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The Maple Leafs are going to have to manage the puck more effectively through neutral ice and find an answer for the Gustav Nyquist, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen (who may not play… game time decision after getting injured last night) line or else it could be four points dropped to a division rival in 48 hours.

The Wings’ top line scored all four goals on the Maple Leafs last night, with Justin Abdelkader getting in on the action in the third after taking Franzen’s spot on the top line. Zetterberg walked away with four assists on the night. The Leafs‘ lack of a line they can trust in the toughest matchups has reared its ugly head early and often in this new season.

Every team in the League knows Toronto’s top offensive weapons like to trade chances and thrive off the rush; the Wings were successful in maintaining structure in the neutral zone, forcing ample turnovers out of the Leafs and thriving on the transition. The Wings were credited with 12 takeaways to the Leafs‘ four in last night’s loss at the ACC.

It was only line three that found any level of success last night thanks to a willingness to get pucks deep and go to work (ironically, their goal was scored off a rush play).

Matt Frattin is expected to step into the place of the injured Brandon Kozun on line four, while Jonathan Bernier takes over the net for his first start since his bad outing versus the Pittsburgh Penguins a week ago today. No other lineup changes are known as of an hour and a half before puck drop.

Projected Lines

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Roman Polak take a seat after his dash-three last night, with Stephane Robidas returning to the lineup. Polak really shouldn’t be on the ice against someone of Henrik Zetterberg’s talent, which speaks to the coaching staff’s current issue with finding trustworthy players who can shut down the opposition’s best, be it up front or on defence.

We’ll know more come game time.

The good news is that the Leafs put four goals past Jonas Gustavsson on 23 shots last season, and five on 21 shots in their final preseason game earlier this month.  Let’s hope he performs like the ‘Monster’ we came to know during his time in Toronto.

Update:

Maple Leafs

James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Phil Kessel
Joffrey Lupul – Nazem Kadri – Daniel Winnik
Leo Komarov – Mike Santorelli – David Clarkson
Richard Panik – Peter Holland – Matt Frattin
Dion Phaneuf – Cody Franson
  Morgan Rielly – Roman Polak
Jake Gardiner – Stephane Robidas
Scratch: Stuart Percy
Jonathan Bernier

Red Wings

Gustav Nyquist – Henrik Zetterberg – Johan Franzen*
Tomas Tatar – Riley Sheahan – Tomas Jurco
Justin Abdelkader – Darren Helm – Andrej Nestrasil
Joakim Andersson – Luke Glendening – Drew Miller
Niklas Kronwall – Brendan Smith
Jonathan Ericsson – Jakub Kindl
Kyle Quincey – Danny DeKeyser
Jonas Gustavsson
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Alec Brownscombe is the founder and editor of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He's published five magazines on the team entitled "The Maple Leafs Annual" with distribution in Chapters and newsstands across the country. He also co-hosted "The Battle of the Atlantic," a weekly show on TSN1200 that covered the Leafs and the NHL in-depth. Alec is a graduate of Trent University and Algonquin College with his diploma in Journalism. In 2014, he was awarded Canada's Best Hockey Blogger honours by Molson Canadian. You can contact him at alec.brownscombe@mapleleafshotstove.com.