Vegas Golden Knights @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: TSN4, SCRIPPS

The Leafs last game was away on February 24 against the Colorado Avalanche, which Toronto won by a score of 4-3 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 33-16-8 for a 0.649 Points %.

The Vegas Golden Knights last played away on February 24 against the Ottawa Senators. The Golden Knights lost by a score of 4-3 in a shootout, and their current league record is 32-19-7 for a 0.612 Points %.

Them

Vegas managed to lose to Ottawa in between Leafs games which isn't a good sign for them. They played Ottawa almost entirely even in Corsi and Expected Goals and got beat by Anton Forsberg. Ottawa with goaltending is almost good, Ottawa without it is almost bad, so this isn't that surprising. But what of Vegas?

Michael Amadio played the most minutes at five-on-five.

In other words, they are really hurting for forwards, and they've hit the point where they can't really roll four convincing lines.

Lines

Last Game (02/24) via Daily Faceoff

Brendan Brisson - William Karlsson - Jonathan Marchessault
Ivan Barbashev - Chandler Stephenson - Michael Amadio
Paul Cotter - Nicolas Roy - Keegan Kolesar
Mason Morelli - Byron Froese - Sheldon Rempal

Alec Martinez - Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb - Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague - Zach Whitecloud

Adin Hill - confirmed starter
Logan Thompson

Us

The Leafs have returned their ultra-depth recall defenders to the Marlies, have Joe Woll on the cusp of a return, and just need Calle Järnkrok back to have a full lineup. He is due to begin full practices next week. Reminder: The trade deadline is next Friday and on that day, the 23-man roster limit goes away for the rest of the season. He and Woll can both be activated at that point.

Mark Giordano has returned, and Timothy Liljegren was absent from practice after getting banged up in more than one game recently. He will not play tonight:

I think the handedness of the defence for one game is a big non-story. It's not like dressing five lefties is really a big difference.

The rest of the talk is all about John Tavares on the third line, but when I look at those lines I see: The Domi line 👨‍👨‍👦 and the Tavares line 👨‍👦‍👦. The result has been success from Domi on the road for the first time all season. If Sheldon Keefe doesn't have to yank him off the ice every time they hit their own blue line and if the team can have a true middl-six, then it's all good.

Lines

David Alter at yesterday's practice.

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Tyler Bertuzzi - Max Domi - William Nylander
Bobby McMann - John Tavares - Nicholas Robertson
Pontus Holmberg - David Kämpf - Ryan Reaves

T.J. Brodie - Jake McCabe
Morgan Rielly - Simon Benoit
Mark Giordano - William Lagesson

Ilya Samsonov - likely starter
Martin Jones

The Game

When the Leafs played in Vegas, the Golden Knights had home ice advantage and a little touch more per Moneypuck's odds model and were the favourite to win. Not now. Moneypuck has the Leafs at 62% to win this one.

Vegas is not going to be an easy out, not after losing to the Senators. Vancouver juiced their standings points with some early scoring binges, but they've been bad team level since the All-Star Break. This does not help Vegas at all, and their entire focus on the next 20-some games is getting more points than Edmonton.

Both teams are in third place in their division by Points %, and both have enough time to take second place, but it's going to require winning at a higher rate now than they have all season.

This is the Leafs Pride Game, and they have always kept the focus of Pride Night on the people in the arena, their special guests, intermission entertainment, etc. Video of events usually shows up in the Blueprint series.

Game Coverage