Advertisement

In their last visit to Raleigh, a week before Christmas, the Maple Leafs were riding a six-game winning streak, sitting 19-9-3, two points out of the Atlantic Division lead with two games in hand on Tampa Bay.

Before that last visit with the Hurricanes, we wrote:

[quote_box_center]There’s also a parallel to last season here that can serve as a cautionary tale: The Leafs beat the Kings and Ducks amid their hottest streak of 2013-14, and proceeded to lose to a struggling Capitals team, the start of their epic collapse. Win streaks can’t last forever and a loss on a weekday visit to Carolina in game 32 of the season wouldn’t technically be the end of the world, but it’s funny how quickly good wins over good teams can be erased by bad losses to bad teams.[/quote_box_center]

In the intervening 27 games, the Leafs have collected a total of 10 points over a remarkably inept 4-21-2 stretch that has the Leafs sitting 26th in the League eight weeks later. Amazing to think about.

This game represents a potential four-point swing in the lottery race. A loss to the Hurricanes in regulation tonight puts the Canes two points behind the Leafs with two games in hand, edging the Leafs closer to fourth last in the League, also known as the fourth overall pick and a 9.5% probability in the lottery.

The Leafs have been dominated in recent seasons by the Hurricanes, losing eight of their last nine versus the Canes, usually having no solution for the Staal matchups at center ice.

Lineup Notes: Still no Dion Phaneuf, who experienced a setback with his hand injury. James Reimer will start in net as the Leafs look for only their second win against he Hurricanes in their last nine meetings. Andrew MacWilliam was recalled as an extra body for the trip, but is expected to watch from the pressbox. Cam Ward is expected to start for the Canes; he’s posted a 15-9-2 record, with a .910 save percentage and a 2.73 goals-against average, against the Leafs, including two shutouts.

Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines

James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Phil Kessel
Daniel Winnik – Nazem Kadri – Richard Panik
Leo Komarov – Olli Jokinen – David Clarkson
David Booth – Peter Holland – Brandon Kozun

Morgan Rielly – Roman Polak
Jake Gardiner – Korbinian Holzer
Petter Granberg – Stephane Robidas

James Reimer
Jonathan Bernier

Scratched: Andrew MacWilliam
Injured: Joffrey Lupul (upper body), Dion Phaneuf (hand), Trevor Smith (upper body)

Carolina Hurricanes Projected Lines

Eric Staal – Jordan Staal – Jiri Tlusty
Jeff Skinner – Riley Nash – Alexander Semin
Nathan Gerbe – Victor Rask – Elias Lindholm
Brad Malone – Jay McClement – Andrej Nestrasil

Andrej Sekera – Justin Faulk
Tim Gleason – John-Michael Liles
Ron Hainsey – Brett Bellemore

Cam Ward
Anton Khudobin

Scratched: Patrick Dwyer, Chris Terry
Injured: Ryan Murphy (lower body)

Status report: Toronto called up MacWilliam, but coach Peter Horachek did not say if the 24-year-old would make his NHL debut. “We just want to make sure we’re in a good place if one of the other guys can’t go,” he said. … Dwyer will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season, along with Terry. “There’s two guys who come out who don’t deserve to in essence, but that’s the way it is,” Peters said. (NHL.com)

Who’s hot: Kadri had two assists in a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. … Nestrasil has two goals and two assists in his past three games. … Skinner has three goals in his past four games. (NHL.com)

Previous articleBob McKenzie on Leafs scouting
Next articleGame 59 Scoring Chances: Hurricanes 2 vs. Maple Leafs 1
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.