Toronto Maple Leafs @ Florida Panthers - Game 81
07:30 PM at Amerant Bank Arena
Watch on: ESPN, TSN4

The Leafs last game was at home on April 13 against the Detroit Red Wings, which Toronto lost by a score of 5-4 in overtime. The Leafs have a record of 46-24-10 for a 0.637 Points %.

The Florida Panthers last played at home on April 13 against the Buffalo Sabres. The Panthers won by a score of 3-2 in overtime, and their current league record is 51-24-6 for a 0.667 Points %.

Is this game a playoff preview or not? The Bruins listlessly lost to the Washington Capitals last night where Charlie Lindgren had a 16-shot shutout. Listless might too active a verb for the Bruins, actually. That performance left the Bruins one point ahead of the Panthers, with each having one more game.

So, here's how it works:

  • If the Bruins win in any fashion against Ottawa tonight, then nothing in this game matters, and the Bruins win the division.
  • If the Leafs win in regulation in the game, the Panthers are the round one prize, and the Bruins win the division.
  • If the Bruins lose tonight in regulation and the Panthers lose in overtime or a shootout – they end up tied in points – RW breaks the tie and the Panthers win the division.
  • If the Bruins lose in overtime or a shootout, and the Panthers win in any fashion, they end up tied and the above result holds, the Panthers win the division.

Them

The only way the Panthers can win the Atlantic division is by beating the Leafs.

The Panthers have some lingering injuries and ordinarily might not want to play some of their borderline players against a team who doesn't like them very much.

They have chosen to play anyone they realistically should:

That leaves someone to move up to line two in place of where Cousins was yesterday at practice. There are a couple of options including Kyle Okposo and Steven Lorentz coming in and someone like Luostarinen moving up.

Out are Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Aaron Ekblad, but both are likely going to play game one of the playoffs.

Anthony Stolarz in net puts their better goalie in based on this season's results.

Lines

Colby Guy via Daily Faceoff subject to change

Vladimir Tarasenko - Aleksander Barkov - Sam Reinhart
??? - Sam Bennett - Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen - Anton Lundell - Evan Rodrigues
Nick Cousins - Kevin Stenlund - Jonah Gadmovich

Gustav Forsling - Josh Mahura
Niko Mikkola - Brandon Montour
Uvis Balinskis - Dmitry Kulikov

Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz - confirmed starter

Us

The Leafs issued a long list of injury reports yesterday that I am not taking very seriously. I'm not taking them all as exaggeration either. Who really knows – only the Leafs, and they're not really telling.

  • Jake McCabe took a puck in the face last game, but has some stitches under his eye and is otherwise fine. It did not hit his nose.
  • Joel Edmundson seems fine now.
  • Calle Järnkrok was said to be day-to-day, but in reality, he can't be activated because there is no cap space. So his day is day one of the playoffs.
  • Both Max Domi and Bobby McMann will not play the final two games. Domi seems to be less serious, potentially, than McMann, but there's no real clarity on either.

Otherwise, everyone is ready to play.

Lines

Mark Masters via Daily Faceoff

Tyler Bertuzzi - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Matthew Knies - John Tavares - William Nylander
Nicholas Robertson - Pontus Holmberg - Noah Gregor
Connor Dewar - David Kämpf - Ryan Reaves

Morgan Rielly - Ilya Lyubushkin
Simon Benoit - Jake McCabe
Joel Edmundson - Timothy Liljegren

Joe Woll - starter
Martin Jones or Ilya Samsonov

The Game

Once again at the end of the season, the Leafs play a team with something to gain by winning. And while the Bruins flaccid game yesterday looked like a team losing to script, it's extremely unlikely that any team would do that. The Leafs are not going to do it in some weird quest to get the Bruins instead of the Panthers next week. Or maybe you think they should try to game the system and play the Panthers.

Maybe the Panthers should game the system and lose. Or win! Or the Bruins should, or... maybe they'll all just play as they play and figure the four playoff teams from the Atlantic are all a giant pain in the ass to play against and it doesn't matter.

Don't get hurt, Leafs. That's job one.

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