Montréal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: CBC, TVAS, SNE, SNO, SNP

The Leafs last game was an away game on April 6 against the Boston Bruins, which Toronto lost by a score of 2-1. The Leafs have a record of 46-21-11 so far.

The Montréal Canadiens last played at home on April 6 against the Washington Capitals. The Canadiens won by a score of 6-2, and their current league record is 31-42-6.

Them

They're just here to have fun and impress the coach.

Lines

Marc Antoine Godin via Daily Faceoff from the last game.

Rafael Harvey-Pinard - Nick Suzuki - Joel Armia
Denis Gurianov - Jonathan Drouin - Brendan Gallagher
Rem Pitlick - Jake Evans - Mike Hoffman
Michael Pezzetta - Chris Tierney - Jesse Ylonen

Michael Matheson - Justin Barron
Corey Schueneman - Johnathan Kovacevic
Joel Edmundson - Chris Wideman

Sam Montembeault - likely starter
Cayden Primeau

Us

We're just here to have fun and figure out which lines actually work. There's some rearranging for this game, particularly on special teams as some defenders are being rested.

From Mark Masters:

PP1 Gustafsson, Matthews, O’Reilly, Marner, Tavares
PP2 Giordano, Nylander, Lafferty, Kerfoot/Liljegren, Bunting

Joe Woll was returned to the Marlies, Calle Järnkrok was absent today, and is day-to-day. Wayne Simmonds projects to play on the third line. Practice goalies were used, with no Matt Murray at skate.

Someone is backing up Samsonov, though, and it's more likely Murray than not.

Lines

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
John Tavares - Ryan O'Reilly - William Nylander
Alex Kerfoot -  Noel Acciari - Wayne Simmonds
Zach Aston-Reese - David Kämpf - Sam Lafferty

Jake McCabe - Justin Holl
Mark Giordano - Timothy Liljegren
Erik Gustafsson - Luke Schenn

Ilya Samsonov - starter
???

The Game

The game, my friends, is not this game against the Habs, it's this one:

Quinnipiac vs Minnesota DI Men’s Ice Hockey Game Summary - April 8th, 2023 | NCAA.com
Live scores from the Quinnipiac and Minnesota DI Men’s Ice Hockey game, including box scores, individual and team statistics and play-by-play.

Matt Knies and Mike Koster vs Quinnipiac for the Championship. The game starts at 8 pm Toronto time, and is available in the USA on ESPN2 and in Canada on TSN+.

After this game is over, win or lose, celebrating or commiserating with his team, Knies will be in the state of Florida tomorrow as the Leafs head to Sunrise to play the Panthers on Monday. Seems like fate.

Watch if you can, because if all you've seen is goal gifs, you have missed the full Knies experience.

Go Leafs and Gophers, Go!