Really when you think about it, tonight’s game is just really a hassle. You can tell the locker room is focused on Tavares facing the Islanders tomorrow, it’s definitely a game that means something to fans as well, and we’re going into it as the second half of a back to back because the schedule makers plopped the Oilers down on the schedule the night before.

Normally as a Leaf fan living in Edmonton this would be a game that matters to me, but the idea of entertaining the Oilers and their mad dash for 9th in the Western Conference doesn’t hold a lot of interest. We’ve seen Connor McDavid return to Toronto, and seen that it doesn’t really matter and the Leafs will win.

Given the Oilers status as bad and the Islanders game having as much meaning in the locker room as it does it seems odd that Andersen gets the start against Edmonton and Sparks will be in goal in Nassau County. At the end of the day, this probably makes sense as the goal is to try extract the easy points in back to backs, and those easy points are likely coming at home tonight.

This back to back also brings about the end of the month of hell, which has seen the Leafs play 15 times in 28 nights, sporting a 9-3-1 record so far. Okay, maybe it wasn’t so hellish after all, and the competition was largely made up of draft lottery bound teams, but still, rest is good.

The Leafs seem to be on the verge of shutting down Jake Gardiner for an extended period of time, and that’s definitely ungood, especially when a timetable for Kadri’s return hasn’t been established yet either. Still, we’re not to the point where there is any risk of Justin Holl being given a chance and initial comments from Mike Babcock seem to point to Nic Petan getting to know Justin Holl very well.