New Years in Vegas: Maple Leafs at the Golden Knights

Toronto Maple Leafs at Vegas Golden Knights: Game 41

Time: 3:30PM Toronto, 12:30PM Local

Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

Broadcast/Streaming: Rogers Sportsnet, City TV, TVA Sports, AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mountain, NHL Live

Opponent SBNation Site: Knights on Ice

The Maple Leafs have left Colorado and landed in Vegas, and are apparently staying in a hotel a 25 minute drive away from the strip, far from the temptations that could cause a team of young rich men to play like, well young rich men after a night in Vegas. They can come back for their fun at the NHL Awards in June.

In their past five games the Maple Leafs are 3-1-1, losing to the Blue Jackets and Avalanche (in overtime). The Knights are 5-0-0 in their past five, and are on a six game winning streak.  That’s the trouble with Vegas, once they get winning it usually last quite a few games until they lose.

The last time these two teams met, the Maple Leafs pulled out a victory, but needed to take the game to a shootout to get the W.  The Leafs had a 3-1 lead after the first but gave up a goal in the second and third (to Deryk Engelland!) to push the game to extra time.

The game should be full of Maple Leafs fans, the Vegas road trip seems to be popular among away team fans, and it’s the Maple Leafs, everywhere they go the rink fills with us. Here are your projected lines and goalies, and all kinds of stuff.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Forward Lines

Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Leo Komarov
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Mitch Marner
Matt Martin - Dominic Moore - Connor Brown

Defence Pairings

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Andreas Borgman - Connor Carrick

Goaltenders

Frederik Andersen
Calvin Pickard

Vegas Golden Knights

Forward Lines

David Perron - Erik Haula - James Neal
Reilly Smith - William Karlsson - Jonathan Marchessault
Brendan Leipsic - Cody Eakin - Alex Tuch
Oscar Lindberg - Pierre-Édouard Bellemare - Tomas Nosek

Defence Pairings

Brayden McNabb - Nate Schmidt
Deryk Engelland - Shea Theodore
Jon Merrill - Colin Miller

Goaltenders

Marc Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban

Numbers Preview

The Leafs are kicking off a double header Hometown Hockey, so expect lots of looks back at the days of yonder of hockey and some sentimental intermission segments.

Most importantly, Mark Hunter gets to visit the team he beat in copyright court.

Go Leafs Go!