Preview: Wild at Leafs

Minnesota Wild @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: TSN4, BSNX, BSWIX

The Leafs last game was an away game on February 21 against the Buffalo Sabres, which Toronto won by a score of 6-3. The Leafs have a record of 35-15-8 so far.

The Minnesota Wild last played an away game on February 23 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Wild won by a score of 2-0, and their current league record is 32-21-5.

The Leafs host the Wild tonight, and then head west where they will be for the trade deadline. Sunday is in Seattle (no Saturday game), Wednesday is in Edmonton with a quick jaunt to Calgary for a game on Thursday. Friday is deadline day, and the deadline is 3 pm New York time, so being out west doesn’t get you anything. It’s also a travel day for the Leafs as they are heading to Vancouver for the annual Saturday 4pm start local time to make the Canucks fans livid.

Them

The Wild got a lot better over the last week as they have 25% of Ryan O’Reilly and 25% of Dmitry Orlov. They are doing well enough without adding any real players. It’s interesting that they don’t think they should add real players, although they still have room.

Lines

Michael Russo via Daily Faceoff at the last game.

Kirill Kaprizov - Ryan Hartman - Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matthew Boldy
Jordan Greenway - Frederick Gaudreau - Brandon Duhaime
Mason Shaw - Connor Dewar - Ryan Reaves

Jacob Middleton - Jared Spurgeon
Alex Goligoski - Mathew Dumba
Dakota Mermis - Calen Addison

Filip Gustavsson - confirmed starter
Marc-Andre Fleury

Us

The Leafs are just rolling along, trying to acclimate their new players (who are doing very well at this) and keeping everyone healthy. To that end, it’s likely Rasmus Sandin will sit out another game.

Matt Murray is inching closer to return, but isn’t projected to be activated today.

Lines

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
John Tavares - Ryan O’Reilly - Mitch Marner
Pierre Engvall - David Kämpf - Calle Järnkrok
Zach Aston-Reese - Noel Acciari - Alex Kerfoot

Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Mark Giordano - Timothy Liljegren
Conor Timmins - Justin Holl

Ilya Samsonov - starter
Joe Woll

The Game

Toronto vs Minnesota

To bottom-line those stats above, the Wild don’t score much, and have been lucky to even be in a playoff position with a goal differential of +9. In the east, that puts you in the race for the last wildcard with Buffalo and the Islanders. Kirill Kaprizov is the team offence, and frankly, a guy who is 25% of Ryan O’Reilly would help this team.

Morgan Rielly on Mark Giordano coming up on the all-time shot-blocking lead: It’s kind of a hard thing to track, not sure how you can stop the game *laughs*. Gotta get him a golden shin pad or something.

— David Alter (@dalter) February 24, 2023

Tonight’s game is the Celebration of Black Excellence game, a theme that will carry over to the Marlies game tomorrow.

There’s merch:

Artwork designed by @blackpwrbarbie, an Illustrator, Animator & Director raised in Toronto of Trinidadian & Guyanese descent. Her work is inspired by her Afro-Caribbean heritage.

20% of proceeds will be donated to @seasidehockeyclub. https://t.co/0ZBwRRtNSJ / in-store. pic.twitter.com/eAzfgc9uDO

— Real Sports Apparel (@ShopRSApparel) February 24, 2023

There’s going to be food, drinks and entertainment as well. It all reads as very Afro-Caribbean influenced. More details on the Leafs site.

Go Leafs Go