Toronto Maple Leafs vs New York Rangers
7 pm on TSN4 and MSG
Good evening Leafs fans, the Blueshirts are in town. Let’s send them on their way unhappy.
Them
The Rangers are doing really well in the standings and are fourth in the league right now, just ahead of the Leafs. Both teams have won their last four, so we all feel good about ourselves.
The Rangers lines in their last game (DailyFaceoff) were:
Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Barclay Goodrow
Artemi Panarin - Ryan Strome - Kaapo Kakko
Alexis Lafreniere - Filip Chytil - Julien Gauthier
Dryden Hunt - Kevin Rooney - Ryan Reaves
Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller - Jacob Trouba
Patrik Nemeth - Nils Lundkvist
Igor Shesterkin
Alexandar Georgiev
They last played the Canadiens on Tuesday (so of course they won), and either goalie could go tonight, but I have a feeling we’ll get Shesterkin. The Rangers are actually super bad by Expected Goals % at five-on-five, so they might be a bit of a paper tiger. That said, there’s a lot of talent in that forward group and in about two of their defencemen.
Us
The Maple Leafs were listing Ondřej Kaše as a game time decision, but he’s very likely playing. I’m going to assume he is. I think we’ll see the same lines from last time, too.
Nick Ritchie - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Alexander Kerfoot - John Tavares - Nylander
Pierre Engvall - David Kämpf - Ondřej Kaše
Michael Bunting - Jason Spezza - Wayne Simmonds
Kirill Semyonov
Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Jake Muzzin - Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin - Travis Dermott or Timothy Liljegren
Jack Campbell
Joe Woll
Assume Campbell is the starter until hell freezes over at this point.
The Game
The Leafs can vault up to third place with a win, which will make Leafs fans very, very nervous and worried it will all go horribly wrong. The Rangers fans maybe should be a bit worried, but are likely enjoying this period of winning.
On interest tonight is to see Mitch Marner - playmaker vs Artemi Panarin - playmaker and judge who does it better.
That’s all for now, lines etc. to be confirmed. Go Leafs Go!
