Toronto Maple Leafs at New Jersey Devils
7:00PM
Prudential Centre, Newark, New Jersey
Broadcast/Streaming: TSN4, NHL Live, TSN GO, TSN1050
Opponent SBNation Site: All About the Jersey
The last time the Maple Leafs were in New Jersey they beat the Devils 7-2. Tyler Ennis scored twice, his last goals before his injury, John Tavares passed the 20 goal mark, and Frederik Andersen stopped 27 of 29 shots.
Now, three weeks later, the Maple Leafs are without Frederik Andersen and Tyler Ennis. John Tavares is still scoring goals though, so there’s still a silver lining!
Zach Hyman is returning to the line up tonight, and Trevor Moore was sent down to the Marlies.
Maple Leafs Lines
Forward Lines
Andreas Johnsson - Auston Matthews - Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - William Nylander
Connor Brown - Frederik Gauthier - Par Lindholm
Defence Pairings
Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Igor Ozhiganov
Goaltenders
Michael Hutchinson
Kasimir Kaskisuo
The New Jersey Devils are flolloping along the bottom of the NHL standings like the mattresses of Sqornshellous Zeta. They have one player - Kyle Palmieri - who has 20 goals, and barely six players with 20 or more points. Taylor Hall is on IR right now, making them worse.
Their six million dollar goalie Corey Schneider is on IR, and with three more seasons after this one at that cap hit, he’s sporting a 0.852 save percentage. Their now defacto starter Keith Kinkaid is barely any better.
Tonight should be a game more like Saturday vs Vancouver, than Monday vs Nashville.
New Jersey Devils lines
Forward Lines
Jesper Bratt - Nico Hischier - Kyle Palmieri
Miles Wood - Travis Zajac - Blake Coleman
Blake Pietila - Pavel Zacha - Stefan Noesen
Brian Boyle - Brett Seney - Drew Stafford
Defence Pairings
Andy Greene - Damon Severson
Sami Vatanen - Steven Santini
Will Butcher - Ben Lovejoy
Goaltenders
Keith Kinkaid
Cameron Johnson
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 should win tonight, but there’s no excuse to take any team lightly. There was a lack of effort on Monday night after they went down 2-0 to Nashville, and to keep their home ice advantage for the playoffs they need to not play like that again, it was bad. The Bruins are inching up the standings and the last thing we want is to fall below them again.
