Leafs have the stronger group. The big trio definitely showed up against Winnipeg, hopefully they will do the same tonight.
The game will be on CBC tonight for Hockey Night in Canada, and coverage begins at 7:00 pm. Tune in to watch the Leafs run over the Rangers!
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