Toronto Maple Leafs (8-6-3, 15th in NHL) vs. Montreal Canadiens (13-3-2, 1st in NHL)
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m. EST
Arena: Bell Centre
Watch: CBC
Game Day Notes
– The Leafs enter tonight’s game winless versus Montreal in the teams’ last eleven meetings dating back to January 18, 2014. Their last win at the Bell Centre came in a season opener back in October of 2013. The fact that the Canadiens, 1) are slumping over their past three games (0-2-1) and, 2) are playing tired having lost on the road in Carolina last night would seem to set up the surging Leafs (6-2 in their last eight) with a pretty good opportunity to put an end to those ignominious statistics tonight. But they’ll have to go through Carey Price (10-0-1, .948 SV%) to do it, as Michel Therrien gave Al Montoya the start last night in Carolina.
– In the teams’ first meeting of the season on October 29, the Leafs carried 60% of the shot attempts over the opening 40 minutes but found themselves unable to beat Price and down 1-0 entering the third period after giving up an odd-man rush off of an offensive zone faceoff six minutes into the middle frame. The teams traded powerplay goals in the third, with the Canadiens winning it via a Shea Weber cannon with 13 minutes remaining.
– After back-to-back six goal victories (all at even strength), the Leafs enter this game second to only the New York Rangers in even strength offense. The Leafs own a balanced attack that’s produced five-plus goal games regularly at home (each of their last four wins featured six Leaf goals), but winning tight games against a good opponent on the road is a hurdle the team has to clear if it’s going to be playoff-bound this season.
– With just one win in eight road games (1-4-3) including just 11 away goals, Mike Babcock has decided to tweak his lines in tonight’s visit to the Bell Centre. William Nylander will start on a line with Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov, with Mike Babcock citing matchups on the road as the reasoning: “I didn’t like the way I managed the bench in Pittsburgh. It didn’t give me the opportunity to do what I wanted to do good enough. This, I think, will give me a better chance.”
In essence, without last change, Babcock wants to be able to roll lines without having one exposed. It should put Michel Therrien in more of a pick-your-poison situation with Nylander next to Kadri and Matthews down on line three, while the JVR – Bozak – Marner line enters the game red hot and tearing up secondary matchups at the moment.
– More Babcock on the team’s road struggles: “When you look at a team like Montreal winning all the time, they play a patient game. We have to learn how to be more patient and better defensively, and then we’ll score more and have the puck more. That’s just our process here. We haven’t been as good on the road. Is it matchups, taking care of the puck? I don’t know, but we need to find a way to start winning on the road.”
– All that goal scoring for the Leafs has come despite Auston Matthews’ personal slump, now at 11 games despite 39 shots on goal. Mike Babcock, when asked about the slump this morning: “In our dressing room, there is no talk of that. All it is is about getting better. Would he want to score every night? I’m sure he would. The priority for us is that he works hard and gets better each and every day and he’s real diligent about his job. The other thing about it is he’s an unbelievable umbrella. He’s making sure no rain gets on anybody else on the team because no one talks about anybody but him. So it’s perfect.”
Matchup Stats
Statistics courtesy of SportingCharts.com
| Stat | Tor | Mon |
|---|---|---|
| Points | 19 | 28 |
| Record % | 0.559 | 0.824 |
| Home Winning % | 0.778 | 0.955 |
| Away Winning % | 0.313 | 0.583 |
| Shootout Winning % | 0 | 0 |
| Goal Differential Per Game | -0.06 | 1.12 |
| Shot Differential Per Game | -1.29 | -4.29 |
| Hits Per Game | 26.6 | 22.6 |
| PIM Per Game | 12.2 | 9.9 |
| Opponent PIM Per Game | 13.4 | 7.6 |
| Goals Per Game | 3.29 | 3.29 |
| Even Strength Goals Per Game | 2.65 | 2.47 |
| Power Play Goals Per Game | 0.59 | 0.71 |
| Shots Per Game | 32.6 | 28.4 |
| Shots Per Goal | 9.9 | 8.6 |
| Team Shooting % | 0.101 | 0.116 |
| Power Play % | 0.213 | 0.235 |
| Goals Against Per Game | 3.35 | 2.18 |
| ES Goals Against Per Game | 2.82 | 1.41 |
| PP Goals Against Per Game | 0.47 | 0.71 |
| Shots Against Per Game | 33.88 | 32.65 |
| Shots Against Per Goal | 10.11 | 15 |
| Opp. Team Shooting % | 0.099 | 0.067 |
| Penalty Kill % | 0.846 | 0.821 |
| Save % | 0.901 | 0.933 |
| Goals Against Average | 3.33 | 2.16 |
| Shutouts | 0 | 3 |
| Opponent Save % | 0.899 | 0.884 |
| Opponent Goals Against Average | 3.27 | 3.27 |
| Opponent Shutouts | 1 | 1 |
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
Leo Komarov – Nazem Kadri – William Nylander
James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Mitch Marner
Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – Connor Brown
Matt Martin – Ben Smith – Nikita Soshnikov
Defence
Morgan Rielly – Nikita Zaitsev
Jake Gardiner – Connor Carrick
Matt Hunwick – Roman Polak
Scratched: Martin Marincin, Frank Corrado, Peter Holland
Goaltenders
Starter: Frederik Andersen (Confirmed)
Backup: Jhonas Enroth
Montreal Canadiens Projected Lines
Forwards
Max Pacioretty – Phillip Danault – Andrew Shaw
Paul Byron – Alex Galchenyuk – Brendan Gallagher
David Desharnais – Tomas Plekanec – Chris Terry
Daniel Carr – Torrey Mitchell – Charles Hudon
Defencemen
Alexei Emelin – Shea Weber
Andrei Markov – Jeff Petry
Nathan Beaulieu – Greg Pateryn
Scratched: Mikhail Sergachev
Goaltenders
Starter: Carey Price (Confirmed)
Backup: Al Montoya
