GDT: Leafs Look To Impose Capital Punishment
The Maple Leafs express fresh off a huge 3-2 comeback victory over their division rivals from Beantown hit the road hoping to find the rarest of rare for them this season, a victory on foreign ice in Washington, D.C. The Leafs are 0-7-1 in their past eight games away from the friendly confines of the Air Canada Centre and are hoping to avoid their first 8-game losing streak since Nov 7 – Dec 6 / 1996.
That might be easier said than done as standing in their way are the explosive Washington Capitals and their impressive 12-2-1 record at home, tops in the Eastern Conference. Staying out of the penalty box will be of the utmost importance as the Leafs porous penalty kill is downright sieve like on the road with a 64.7% success fail rate.
Toronto is 0-2-1 in its last three visits to the Verizon Center, allowing 17 goals. After a beastly return to the lineup on Saturday, Armstrong has been promoted to line one with Kessel (who is back at center ice ) and Versteeg. Lines after the jump courtesy of TuckerThomas:
Toronto
Kris Versteeg-Phil Kessel-Colby Armstrong
Nikolai Kulemin-Mikhail Grabovski-Clarke MacArthur
Nazem Kadri-Tyler Bozak-Fredrik Sjostrom
Colton Orr-Tim Brent-Jay Rosehill
Tomas Kaberle-Luke Schenn
Francois Beauchemin-Keith Aulie
Mike Komisarek-Carl Gunnarsson
Jonas Gustavsson
J.S. Giguere
Scratches — Brett Lebda, John Mitchell
Injuries — Dion Phaneuf (leg laceration), Mike Brown (Finger)
Washington
Alexander Semin-Nicklas Backstrom-Alexander Ovechkin
Mike Knuble-Brooks Laich-Eric Fehr
David Steckel-Marcus Johansson-Boyd Gordon
Jason Chimera-Matt Hendricks-Matt Bradley
Mike Green-Scott Hannan
Karl Alzner-John Carlson
John Erskine-Jeff Schultz
Michal Neuwirth
Simeon Varlamov
Injuries — Tom Poti (Groin)
