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LGD: Power through the Rangers

By Adam Laskaris

Feb 23, 2017, 14:01 ESTUpdated:

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Photo Credit: Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY SPORTS

The Leafs pull back into the ACC tonight, looking to extend their winning streak to two games after a nailbiter two nights ago against the Winnipeg Jets.

We’re at the game 60 mark and the Leafs are currently just two points away from tying their season total of 69 points from last season. That’s an increase of 0.29 points per game, which is quite an accomplishment by itself.

While the games won’t clinch or eliminate Toronto from the playoffs just yet, you can bet we’ll be checking the standings every night from here until the rest of the season.

The Leafs

Lineups 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	Alexey Marchenko
Matt Hunwick	Roman Polak

You can find some old use for that Phaneuf jersey as Alexey Marchenko slots in for Connor Carrick, who went down on Tuesday night. Mitch Marner remains out on IR, as Freddie the Goat slots in for his second consecutive night.

Josh Leivo, who his now in his fourth season playing at least some games for the Toronto Maple Leafs (and has 9 points through eight games this season) is havin’ a blast on the Leafs’ (top?) line.

The Rangers

Lineups courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com

LW	C	RW
Jimmy Vesey	Derek Stepan	Rick Nash
Chris Kreider	Mika Zibanejad	Mats Zuccarello
Michael Grabner	Kevin Hayes	J.T. Miller
Pavel Buchnevich	Oscar Lindberg	Jesper Fast

Defensive Pairings
Ryan McDonagh	Dan Girardi
Marc Staal	Nick Holden
Brady Skjei	Kevin Klein

The Rangers are coming off a shootout loss against the Canadiens on Tuesday night. And while their playoff hopes aren’t exactly in jeopardy, they’re currently occupying the first wildcard spot and pushing for a place among the leaders of their division. New York doesn’t have a single player who’s cracked the 50-point barrier yet this season, though five of their top six forwards sit between 40 and 46 points.

Michael Grabner leads the team with 26 goals, so he’ll likely strike for anywhere between 1-4 goals tonight.

Starting goalies

It’ll be the King vs. Freddie tonight. You might have heard some talk earlier this season. Hovering just below the league average of .913 this season, it’s not exactly like they’ve put a sieve back there.

Andersen, meanwhile, is looking to improve on his past two starts where he allowed four goals in both games.