Puck drop: 7:00 p.m. EST | Arena: Air Canada Centre | TV: Sportsnet Ontario | Radio: Fan 590
Game Day Quotes
Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters on the “extra juice” the Hurricanes play with when they visit Toronto:
There’s a lot of guys from Ontario on our team. It’s an Original 6 franchise. Any time you play an Original Six franchise, it’s a pretty exciting situation for a player.
Mike Babcock on the Hurricanes:
I think it’s a team that has gotten better and better and better. I don’t think their results so far show much. You look at the game sheet from last game and it was 5-1. It was 2-1 with two minutes left and they pulled their goalie. They lost some tight ones. They make it hard on you. You can make it hard on yourself by not being prepared, and then you get frustrated because they work so hard and break out so quickly and play well in the neutral zone and forecheck so heavy. You’ve got to be ready to go from the get-go, or else it’s a long night.
Babcock on the Leafs‘ early success in the faceoff circle:
Maybe it’s because we hadn’t been in the league long enough to learn how to cheat good enough. We didn’t have the same negotiating skills with the linesmen. You can say that’s not true, but when the linesman doesn’t know who you are, you don’t get any leeway at all. When they know who you are and you’re the MVP of the NHL or something like that, they have a way where it wasn’t as big of a deal. Now it’s just the rules are the rules. It’s all simple. I think that helps us, but we’ve got to find a way to do something with the puck when you get it.
Babcock on the Rielly-Hainsey pair:
[Hainsey’s] got a good stick. We don’t give him any offensive time. We give him the worst spot to stand as far as getting pucks to the net. He’s still got six assists and he plays good. To me, he’s just been steady for us.
Rielly — we know what he’s capable of doing. We just need him to polish his game and keep getting better and better. Playing with a veteran seems to help.
Babcock on Marner’s recent play on the fourth line:
He’s playing good, but Mitch doesn’t want to be on the fourth line. We don’t necessarily want him on the fourth line. We want him playing enough that he’s important to the team. We thought we played him enough last game that he was important. He had a huge impact. A couple of games prior to that, he made a real good backdoor pass for empty-net goals — he actually had three of them — and they didn’t go in. You think you’re snakebitten. He wasn’t really. It just didn’t go in.
On the play of JvR-Bozak since Brown moved onto the line:
What impact is Brownie, and what impact is suddenly, “Well, we better get going here?” I don’t know the answer to that. Brownie has worked real hard and is a real good player and works hard every night. Him and Hyman are just like energizing bunnies. They come every day, and it doesn’t matter where they play, they do the same thing.
Matchup Stats
| TOR | CAR | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 7-2-0 | 3-3-1 |
| GF/g | 4.44 (1st) | 2.43 (27th) |
| GA/g | 3.33 (22nd) | 3.00 (19th) |
| PP% | 28.9% (4th) | 16.7% (17th) |
| PK% | 85.3% (8th) | 78.9% (18th) |
| Shots/g | 34.2 (8th) | 33.4 (10th) |
| Shots Against/g | 32.7 (18th) | 29.6 (6th) |
| 5v5 CF% | 52.41% (8th) | 56.08% (2nd) |
| 5v5 SV% | .908 (25th) | .916 (20th) |
| 5v5 SH% | 11.5% (2nd) | 5.9% (27th) |
Toronto Maple Leafs Leafs Projected Lineup
Forwards
Hyman – Matthews – Nylander
Marleau – Kadri – Komarov
van Riemsdyk* – Bozak – Brown
Martin – Moore – Marner
Defencemen
Gardiner – Zaitsev
Rielly – Hainsey
Borgman – Polak
Goaltenders
Andersen
McElhinney
*game time decision
Scratched: Leivo, Carrick
Carolina Hurricanes Projected Lineup
Forwards
Aho – Staal – Lindholm
McGinn – Rask – Teravainen
Skinner – Ryan – Williams
Nordstrom – Kruger – Jooris
Defencemen
Slavin – Pesce
Hanifin – Faulk
Fleury – van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
Darling
Ward
