Toronto Maple Leafs @ Montréal Canadiens - Game 76
07:00 PM at Centre Bell
Watch on: SN, CBC, TVAS

The Leafs last game was at home on April 3 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, which Toronto lost by a score of 4-1 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 43-23-9 for a 0.633 Points %.

The Montréal Canadiens last played at home on April 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canadiens lost by a score of 7-4 in regulation, and their current league record is 29-34-12 for a 0.467 Points %.

Them

Oh. Does it matter? They're out of the playoffs, playing out the string of their last few games and looking forward to the draft.

They have some good young players and Josh Anderson. They hate the Leafs and will try to win this game.

Cayden Primeau got the start against the Lightning, but they're playing a back-to-back this weekend, so he might go again. To be honest, I can't even come with a scenario where you would do more than flip a coin to decide. I can't summon up the pretense that anything a team like this does matters now.

Kaiden Guhle and Arber Xhekaj are out, and Justin Barron has been recalled.

Lines

Jonathan Bernier via Daily Faceoff from the last game. (Not that Jonathan Bernier)

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovsky
Brendan Gallagher - Alex Newhook - Joel Armia
Josh Anderson - Jake Evans - Jesse Ylönen
Michael Pezzetta - Colin White - Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Mike Matheson - Kaiden Guhle
Arber Xhekaj - David Savard
Jayden Struble - Jordan Harris

Cayden Primeau
Samuel Montembeault - likely starter

Us

Mitch Marner is back! Which is a big relief to anyone expecting the Canadiens to take penalties. Or the Leafs for that matter.

Yesterday at practice, Sheldon Keefe made up a "spread out the expensive players" lineup for the first time in living memory but at least the 10th time in reality.

Full disclosure: I think this is a bad idea, and I do not know why it's so popular. I have never found a single argument about why playing William Nylander a lot less at five-on-five is a good idea. And no, I don't buy that story about how he'll play some fourth line shifts. I don't want him on the fourth line either.

Nonetheless, the opponent is the Canadiens, and it would be insulting to his impressive efforts and his valuable successes to remove Max Domi off the top line immediately. He's going. Marner will play with Auston Matthews in the playoffs, but he's not moving right now.

It appears Conor Timmins is out and Mark Giordano is in, which is also a good thing. If there were a couple more healthy defensemen to rotate in and out, that would be even better. Joel Edmundson is practicing, but isn't ready to play. No one is saying what's up with Timothy Liljegren.

Lines

Jonas Siegel via Daily Faceoff from yesterday

Tyler Bertuzzi - Auston Matthews - Max Domi
Bobby McMann - John Tavares - Mitchell Marner
Matthew Knies - Pontus Holmberg - William Nylander
Connor Dewar - David Kämpf - Ryan Reaves

Morgan Rielly - Ilya Lyubushkin
Simon Benoit - Jake McCabe
Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie

Ilya Samsonov - likely starter
Joe Woll

The Game

Play some hockey, not just rivalry hijinks and you'll win, Leafs.

Game Coverage