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LGD: Wheels on the Lum-bus

By Adam Laskaris

Mar 22, 2017, 14:22 EDT

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Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

What a game that was against Boston, eh? Within the past few days, the Buds have seen their playoff chances shoot up to almost double what they were earlier in the week, and if you’re not already scoreboard watching yet, the bets are that you will soon.

Tonight, the Leafs head to the great state of Ohio to take on another blue team in the Jackets.

And though both teams have had to face lots of criticism this year on whether their lineups are actually talented or just a farce, both teams come into the game in playoff position and looking to potentially move up the standings over the season’s final few weeks.

The Leafs

LW	C	RW
Zach Hyman	Auston Matthews	William Nylander
Leo Komarov	Nazem Kadri	Connor Brown
James van Riemsdyk	Tyler Bozak	Mitchell Marner
Matt Martin	Brian Boyle	Eric Fehr

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

The Leafs see Eric Fehr slot in for the first time on the fourth line. Argue amongst yourselves accordingly.

The Blue Jackets

LW	C	RW
Boone Jenner	Brandon Dubinsky	Josh Anderson
Brandon Saad	Sam Gagner	Cam Atkinson
Nick Foligno	William Karlsson	Oliver Bjorkstrand
Scott Hartnell	Lukas Sedlak	Matt Calvert

Defensive Pairings
Zach Werenski	Seth Jones
Jack Johnson	David Savard
Kyle Quincey	Scott Harrington

While David Clarkson will not be in the lineup tonight, former Maple Leaf Scott Harrington will be. Also, that’s a heck of a first pairing.

The Jackets have done a formidable job of placing themselves in the standings where they are considering they do really lack offensive superstars. That’s not even a slight on them, but their current leading scorer in Cam Atkinson had never even previously hit 55 points. Kudos to assembling balanced lineups!

In the crease

Frederik Andersen is in one net… and Joonas Korpisalo in the other. Can’t tell you too much about Joonas, besides being a bright-haired young man with a .909 save percentage this season. The Leafs might have the edge in this one. In 5 of his 9 starts he’s allowed 2 goals or less… and in the other 4 he’s allowed 4 or more. Bit of a mixed bag with this guy.