Gameday: Maple Leafs vs Coyotes

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS @ ARIZONA COYOTES
10:00PM EASTERN
TV: TSN4, TVA, TNT
OTHER GUYS: FIVE FOR HOWLING

Well, it’s been a while since we saw the Maple Leafs head down to Arizona, and boy it could be the final time. The Coyotes are done in Glendale this season, and their hopeful plan in Tempe seems to be falling apart as they haven’t convinced enough of city council to vote in their favour. Weird how a team who refuses to pay bills, taxes, rent, couldn’t convince another city to build them an arena.

Related

Coyotes owner could lose Tempe arena vote just because he’s tax deadbeat, what is happening to America

THEM

The Coyotes are.....bad. Like, really bad.

They are fighting with the Canadiens and Senators for dead last in the league. Seven wins all season long. 2-7-1 in their last ten. Recently they did beat Chicago 6-4, and the other win was 8-7 in a shootout over the Sharks. If they want to win, they need to score a lot of goals and they rarely do that.

They’ve also seen a lot of players move to Covid protocol:

Scott Wedgewood, Jakob Chychrun, Cam Dineen, Anton Strålman,  Head Coach André Tourigny and Goaltending Coach Corey Schwab

I was cocky about the Oilers, saying it would be an easy win over them with the amount of players missing and it was an okay 4-2 win. But tonight! This will be an easy blowout win.

Lines:

Lawson Crouse - Johan Larson - Phil Kessel
Andrew Ladd - Travis Boyd - Clayton Keller
Antoine Roussel - Riley Nash - Christian Fischer
Liam O’Brien - Alex Galchenyuk - Nick Schmaltz

Shayne Gostibehere - Dysin Mayo
Janis Moser - Victor Soderstrom
Vladislav Kolyachonok - Ilya Lyubushkin

Karel Vejmelka
Ivan Prosvetov

Wow. That is a whole bunch of guys who I’ve never heard of.

Two former Leafs are on the ice to watch for, two-time Stanley Cup Champion Phil Kessel and Alex Galchenyuk.

US

After almost blowing another lead last night, the Leafs look for back to back wins. The Leafs aren’t missing many players, only Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall.

Related

Recap: Nylander redeems the Leafs’ blown lead in the shootout

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Ondřej Kaše
Alexander Kerfoot - John Tavares - William Nylander
Ilya Mikheyev - David Kämpf - Wayne Simmonds
Kyle Clifford - Jason Spezza - Nick Ritchie

Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Jake Muzzin - Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin - Travis Dermott

Petr Mrázek
Jack Campbell

Per Sheldon Keefe, Timothy Liljegren & Joey Anderson are in tonight

Marner & Engvall expected to join the team in Arizona tomorrow @TSN_Edge

— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) January 13, 2022

Numbers and such

Preview Stats

This should be a...good one? A game, anyway.

Go Leafs Go!