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LGD: Fabulous Freshmen Faceoff

By Adam Laskaris

Feb 21, 2017, 14:33 ESTUpdated:

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Photo Credit: Bruce Fedyck/USA TODAY SPORTS

As you probably recall (but maybe not! It’s been a wild year), Patrik Laine netted three goals against Toronto that game on October 19th, which the Maple Leafs led 4-0 and then lost in OT. Laine scored the overtime winner and gave extra juice to what’s been a very, very interesting Calder race this season.

Auston Matthews currently has 28 goals and 21 assists in 58 games, while Patrik Laine has 28 goals and 24 assists in 54 games.

Oh, and both their teams are in the thick of the playoff hunt!

The Leafs sit one point back of the Boston Bruins for the final wildcard spot in the East… while the Winnipeg Jets sit one point back of Calgary for the final wildcard spot in the West.

Long story short, it’s a crucial game on both sides.

The Leafs

Lines courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com

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

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

Most notably missing for the Leafs is Mitch Marner, who’s been retroactively placed on the injured reserve.

Most notably added to the lineup is the Goat himself in Frederik Gauthier, slotting in for the one and only Ben Smith. Nathan Horton, Stephane Robidas and Joffrey Lupul are also out of the lineup tonight.

Haven’t heard much noise for him this season, but Leo Komarov is quietly riding a four-game point streak into tonight.

The Jets

LW	C	RW
Nikolaj Ehlers	Bryan Little	Blake Wheeler
Mathieu Perreault	Mark Scheifele	Patrik Laine
Shawn Matthias	Adam Lowry	Joel Armia
Brandon Tanev	Nicolas Petan	Chris Thorburn

Defensive Pairings
Julian Melchiori	Dustin Byfuglien
Josh Morrissey	Ben Chiarot
Mark Stuart	Paul Postma

Former Future Toronto Maple Leaf Jacob Trouba(and just about every other team in the league, for that matter) is out of the lineup as he’s currently serving a suspension for a hit that many people are angered in the short length of his suspension (just two games). Out for the team is Tobias Enstrom (lower-body injury), Marko Dano (lower-body injury), Ondrej Pavelec (concussion), and Tyler Myers (lower-body injury).

Mark Scheifele is riding a hot streak with seven assists in his past four games.