Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montréal Canadiens
7:00PM - Scotiabank Arena
CBC, Sportsnet, TVA Sports
Other Guys: Eyes on the Prize
The Toronto Maple Leafs have returned from their road trip, winning three of four games, and taking seven of eight points against some of the tougher teams in the league (and the Flyers) scoring between four and seven goals per game. Prepare for all that to end tonight.
That’s right, tonight’s opponent, the Montréal Canadiens, are in a race with the Arizona Coyotes for the bottom of the standings and that means the Leafs will do poorly. Let’s look at some of the results against the bottom of the league:
March 26th vs Canadiens: Loss 4-2
March 13th vs Sabres: Loss 5-2
March 10th vs Coyotes: Loss 5-4 (OT)
March 2nd vs Sabres: Loss 5-1
February 21st vs Canadiens: Loss 5-2
This does not inspire confidence.
Them
They’re bad. Recently not as bad, 2-3 with wins over the Lightning and Devils. Okay the Devils’ win isn’t impressive, but come on, Tampa. Figure it out. Anyway, the Habs are bad and no one cares about them.
Lines
Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Rem Pitlick
Mike Hoffman - Jake Evans - Josh Anderson
Joel Armia - Christian Dvorak - Brendan Gallagher
Michael Pezzetta - Ryan Poehling - Tyler Pitlick
Joel Edmundson - Alexander Romanov
Jordan Harris - David Savard
Corey Schueneman - Chris Wideman
Jake Allen
Samuel Montembault
Injuries: Carey Price, Shea Weber, Jonathan Drouin, Jeff Petry — might be in.
No former Leafs because they’re too smart to play for the Habs.
I really have no idea who 90% of these guys are. Tank away Habs.
Us
It’s the Maple Leafs, they’re awesome.
Auston Matthews is looking to score 50 in 50 tonight.
The team is going to work to get him 70 goals this season.
They’ll figure out how to beat the Canadiens, finally.
We just need to believe.
Lines
Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Ilya Mikheyev - John Tavares - Alexander Kerfoot
William Nylander - David Kämpf - Pierre Engvall
Wayne Simmonds - Colin Blackwell - Jason Spezza
Morgan Rielly - Ilya Lyubushkin
Jake Muzzin - TJ Brodie
Mark Giordano - Justin Holl
Erik Källgren (confirmed starter)
Jack Campbell
Injuries: Rasmus Sandin, Ondřej Kaše, Petr Mrázek
And that table of stuff I always promise you:
Preview Stats
| Toronto | Team | Tampa |
|---|---|---|
| 3-3 | Series | 3-3 |
| 23GF - 21GA - +2 | Goal Differential | 21GF - 23GA - -2 |
| 16% - 11th | Power Play | 22.6% - 7th |
| 77.4% - 10th | Penalty Kill | 84% - 6th |
| Auston Matthews - 4 | Most Goals | Colton, Palat - 3 |
| Mitch Marner - 5 | Most Assists | Nikita Kucherov - 6 |
| Auston Matthews - 8 | Most Points | Nikita Kucherov - 8 |
| Ilya Lyubushkin - 18 | Most PM | Jan Rutta - 17 |
| TJ Brodie - 22:44 | TOI Leader | Victor Hedman - 25:45 |
| Jack Campbell - .893sv% | Starting Goalie | Andrei Vasilevskiy - .885sv% |
They’re real bad. The Leafs should win, but who knows.
I do! They won’t.
Have a great time watching!
