Maple Leafs @ Penguins
7:00PM EST
Sportnsnet (National Game)
Free Hot Dog Zone: Pensburgh

As of today the Penguins stand a surprisingly low fourth place in the Metropolitan division with only 37 points, that's only two wins ahead of The Leafs, and five points out of even a wild card playoff slot.

The Penguins problems are well documented, so I won't go through it all again beyond reminding everyone Young Tyler Bozak still has more goals than the elderly Sidney Crosby. Perhaps a trade can be made here? Leafs can throw in a gently used Roman Polak to balance it out...

Since our last meeting on October 31, The Penguins fired head coach Mike Johnston and brought in Mike Sullivan from their AHL affiliate. Since the change The Penguins have a 2-5-0 record. Their last game was a loss to The Thrashers on Sunday.

Let's have some fun with numbers!

Check out that absurdly low 5 vs. 5 shooting % under Sullivan. That excludes the Penguins last game where they were shutout, bringing it down to 3.6%. The all situation sh% in that same period is 5.2%. Considering that Malkin has 17 of the team's 78 goals, other players must be really firing blanks. For reference, the Leafs 5 vs. 5 shooting % this season is 6.9%, and 8.4% in all situations.

Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is still out after a possible concussion two weeks ago. Kris Letang was out for the same reason, but appears to have recovered and will be back in the game tonight.

James Reimer will start tonight after another poor outing by Jonathan Bernier, and the rest of the team, led to yesterday's 6-3 loss.

Oops! Change of plans.

There are reports Froese was injured in yesterday's game and this may be coverage if he is not able to play. I'll just go ahead and slot Arcobello in on the fourth line.

Probable Leafs Lines

James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - P.A. Parenteau
Michael Grabner - Nazem Kadri - Leo Komarov
Daniel Winnik - Peter Holland - Joffrey Lupul
Shawn Matthias - Mark Arcobello - Brad Boyes

Jake Gardiner - Dion Phaneuf
Frank Corrado - Morgan Rielly
Martin Marincin - Roman Polak

Jonathan Bernier
Antoine Bibeau

Scratch: Froese (injury?)

Probable Penguins Lines

(sourced from Bill West)

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Conor Sheary
David Perron - Evgeni Malkin - Patric Hornqvist
Scott Wilson - Nick Bonino - Phil The Thrill
Kevin Porter - Matt Cullen - Eric Fehr

Olli Maata - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - Ben Lovejoy
Ian Cole - Trevor Daley

Matt Murray
Jeff Zatkoff

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