Maple Leafs @ Predators Game Chat: The Return of Auston

Toronto Maple Leafs (43-23-7) @ Nashville Predators (48-14-10)

8:00 pm ET

Bridgestone Arena, Nashville

Our Leafs game preview is here.

Auston Matthews and Nikita Zaitsev return for the Leafs as they face the team with the best record in the NHL — the Nashville Predators. They have a Vezina calibre goalie, they have four #1 defenseman, and they’ve slowly built up an impressive group of forwards too. Could be a team the Leafs have to beat in the Cup Finals!

Here are the Leafs lines for those too lazy to click on the preview link (spoilers: may cause reader to sploosh uncontrollably):

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

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey

Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev

Travis Dermott - Roman Polak

Freddie will get the start in net.

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The Marlies have also gotten Leafs’ prospect Fedor Gordeev, though it seems unlikely he’ll get into any games:

Just to round everything up with the Marlins over the past couple weeks, these are the players confirmed with the team on ATO/PTO:

Derian Plouffe
Josh Kestner
Evan Buitenhuis
Jesper Lindgren
Scott Pooley
Pierre Engvall
Brady Ferguson
Hunter Fejes
Fedor Gordeev

— Kyle Cushman (@Kyle_Cush) March 22, 2018

GO LEAFS GO!