Who: Toronto Maple Leafs (5-1-1; 11 points; 1st in Northeast) vs Philadelphia Flyers (4-2-1; 9 points; 2nd in Atlantic)
What: Game #8 of the 2011-12 Regular Season
Where: Well Fargo Center in the 6th most dangerous large city in America
When: 7:00pm on LEAFS TV (Can); CSN-PH (USA)
Why: Because hopefully the more crappy games played by Jonas Gustavsson, the faster Burke will get rid of him.
Just like the pre-season, tonight's game is about brotherly rivalry in the city of brotherly stabbing love, as the Schenn boys find themselves on opposite sides for the third time in NHL jerseys. Toronto and Philly split games in the pre-season 0-4 and 4-2, but the two teams can hardly be called the same squads that played in September. This will be the first of four meetings between these teams this season and a win tonight would be essential in keeping pace with division rival Buffalo in the all important early stages of the season.
The big (I guess) story for tonight's game is that it's a matchup of backups as Jonas Gustavsson and Goalie Bob get the starts between the pipes. Gustavsson is essentially playing for his job, and much like Coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans, a single loss could be the end of his season; at least for the Maple Leafs. Not much else to say about the Monster that hasn't already been said, so I won't.
The Leafs lineup looks to be the same as it was on Saturday, with Orr and Franson watching from the press box, and the lone exception being Ben Scrivens in the backup role. Frankly I don't care to look up the Flyers' lineup. Does Joffrey Lupul still play for them?
Updates:
Leafs' lines per @TSNScottyMac:
Lupul-Lombardi-Kessel, MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin, Kadri-Steckel-Frattin, Rosehill-Dupuis-Brown
Gunnarsson-Phaneuf, Gardiner-Schenn, Liles-Komisarek.
Gustavsson, Scrivens
Scratches: Reimer (whiplash), Armstrong (sprained ankle), Bozak (foot), Connolly (boneitis), Orr (crappy at hockey), Franson (not defensively responsible)
As always, it's GO LEAFS GO!
