Minnesota Wild at Toronto Maple Leafs: 7:00pm
Watch on: TSN4
Opponent’s site: Hockey Wilderness
Another week, another back-to-back.
Luckily for the Leafs, for today’s game, they’re the rested team hosting the tired travelers. The Wild played (and beat) the Ottawa Senators on Monday night before travelling to Toronto to play a two-days-rested Leafs team. Considering the schedule, it’s very important that the Leafs take advantage tonight against a tired team and the backup goalie.
We’ll worry about the Washington Capitals tomorrow.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Over the weekend, the Maple Leafs sent 19-year-old defenseman Rasmus Sandin back to the Toronto Marlies, recalling left-handed defenseman Kevin Gravel in his place.
With Travis Dermott returning to the lineup sooner rather than later, the Leafs appeared to want Sandin to get back with his Marlies teammates for one more year of seasoning before potentially making the jump sometime in 2020.
Gravel had a strong preseason with the Leafs and was great for the Marlies in their first three games, so it’ll be interesting to see how far he can move up the pecking order before Dermott takes his spot on the third pair.
Tonight, the Leafs will play their first game without Sandin this season, likely icing a third pair made up from their two rotating spares: Martin Marincin and Justin Holl.
Related
Maple Leafs send Rasmus Sandin to the Marlies, recall Kevin Gravel
Back to Excited Episode 76: Sandin Sent Down & Leafs Forward Lines
Forwards
Andreas Johnsson - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Kasperi Kapanen - John Tavares - Mitchell Marner
Ilya Mikheyev - Alexander Kerfoot - Trevor Moore
Dmytro Timashov - Nick Shore - Frederik Gauthier
Scratched: Nic Petan - Jason Spezza
Injured: Zach Hyman
Defense
Morgan Rielly - Cody Ceci
Jake Muzzin - Tyson Barrie
Martin Marincin - Justin Holl
Scratched: Kevin Gravel
Injured: Travis Dermott
Goalies
Frederik Andersen
Michael Hutchinson
Minnesota Wild
The Wild have had a tough start to their season. Of their five games this season, they’ve only spent one at home (a Saturday loss to Pittsburgh). The 1-4-0 team got their lone win to date against the Ottawa Senators last night, a 2-0 win. Backup Alex Stalock stopped all 26 shots he faced, while Zach Parise and Victor Rask potted the goals (hi, Paul Fenton). So tonight the Leafs are getting Minnesota’s starter, Devan Dubnyk.
Forwards
Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Jason Zucker
Kevin Fiala - Eric Staal - Ryan Hartman
Marcus Foligno - Joel Eriksson Ek - Luke Kunin
Ryan Donato - Victor Rask - Jordan Greenway
Scratched: Gerald Mayhew
Injured: Mats Zuccarello
Defense
Ryan Suter - Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin - Jared Spurgeon
Carson Soucy - Brad Hunt
Scratched: Nick Seeler
Injured: Greg Pateryn
Goalies
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
