TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS AT PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

7:00PM - PPG Paints Arena

Broadcast/Streaming: NHL Live, NHL Network, CBC, Sportsnet One

Opponent SBNation Site: Pensburgh

The last time the Maple Leafs and Penguins met this season Matt Murray took the game easily from the lackluster Leafs. Scoring chances was a struggle for the team, who were clearly hurt from the words of Lars Eller.

Recap: Leafs fall to the Penguins in a masterful road game from Matt Murray and Evgeni Malkin

Sine that game the Leafs have gone 2-3 and suffered a loss with Auston Matthews being viciously attacked by Jacob Trouba and knocked out of the roster for a month or so.

The Penguins went 3-1-0-1 in that time frame as well, tossing six goals against the Oilers, utterly destroying the Flames 9-1, and blanking the Canucks 5-0 before taking back to back losses to the Islanders. The worst part of those scores is that the Leafs scored only nine goals in their past five games.

So the Penguins are scoring goals, the Leafs aren’t and Matthews is out of the line up.

YEAH IT’S HOCKEY NIGHT BABY!

Maple Leafs

Forward Lines

Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Kasperi Kapanen
Andreas Johnsson - Par Lindholm - Connor Brown
Josh Leivo - Frederik Gauthier - Tyler Ennis

Defence Pairings

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Igor Ozhiganov

Goaltenders

Frederik Andersen
Garret Sparks

Pittsburgh Penguins

Forward Lines

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Dominik Simon
Carl Hagelin - Evgeni Malkin - Phil Kessel
Riley Sheahan - Matt Cullen - Patric Hornqvist
Bryan Rust - Derek Grant - Daniel Sprong

Defence Pairings

Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Olli Maatta - Jamie Oleksiak
Jack Johnson - Chad Ruhwedel

Goaltenders

Matt Murray
Casey DeSmith

Preview

Maple LeafsTeamPenguins
43GF - 39GA - +4Goal Differential45GF - 33GA - +12
30.6% - 3rd overallPower Play29% - 6th overall
80% - 12th overallPenalty Kill87.1% - 3rd overall
Auston Matthews - 10Most GoalsPhil Kessel / Evgeni Malkin - 7
Morgan Rielly / Mitch Marner - 12Most AssistsEvgeni Malkin - 13
Matthews / Marner / Rielly - 16Most PointsEvgeni Malkin - 20
Zach Hyman - 8Most PMSimon / Hagelin - 6
Morgan Rielly - 22:23TOI LeaderJamie Oleksiak - 11
Frederik Andersen - .917sv%Starting GoalieMatt Murray - 0.897sv%

According to Coach Babcock Trevor Moore will not be playing in tonight's game, travelling with the team as back up in case anyone should be unable to play tonight. Unless this is just another mind game from Babcock.

What the Maple Leafs need is for the depth scoring to start picking up the slack and put some pucks in the net. This should be the opportunity that Marleau, Brown, and the rest take advantage of to you know, actually do something useful.

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