Toronto Maple Leafs @ Boston Bruins
07:00 PM at TD Garden
Watch on: TVAS, NESN, SNO
The Leafs last game was at home on April 4 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which Toronto won by a score of 4-2. The Leafs have a record of 46-21-10 so far.
The Boston Bruins last played an away game on April 2 against the St. Louis Blues. The Bruins won by a score of 4-3, and their current league record is 60-12-5. Which is absurd. Twelve losses are absurd, and they should apologize.
Them
No team is great all the time, and the Bruins have had some less than perfect games in March as they roll up the best regular season, maybe ever. But they aren't going to invite the Leafs over and not put on a show, so this will be a serious game.
The lines below are from practice yesterday, but David Krejci is not playing.
Lines
Fluto Shinzawa via Daily Faceoff
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Jake DeBrusk
Pavel Zacha - David Krejci - David Pastrnak
Tyler Bertuzzi - Charlie Coyle - Trent Frederic
Jakub Lauko - Tomas Nosek - Garnet Hathaway
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm - Brandon Carlo
Dmitry Orlov - Connor Clifton
Jeremy Swayman - confirmed starter
Linus Ullmark
Us
The Leafs have also had a very poor March performance. They've been better lately, and Sheldon Keefe is trying out some new lines with Ryan O'Reilly back in the lineup. He started this business against Columbus, but this is a much more meaningful test of a new top six configuration.
Keefe says he's looking for defensive utility out of O'Reilly on the third line. He wants Matthews to have the puck more with his new wingers. He's also ready to switch things up if necessary.
Lines
Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Calle Järnkrok
William Nylander - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Alex Kerfoot - Ryan O'Reilly - Noel Acciari
Zach Aston-Reese - David Kämpf - Sam Lafferty
Jake McCabe - TJ Brodie
Morgan Rielly - Luke Schenn
Mark Giordano - Justin Holl
Ilya Samsonov
Joe Woll
The Game
It it had been scheduled of November 6 and not April 6, it would be just a game. But it is April, and it will be seen as deeply meaningful not matter what happens. It's easy to narrativize in advance of these things. But you play the games as they come at you the best you can. That never changes.
Go Leafs Go! (And Go Gophers Go)
