Toronto Maple Leafs game preview: Auston Matthews out against the Flyers.

Welcome back to another round of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey. Tonight’s opponents are the Broad Street Bullies themselves, tamer than the originals but you never let a good nickname go to waste. With the Flyers coming home after a successful road trip through Western Canada beating the Flames 5-2, Oilers 4-2, and Canucks 4-2, they’ll be rested after four days home in their own beds and wanting to give the Flyers fans a good show and not risk being pelted with bracelets or snowballs or D batteries.

The Maple Leafs are also coming off three wins, 2-1 over the Flames in a shootout, 4-3 over the Penguins and 1-0 over the Oilers. The biggest news item today however, is the fact that Auston Matthews will not play.

Toronto Maple Leafs at Philadelphia Flyers
7:00PM - Wells Fargo Center
TV: TSN4 (BLACKOUT on NHL.tv in Ontario), TVA Sports, NBCSN
Radio: TSN1050 / Sportsnet590
SBN: Broad Street Hockey

The Maple Leafs have been winning games, but many have been questioning how they’ve been winning. They’ve been outplayed or the players have been misused, or the Leafs haven’t been playing all out for the entire game, but somehow they’ve won - be it by puck luck or a surprising backup goalie performance.

The Maple Leafs will be working with a different line up than usual tonight, as Auston Matthews may miss another game so Patrick Marleau is back in his role as centre. Nikita Soshnikov is out on IR, so Josh Leivo will play tonight, and Kasperi Kapanen has been recalled from the Marlies. Is he a possibility to suit up?

Toronto Maple Leafs

Zach Hyman - Patrick Marleau - Connor Brown
Leo Komarov - Nazem Kadri - William Nylander
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Mitchell Marner
Matt Martin - Dominic Moore - Josh Leivo

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Andreas Borgman - Roman Polak

Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney

Philadelphia Flyers

Claude Giroux- Sean Couturier Wayne Simmonds
Michael Raffl - Valtteri Filppula- Jakub Voracek
Dale Weise - Nolan Patrick - Travis Konecny
Taylor Leier - Scott Laughton - Jordan Weal

Ivan Provorov - Andrew MacDonald
Shayne Gostisbehere - Robert Hagg
Travis Sanheim - Mark Alt

Brian Elliott
Brian Boucher

Numbers Preview

hey should be fine without Matthews if everyone one else picks up their games. While the Leafs are 5-0 without Auston in the line up, it’s no reason to take that fact for granted. Can the Leafs win four in a row, and can they get out of the play 40 minutes a game funk they’re currently in?

Well, there’s no better team to challenge them into performing better than the Flyers.