There are only eight more games left in the Toronto Maple Leafs season, and at least five of them are against non-playoff teams. The first one up tonight, is the Detroit Red Wings. Old timers will have the children gather round and tell tales of a 24-year playoff streak, a cavern of an arena with sell out crowds, and good players being paid the most on the team.
This is a distant memory, as now we have a lottery streak happening, a new arena that is cavernous because it’s always so damn empty, and old, finished players taking up most of the cap space. Let’s make them hurt more tonight.
Detroit Red Wings at Toronto Maple Leafs
7:00PM - Air Canada Centre
Watch: CBC, Sportsnet Now, Fox Sports Detroit, NHL Live
Listen: TSN1050 / Spotsnet590
SBN: Winging it in Motown (you know, it feels like Ken Holland is just winging it lately)
The Leafs last five in a nutshell: Beat an injured team, beat an awful team, beat an awful team, lost to the best team in the east, and beat the best team in the west.
The Red Wings last five: Loss by 3, loss by 2, big loss by 4, barely a win in a shootout, and then they got shutout.
Look, I don’t want to jinx anything here, but it should be a pretty easy win, right?
Toronto Maple Leafs lines
Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Mitchell Marner
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Connor Brown
Andreas Johnsson - Tomas Plekanec - Kasperi Kapanen
Look at it. It’s beautiful.
Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Roman Polak
It’s nice, not super hot like the forwards but nice.
Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney
The future Norse trophy winner gets the start.
Detroit Red Wings lines
Tyler Bertuzzi - Henrik Zetterberg - Gustav Nyquist
Darren Helm - Dylan Larkin - Anthony Mantha
Justin Abdelkader - Frans Nielsen - Andreas Anthanasiou
Evgeny Svechnikov - Luke Glendening - Martin Frk
Holy crap Tyler Bertuzzi is on the first line? And Team USA star player Justin Abdelkader is on the third? What a topsy turvy world we live in.
Jonathan Ericsson - Trevor Daley
Danny Dekeyser - Nick Jensen
Niklas Kronwall - Luke Witkowski
I don’t know who half these guys are, but man Trevor, from back to back cups to....this?
Jimmy Howard
Jared Coreau
Wheeeeeee!
Numbers Preview
| Maple Leafs | Team | Devils |
|---|---|---|
| 265GF - 226GA - +29 | Goal Differential | 238GF - 234GA - +4 |
| 24.4% - 2nd overall | Power Play | 21.7 - 10th overall |
| 81.3% - 12th overall | Penalty Kill | 81.9% - 7th overall |
| James van Riemsdyk - 36 | Most Goals | Taylor Hall - 39 |
| Mitch Marner - 47 | Most Assists | Taylor Hall - 54 |
| Mitch Marner - 69 | Most Points | Taylor Hall - 93 |
| Matt Martin - 50 | Most PM | Miles Wood - 84 |
| Jake Gardiner - 22:33/G | TOI Leader | Sami Vatanen - 22:42 |
| Frederik Andersen - .917sv% | Starting Goalie | Keith Kincaid - .911sv% |
So, what can we expect tonight? A boring game, against a team with nothing to play for. The Maple Leafs are essentially locked into their playoff spot, being 14 points ahead of the Florida Panthers for third in the Atlantic division, but 7 points back of the Bruins for home ice.
Not much to play for, except for JVR. He knows he’s playing for a pay raise and hooo boy is he ever acting like it.
Let’s get another hat trick James.
Go Leafs Go!
Oh, and Babcock has thoughts:
So, what does Mike Babcock like about Roman Polak, you ask?
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) March 24, 2018
"Well, it was the other night on the bench when [Roman] ran over one of their best players, D.J. Smith said to me, "what's the Corsi rating for THAT?" pic.twitter.com/9q1nEYOBW6
