Home Leafs News Game Day Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Washington Capitals – Game #25 Preview, Projected Lines...

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Washington Capitals – Game #25 Preview, Projected Lines & TV Info

Nov 25, 2017

Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. EST | Arena: Air Canada Centre | TV: CBC | Radio: TSN 1050

Game Day Quotes

Ron Hainsey on the team’s first period last night:

We talked about it [Friday] as far as the starts. I think it’s three in a row where the start has been definitely poor. Something like 10-1, 8-1 in shots. We talked about getting off to a good start. The first two shifts were actually decent; we weren’t getting shots but we were down in their end. Then we took the penalty and it was probably five minutes after that, so a good 7 minutes where we didn’t have much success getting out. Once we started flipping pucks behind them, as boring as that is, we had some more success getting out. We were trying to make plays and it just wasn’t happening.

Nazem Kadri on what needs to happen to get better results in the first period:

I think just shooting more off the bat, getting pucks to the net. I think often times early in games lately we’re trying to be too pretty, especially on the road. You just have to get over the blueline sometimes and throw a couple on net. It’s all about puck retrievals and getting pucks back, getting second opportunities off that.

Mike Babcock on how much he values what he sees on the ice versus analytics:

I think both. We have a full group who provides with an unbelievable amount of information. One of the kids, Jordan Bean, goes through all that information and puts it into a more presentable thing for me. I get it in between periods – we look at it and we see if that test ads up with the smell and vision test – and when they do, you know it’s right. We do tons of different things to make you think, and when it’s something we think keeps being obvious that we’re not doing it, we take a look at it.

Babcock on his team’s slow starts:

Well, I thought we got off to really great starts at the start of the year, and then I don’t think we are here lately. To me, two games ago, we didn’t start on time but we were unbelievable after ten minutes, [Luongo] was good. Last game, we played very good in the second period and didn’t play in the first, didn’t play in the third. [Andersen] was good. What I like, though, is good teams win games when they don’t have their A stuff. That’s just what they do. You don’t win when you don’t have your A stuff and a bucket of bolts. You just don’t. I think that’s a good sign, but do we have to play better? Absolutely.

Babcock on Josh Leivo going in and out of the lineup, despite his goal against Carolina:

Well, it’s situational. Last year, when you look at our group, we played the same guys every night. We played them whether they played good or played bad. This year – we want to win every night – and so sometimes we think there’s a better lineup to help us win that game, so that’s what we try to do.

Morgan Rielly on Babcock taking some of the blame for the slow starts:

I think that’s just him being a good coach. I think the players have to take responsibility for it because we’re the ones in the room getting ready for the game. That aspect of the game is on us.

I think that’s just what Babs likes to do and I think that’s a credit to him.

Matchup Stats

	TOR	WSH
Record	15-8-1	13-10-1
GF/g	3.54 (4th)	2.83 (20th)
GA/g	3.00 (18th)	3.04 (21st)
PP%	22.7% (10th)	20.3% (14th)
PK%	81.3% (13th)	77.1% (24th)
Shots/g	30.9 (20th)	29.5 (28th)
Shots Against/g	34.4 (29th)	32.4 (22nd)
5v5 CF%	49.68% (17th)	48.32% (22nd)
5v5 SV%	.923 (16th)	.927 (13th)
5v5 SH%	10.5% (1st)	8.4% (11th)