Toronto Maple Leafs @ Carolina Hurricanes
05:00 PM at Lenovo Center
Watch on: SNO, FDSNSO

The Leafs last game was at home on April 12 against the Montréal Canadiens, which Toronto won by a score of 1-0 in overtime. The Leafs have a record of 49-26-4 for a 0.646 Points %.

The Carolina Hurricanes last played at home on April 12 against the New York Rangers. The Hurricanes won by a score of 7-3 in regulation, and their current league record is 47-27-5 for a 0.627 Points %.

Them

Carolina cannot move in the standings, not even by some 0.05% probability scheme of the sort beloved by everyone. Almost everyone.

They played last night with Pyotr Kochetkov in net, so we'll get our old friend Frederik Andersen. They also kicked the Rangers up one side of the ice and down the other, and when New York managed to score a couple in the third, they added two more just cuz.

I don't think any of their forwards played 25 minutes. None of their defenders did either.

Their big news is the signing of defender Alexander Nikishin who finished his KHL season in time to join the team. He's waiting on work visas and is likely not able to play, so they may get him in some AHL games if his American visa comes in in time.

Carolina is playing with some extra skaters right now, so they might be changing their lineup a little.

Lines

Ryan Henkel via Daily Faceoff from last game:

Seth Jarvis - Sebastian Aho - Jackson Blake
Andrei Svechnikov - Jack Roslovic - Eric Robinson
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Logan Stankoven
Tyson Jost - Mark Jankowski - William Carrier

Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov - Jalen Chatfield
Sean Walker - Scott Morrow

Frederik Andersen - presumed starter
Pyotr Kochetkov

Us

Dakota Mermis was recalled under the roster emergency rules, otherwise no changes for this game. We should expect Jake McCabe back in one of the two remaining games. I have not seen word on David Kämpf's likely return.

There is a complicated clinching scenario where the Leafs lock up first place tonight, and meanwhile Moneypuck has the Leafs at 92.3% probability to come first. If they don't do it, I plan on laying the blame on game 1 of the season where they lost to the Habs.

Lines

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Calle Järnkrok - John Tavares - William Nylander
Bobby McMann - Max Domi - Nicholas Robertson
Pontus Holmberg - Scott Laughton - Steven Lorentz

Morgan Rielly - Brandon Carlo
Simon Benoit - Chris Tanev
Dakota Mermis - Philippe Myers

Anthony Stolarz
Joe Woll - confirmed starter

The Game

Hockey Reference tells me that Toronto and Carolina have split their series so far with one win each and nine goals scored in total by each team.

Obviously this is going to be a 5-5 tie that goes to a shootout.

Game Coverage