The Leafs (43-23-7) look to bounce back from a craptastic finish on Tuesday night against the best team in the east as they take on the top team in the west in the Nashville Predators (48-14-10).

Here’s to hoping for a better finish and a strong showing in this Stanley Cup Final preview.

Leafs Lines

LW	C	RW
ZACH HYMAN Rating: 72.4#109 LW	AUSTON MATTHEWS Rating: 81.9#8 C	WILLIAM NYLANDER Rating: 76.8#19 RW
PATRICK MARLEAU Rating: 74.5#36 LW	NAZEM KADRI Rating: 78.2#27 C	MITCH MARNER Rating: 76.3#45 RW
JAMES VAN RIEMSDYK Rating: 78.6#12 LW	TYLER BOZAK Rating: 74.0#74 C	CONNOR BROWN Rating: 71.0#72 RW
ANDREAS JOHNSSON	TOMAS PLEKANEC Rating: 71.4#136 C	KASPERI KAPANEN Rating: 71.6#61 RW

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
MORGAN RIELLY Rating: 77.1#35 LD	RON HAINSEY Rating: 72.7#106 RD
JAKE GARDINER Rating: 76.5#37 LD	NIKITA ZAITSEV Rating: 72.5#115 RD
TRAVIS DERMOTT Rating: 73.6#72 LD	ROMAN POLAK

Here we have it: the fully optimized Toronto Maple Leafs, for the first time this season. Auston Matthews returns from injury to re-join the band that now includes the likes of Andreas Johnsson, a full-time Kasperi Kapanen and a healthy Nikita Zaitsev on the back-end. You could argue for or against Roman Polak in favor of Connor Carrick, but I’m not really losing sleep over it at this point.

Predators Lines

FILIP FORSBERG Rating: 79.0#8 LW	RYAN JOHANSEN Rating: 75.3#58 C	VIKTOR ARVIDSSON Rating: 77.8#14 RW
KEVIN FIALA Rating: 77.5#35 LW	KYLE TURRIS Rating: 76.5#43 C	CRAIG SMITH Rating: 77.3#36 RW
RYAN HARTMAN Rating: 73.2#43 LW	NICK BONINO Rating: 72.3#112 C	COLTON SISSONS Rating: 72.6#104 RW
SCOTT HARTNELL Rating: 70.7#94 LW	MIKE FISHER Rating: 71.2#142 C	MIIKKA SALOMAKI Rating: 68.8#106 RW

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
ROMAN JOSI Rating: 82.3#1 LD	RYAN ELLIS Rating: 82.2#3 RD
MATTIAS EKHOLM Rating: 77.7#25 LD	P.K. SUBBAN Rating: 81.6#7 RD
ALEXEI EMELIN Rating: 70.5#204 LD	YANNICK WEBER

Way back in last year’s playoffs, injuries and a hilarious lack of depth forced Colton Sissons into the 1C position for the Nashville Predators. Nowadays, he’s not even playing down the middle; a testament to how much they’ve improved in that department.

But seriously, this team is looking pretty deep on the front and back ends these days. This will be quite the test, but the Leafs are pretty hilariously deep themselves, and are now a healthy and capable crew.

Starting Goalies

Pekka Rinne, who has lost nine times in regulation all season and sports a .931 save percentage, goes up against Frederik Andersen, who has lost a lot of games of Fortnight and sports red hair.

Just try to win 1-0 or something.

Notes

The Leafs most recently defeated the Predators 3-2 in a shootout on February 7th. Can they go 2-0 on the season against arguably the League’s top team?
With Matthews’ return, the 30-goal watch is on again. He’s at 28 through 53 games this season.

Puck Drop is at 8pm on Sportsnet Ontario.