Toronto Maple Leafs @ Detroit Red Wings
07:00 PM at Little Caesars Arena
Watch on: SN, NHLN, CBC, FDSNDET

The Leafs last game was at home on December 12 against the Anaheim Ducks, which Toronto won by a score of 3-2 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 18-9-2 for a 0.655 Points %.

The Detroit Red Wings last played away on December 12 against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Red Wings lost by a score of 4-1 in regulation, and their current league record is 11-14-4 for a 0.448 Points %.

Them

To review the Red Wings, since the last time where John Tavares got two in a 3-1 win, they are bad at five-on-five but have a very good power play. Dylan Larkin scored on the power play in that game in November.

Cam Talbot is their good goalie, getting them a lot of their results. Alex Lyon has been okay, and Ville Husso has been very bad in seven starts.

Lines

Ansar Khan via Daily Faceoff

Michael Rasmussen - Dylan Larkin - Lucas Raymond
Alex DeBrincat - Marco Kasper - Patrick Kane
Vladimir Tarasenko - J.T. Compher - Andrew Copp
Jonatan Berggren - Joe Veleno - Christian Fischer

Simon Edvinsson - Moritz Seider
Ben Chiarot - Jeff Petry
Erik Gustafsson - Justin Holl

Ville Husso
Jack Campbell

Us

Anthony Stolarz is day-to-day, so Joe Woll is joined by Dennis Hildeby, recalled yesterday. Stolarz is not going to play this weekend and someone had to come off to make room for Hildeby and someone else has to come off to make room for McMann.

As of now, it's not confirmed if Stolarz went on IR, which means he is missing one week from the date of the injury, or if someone like Nikita Grebenkin has been sent down. Possibly both, as McMann is confirmed to be in the lineup.

Lines

David Alter via Daily Faceoff

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

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

Joe Woll - starter
Dennis Hildeby

The Game

I want to contextualize the difference between a team at 15th or so in Corsi or Expected Goals at even strength and one near the bottom. Sometimes I think we lead ourselves astray with the ranked lists of team quality – you know, like at the draft.

Toronto:

Detroit:

Toronto is better, but the difference is small and well within the margin for goalies, special teams and randomness to swing the game one way or the other on any given night. Deciding that bottom feeders are extremely bad so you can deride them is really just the first step in being angry three hours later because the Leafs didn't dominate and win 9-2 or maybe even got beat.

The Red Wings are pretty much as bad as Montréal in the fundamentals of hockey, but they have one good goalie and a very good power play, which makes them a very different team to play – no matter what the standings say.

Game Coverage