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LGD: Computer boys

By Ryan Fancey

Dec 28, 2016, 13:54 ESTUpdated:

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You may have forgotten it in the holiday haze of booze and tryptophan, but the Leafs are on a little winning streak right now and have actually positioned themselves nicely to make the climb for a playoff spot in the new year. As things currently stand, thanks to that pair of road wins against Colorado and Arizona prior to the Christmas break, Toronto is just five points back of the Bruins for third in the Atlantic, with FOUR games in hand. It’s right there for them, but they still have to keep pace and eventually leap a couple teams in the process, including their opponent tonight, the Fancy Cats of Florida.

These points are important.

THE LEAFS

LW	C	RW
Leo Komarov	Nazem Kadri	William Nylander
James van Riemsdyk	Tyler Bozak	Mitchell Marner
Zach Hyman	Auston Matthews	Connor Brown
Matt Martin	Frederik Gauthier	Nikita Soshnikov

Defensive Pairings
Morgan Rielly	Nikita Zaitsev
Jake Gardiner	Connor Carrick
Matt Hunwick	Roman Polak

Santa didn’t bother bringing the Leafs a new third-pairing, I see.

THE PANTHERS

LW	C	RW
Seth Griffith	Aleksander Barkov	Jaromir Jagr
Jussi Jokinen	Vincent Trocheck	Nick Bjugstad
Jonathan Marchessault	Denis Malgin	Colton Sceviour
Kyle Rau	Derek MacKenzie	Shawn Thornton

Defensive Pairings
Keith Yandle	Aaron Ekblad
Mark Pysyk	Michael Matheson
Jason Demers	Jakub Kindl

Hard to come to grips with the Leafs parting with noted first-liner, Seth Griffith. He must be filling the net. Oh, four points in 16 games? That takes the sting off.

You tell ’em, Steve.

STARTING GOALTENDERS

According to Daily Faceoff, Andersen, with his 0.923 save-percentage (!), has been confirmed for the Leafs. Luongo is the likely starter for Florida. I think Marner may have ruined Reimer forever in the last game, so it isn’t surprising he won’t get another shot at his old team.

NUMBERS

	TOR	FLA
Wins	14	15
Points Per Game	1.06	1.03
Power Play	19.6%	14.9%
Penalty Kill	83.6%	85.6%
Score-Adjusted Corsi	52.3%	52.5%

WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR

Auston Matthews. Always watch out for Auston Matthews, now tied for 6th in the league in goals (with company like Ovechkin and Tarasenko) after blowing the doors off December. I actually couldn’t wait for Christmas to be over so I could watch Matthews play hockey for the Leafs again.

Game goes at 7:00 EST on Sportsnet.