Toronto Maple Leafs at New York Rangers

Time: 7:00 PM ET

Location: Madison Square Garden

Broadcast/Streaming: Rogers Sportsnet, NBC Sportsnet, TVA Sports, NHL Live

Opponent SBNation Site: Blueshirt Banter

How about those Maple Leafs, eh? After a back and forth game with the Montreal Canadiens last night, and emerging victorious in overtime, there was no time to celebrate with some poutine and outrage over font size. The Maple Leafs hopped on their jet and flew south to New York City, where the Rangers are at the starting point of a rebuild.

The Rangers had the night off last night, but were shut out by the Hurricanes on Friday night. They’ve been losing a lot, or winning by a single goal, since the all star break. They’re last solid win was a 5-2 victory over the Hurricanes, back on January 15th.

We have a battle of the back ups tonight as well, with Sparks in for the Leafs, and Georgiev in for the Rangers. Georgiev was also in net the last time the Maple Leafs faced the Rangers, which was a 5-3 victory that was a little slow to start.

Tonight should be a win. Should be.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitchell Marner
Patrick Marleau - Auston Matthews - Kasperi Kapanen
Connor Brown - Nazem Kadri - William Nylander
Par Lindholm - Frederik Gauthier - Andreas Johnsson

Jake Muzzin - Morgan Rielly
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Ron Hainsey

Garret Sparks
Frederik Andersen

Paul Hendricks says no changes to the lines tonight, so Tyler Ennis will have to wait another day to rejoin the team.

New York Rangers

Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Mats Zuccarello
Pavel Buchnevich - Kevin Hayes - Jesper Fast
Filip Chytil - Ryan Strome - Vladislav Namestnikov
Jimmy Vesey - Cristoval Nieves - Vinni Lettieri

Marc Staal - Anthony Deangelo
Brady Skjei - Adam McQuaid
Brendan Smith - Kevin Shattenkirk

Alexander Georgiev
Henrik Lundqvist

Round one vs Boston Bruins

TorontoTeamBoston
3-2Record2-3
14GF - 14GAGoal Differential14GF - 14GA
27.3% - 5thPower Play35.7% - 2nd
64.3% - 15thPenalty Kill72.7% - 12th
Auston Matthews - 4Most GoalsBergeron, Krejci, Pastrnak, Marchand, Coyle - 2
Morgan Rielly - 4Most AssistsBrad Marchand - 4
Auston Matthews - 5Most PointsBrad Marchand - 6
Nazem Kadri - 19Most PMCharlie McAvoy - 6
Morgan Rielly - 24:34/GTOI LeaderCharlie McAvoy - 16
Frederik Andersen - .925sv%Starting GoalieTuukka Rask - .922sv%

After showing the NHL that the Leafs can beat their future playoff opponents, it’s time to show everyone you won’t take any opponent lightly. Day off or no day off, back to back or long gap, the Leafs need to come out hard each game. If they can start strong and stay there, the world is theirs.

Go Leafs Go!

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