Toronto Maple Leafs at Columbus Blue Jackets:
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: right under that cannon
Broadcast/Streaming: TSN4 Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent SBNation Site: The Cannon
Happy Friday, everyone. Tonight the Leafs play in Columbus after it’s actually dark out and most of us are not at work any longer. Unfortunately, the Leafs aren’t one of the many Canadian teams playing an afternoon game today.
If you’ve escaped the confines of employment today, or if you’re a lucky American for whom this is a holiday weekend, you can watch hockey all day, but save some energy for what should be an excellent Leafs game tonight. The Blue Jackets should be well rested, since this is a home-and-home for them, and they haven’t played since the game in Toronto.
Speaking of that game, this happened in it, and there really is no reason not to look at it again:
The job for the Leafs is the same in Columbus as it was in Toronto: play fast and hard for the whole game and never give an inch (2.54 cm).
Maple Leafs
The lines that seem to be carved in stone until Auston comes back:
Forward Lines
Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Kasperi Kapanen
Andreas Johnsson - Par Lindholm - Connor Brown
Josh Leivo - Frederik Gauthier - Tyler Ennis
Defence Pairings
Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Igor Ozhiganov
Goaltenders
Frederik Andersen - assumed starter
Garret Sparks
Columbus Blue Jackets
From the last game.
Forward Lines
Artemi Panarin - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Cam Atkinson
Nick Foligno - Boone Jenner - Josh Anderson
Brandon Dubinsky - Alexander Wennberg - Anthony Duclair
Lukas Sedlak - Riley Nash - Markus Hannikainen
Defence Pairings
Ryan Murray - Seth Jones
Markus Nutivaara - David Savard
Zach Werenski - Scott Harrington
Goaltenders
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
There’s no reason for Bobrovsky not to be starting again for Columbus given their three days off. There’s no reason for Andersen not to be starting for the Leafs with Sparks getting the second game at home tomorrow to the Flyers. Any tweaks to the lineup that Mike Babcock might make to account for the back-to-back games will likely come tomorrow as well.
So this is just a rinse and repeat of the last game against Columbus, and let’s hope the result is the same.
We’ll update you with any news later on today. Meanwhile enjoy all the afternoon hockey if you can. That Edmonton - Anaheim tilt outta be something.
