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Team Records: Leafs – 3-1-0 vs. Predators – 1-2-0

Jonathan Bernier’s recent play, career record (7-1) against Nashville and familiarity with the opponent has gotten him the nod against the Predators tonight despite a loss on Tuesday. The loss might have given Carlyle reason enough to go back to Reimer, but he seems to be sticking with the hot hand (Bernier was excellent despite the loss).

We’ll see how Reimer responds when he gets his next chance, but I’ve always thought he needs to get a run of starts to stay on top of his game. If true, it could be his undoing in the goalie battle. Ideally, one goalie will get hot when the other cools off and the Leafs will reap the net result of great goaltending all season, but we’ll have to see how it actually plays out.

Don’t take what I just wrote the wrong way, either – There is a lot of sound reasons why Bernier should play tonight. He’s played well, knows Nashville shooters far better than Reimer, and has had great success against the Preds. Just a thought on how this goalie thing might play out.

The Leafs have continued to be the anti-advanced stats team in the early going, winning games they were out Corsi‘d in and losing to the Avalanche after technically outchancing them on Tuesday (there was some pretty desperate low percentage shooting from the Leafs, I thought). Overall, they have not been at their best yet and it would be nice to see them play like it for the first time this season.

Maple Leafs Lines vs Nashville Predators

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Nashville Predators Lineups, Oct. 10th, 2013
Left WingCenterRight Wing
JvRBozakKessel
RaymondBollandLeivo
LupulKadriBroll
AshtonMcClementOrr
Left DefenseRight Defense
PhaneufGunnarsson
RiellyFranson
GardinerRanger
Goalies
Bernier
Reimer
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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.