Anaheim Ducks @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: SNO, Victory+

The Leafs last game was away on December 10 against the New Jersey Devils, which Toronto won by a score of 2-1 in overtime. The Leafs have a record of 17-9-2 for a 0.643 Points %.

The Anaheim Ducks last played away on December 11 against the Ottawa Senators. The Ducks lost by a score of 5-1 in regulation, and their current league record is 10-13-4 for a 0.444 Points %.

Them

As is common when American teams play the Leafs, they've just visited our friends in Montréal and Ottawa. In the Ducks case, they got beat twice. Montréal needed a shootout, but Ottawa spanked them with five goals. Naturally they are going to save their best for Scotiabank. It's one of the ways a Leafs regular season is a tougher test than say... Anaheim's.

How bad are the Ducks? Essentially, they are Montréal or Chicago but with hot goaltending. Ryan Strome, who would make an interesting depth centre on the Leafs is their 1C. Cam Fowler, who they tried to trade for Jacob Trouba, now plays with Jacob Trouba.

Lukas Dostal, who has a history of goalie-ing the Leafs, is the second-best goalie by Goals Saved Above Expected per 60 (Moneypuck). John Gibson having a "please, please trade me" season, is fifth. Anthony Stolarz is eighth. Sometimes goalies on teams that allow a lot of shots show up very high by this measure because they pile up saves on big volumes of easy stuff. Stolarz, of all the top 10 goalies not named Logan Thompson has the best record against higher danger shooting. Joe Woll is better at the particularly tough stuff overall though.

Conor Timmins says watch out for Radko Gudas. By the way, Timmins' success this season is the best rebuke to the fawning that guy gets for being a wrecking ball to other people's lives.

Lines

Last game via Daily Faceoff

Frank Vatrano - Ryan Strome - Troy Terry
Alex Killorn - Leo Carlsson - Brett Leason
Cutter Gauthier - Mason McTavish - Brock McGinn
Ross Johnston - Isac Lundestrom - Jansen Harkins

Cam Fowler - Jacob Trouba
Brian Dumoulin - Radko Gudas
Pavel Mintyukov - Olen Zellweger

Lukas Dostal - likely starter as Gibson played last night
John Gibson

Us

With two players on waivers, it's worth considering the timing. Is someone else almost healthy? Or was it just the right time to send them down in part because the Leafs wanted Nikita Grebenkin on the roster.

The important news is Jake McCabe looks to be back and Phil Myers is now the extra defender.

David Alter reported that all of Nikita Grebenkin, Nick Robertson, Bobby McMann and David Kämpf were extras this morning. The latter two are on IR and LTIR respectively so don't count against the 23-man limit. By my count, the Leafs will be at 23 on the active roster with the moves they've made and McCabe reactivated.

Lines

David Alter from morning skate

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Max Pacioretty - John Tavares - William Nylander
Pontus Holmberg- Fraser Minten - Max Domi
Steven Lorentz - Connor Dewar - Ryan Reaves

Morgan Rielly - Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Jake McCabe - Chris Tanev
Simon Benoit - Conor Timmins

Joe Woll
Anthony Stolarz - starter

The Game

Well, what's to say here? Take the third period of the last game, play about 300% faster, harder and smarter and do that for 60 minutes.

Game Coverage