After a 6-3 loss last night, the Maple Leafs are looking for a bounce back performance in a tough turnaround — with travel in between — tonight in Pittsburgh. The Penguins have been off since Sunday.
Last night was just the fourth time this season the Leafs have lost by three or more goals. Even still, the Leafs probably deserved a more competitive scoreline than what turned out. Not that the Leafs truly deserved a result on the merits of their play, but 6-3 — 6-2 until a garbage-time goal by Shawn Matthias — is arguably a little misleading.
https://twitter.com/SteveBurtch/status/682035712074465281
Scoring Chances in the #Leafs #Isles game were 43-27 for Toronto in All Situations. High Danger were 19-14 for TOR.
— Stephen Burtch (@SteveBurtch) December 30, 2015
IOTW – the #Leafs didn't get run over in this game remotely – but the goals… … bleh.
— Stephen Burtch (@SteveBurtch) December 30, 2015
Shots were 12-7 Leafs through 20 minutes, and shot attempts 21-12 Leafs, but the individual defensive breakdowns — along with pedestrian goaltending — were costly, putting the Leafs in a 3-1 hole they couldn’t recover from. Just as it looked the Leafs were getting themselves back into it on a PA Parenteau one-timer that made it 3-2, Jonathan Bernier’s blunder behind the net restored a two-goal advantage, and it was curtains from there.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for Bernier in his campaign to reclaim the number one spot, with James Reimer just now returning from injury. Reimer got in 20 minutes of reps in the third period last night and prevented the Islanders from inflicting further damage, which hopefully serves as a stepping stone as he looks to pick up where he left off prior to getting hurt. Reimer is second in the League in save percentage with a .936 save percentage, trailing only Michael Neuvirth (.937)
Babcock: "They dug in harder tonight, the puck went in the net. Let’s get on with it. We’ve got a game against Pittsburgh tomorrow."
— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) December 30, 2015
A few notes going into tonight:
– The Maple Leafs are 0-6-2 in back to back situations going into tonight — not overly surprising for a team that needs to outwork teams to win games given its talent deficit. The Leafs have already played the Penguins twice in the second game of a back to back, losing 2-1 and 4-0. The Penguins were rested on both occasions and will be again tonight, having not played since Sunday.
– Who would have bet on the Leafs trailing the Penguins by four points 30-some games into the season? Pittsburgh is reeling at the moment, 3-6-1 in their last ten and currently seven points out of a wildcard spot (with two games in hand).
– Just as there is the potential that the Leafs don’t get their 2016 first rounder this year (FYI — that also bumps the second rounder the Leafs traded in the deal to next year), there is the potential that this is best case scenario for the Leafs. If the Penguins do enough to just squeak in this season, the draft pick could feasibly fall in the teens instead of the 20s or late 20s as was expected at the time of the deal.
– JvR, Komarov and Bozak are all outproducing Kessel this season by four or more points; Parenteau trails him by just a point, while Rielly, Kadri and Phaneuf all trail him by two.
– In lineup notes, Mark Arcobello — who has 27 points in 23 games with the Marlies — has been recalled, but there’s no word yet as to whether he gets into the lineup as soon as tonight.
5pm Update
Reimer tightness, so Bernier starts, Bibeau backs up, and Arcobello replaces Froese who suffered a lower body injury last night. #TMLtalk
— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) December 30, 2015
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – PA Parenteau
Michael Grabner – Nazem Kadri – Leo Komarov
Daniel Winnik – Peter Holland – Joffrey Lupul
Shawn Matthias – Byron Froese – Brad Boyes
Jake Gardiner – Dion Phaneuf
Matt Hunwick – Morgan Rielly
Martin Marincin – Roman Polak
James Reimer
Jonathan Bernier
Injured: Stephane Robidas (lower body), Garret Sparks (lower body), Nick Spaling (upper body),
Scratched: Frank Corrado, Mark Arcobello
Pittsburgh Penguins Lines
Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Conor Sheary
David Perron – Evgeni Malkin – Patric Hornqvist
Scott Wilson – Nick Bonino – Phil Kessel
Kevin Porter – Matt Cullen – Eric Fehr
Kris Letang – Olli Maatta
Ian Cole – Trevor Daley
Brian Dumoulin – Ben Lovejoy
Matthew Murray
Jeff Zatkoff
Injured: Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion), Beau Bennett (upper body)
Scratched: Sergei Plotnikov, Adam Clendening, David Warsofsky
