Toronto Maple Leafs at Colorado Avalanche
Time: 9:00 PM ET
Location: Pepsi Center, up high in the sky
Broadcast/Streaming: TSN4, TVA Sports, NHL Live
Opponent SBNation Site: Mile High Hockey
I hope everyone has their naps planned because it’s late night games this week on this part of the Leafs six game road trip. Tonight’s game is at 9:00, so it should end before midnight, but it’s just a warm up to Thursday’s 10:00 game in Las Vegas,
The road trip so far has been a little rough on the Leafs. They played a close game with the Canadiens, but got the win in overtime, and against the Rangers they piled on the shots onto back up goalie Alex Georgiev - 55 in total - but he stood on his head to keep the Leafs to only one goal scored.
The Avalanche just finished an eastern road trip themselves which saw them take three overtime losses in a row to the Capitals, Islanders, and Bruins. In fact, they haven’t won a game since January 19th - a 7-1 win over the Kings. Actually they haven't beaten a proper NHL team since 14th against the Maple Leafs.
Crap.
Toronto Maple Leafs lines
Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitchell Marner
Patrick Marleau - Auston Matthews - Kasperi Kapanen
Connor Brown - Nazem Kadri - William Nylander
Par Lindholm - Frederik Gauthier - Andreas Johnsson
Tyler Ennis is available, but hasn’t played a game yet. If he’s in, we’ll update the lines.
Jake Muzzin - Morgan Rielly
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Ron Hainsey
Frederik Andersen
Garret Sparks
Colorado Avalanche lines
Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Alexander Kerfoot - JT Compher - Colin Wilson
Matthew Nieto - Carl Soderberg - Matt Calvert
AJ Greer - Sheldon Dries - Sven Andrighetto
Samuel Girard - Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth - Tyson Barrie
Ryan Graves - Nikita Zadorov
Semyon Varlamov
Philipp Grubauer
Round one vs Boston Bruins
| Toronto | Team | Boston |
|---|---|---|
| 3-2 | Record | 2-3 |
| 14GF - 14GA | Goal Differential | 14GF - 14GA |
| 27.3% - 5th | Power Play | 35.7% - 2nd |
| 64.3% - 15th | Penalty Kill | 72.7% - 12th |
| Auston Matthews - 4 | Most Goals | Bergeron, Krejci, Pastrnak, Marchand, Coyle - 2 |
| Morgan Rielly - 4 | Most Assists | Brad Marchand - 4 |
| Auston Matthews - 5 | Most Points | Brad Marchand - 6 |
| Nazem Kadri - 19 | Most PM | Charlie McAvoy - 6 |
| Morgan Rielly - 24:34/G | TOI Leader | Charlie McAvoy - 16 |
| Frederik Andersen - .925sv% | Starting Goalie | Tuukka Rask - .922sv% |
The Maple Leafs have been bouncing from playoff contender to bottom of the barrel throughout February, and tonight brings someone in between. The Avalanche have lost a lot of games recently but remain four points out of a playoff spot because the Western Conference is just a mess this season. It’s hard to know what to expect from this opponent, but some days it’s hard to know what to expect from the Leafs.
Whatever the game turns out to be, hopefully it’s worth the late start.
Lineup updates: Brown is swapped with Johnsson today in official lines. This was how they actually played for parts of the last two games. Ennis is not in.
Varlamov is starting for the Avs. Tyson Jost is drawing in on the second line.
