Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. EST | Arena: Air Canada Centre | TV: CBC | Radio: TSN 1050
Game Day Quotes
Mike Babcock on Dominic Moore’s inability to stick in the lineup, as well as Frederik Gauthier’s play since his callup:
Bottom line is, every day you’re watching your team play and you’re looking for your team to be as good as it can be. Fourth line centre, what I’m looking for: You dominate the faceoff circle, you play well without the puck so I know I don’t get nervous every time you’re on the ice, and you’re a good penalty killer. If you look at last game our 4th line was -2, [Gauthier] wasn’t involved in any. What he should have done is been better in the faceoff circle, but he was good defensively. So that’s what I look for. I make it real clear what I looking for. Someone has to have it. It’s an area we just want to keep improving.
Babcock on strong showings against Tampa Bay and San Jose:
Yeah, played fast. I thought our game against Tampa was maybe as good or better, to tell you the truth. But I thought both games, in the third period, we didn’t manage the clock and keep our foot on the gas in the same way. We’ve got to learn how to win, so that means not losing F3, that means good line changes, that means managing the clock, that means shooting the puck instead of passing. It’s a whole bunch of things. When you watch a veteran team play, they do it. You watch us play and we do it sometimes but we don’t do it all the time.
Babcock on if coaching and strategizing has increased in 3-on-3 OT since its inception:
That’s a good question. I mean, we talk about the same thing every time. Players get sick of hearing me say it: Just hang onto the puck and make sure we’re not outnumbered. It’s man-on-man. Real simple. To tell you the truth, in the player’s mind when you watch them play, when they get to overtime they feel like now it’s free stuff. They see scoring chances back and forth and it’s like full out craziness. It’s like a skill competition within the game.
You know, it might be something we should even spend more time on. We’re usually trying to get through the 5-on-5 part of things and the PP and PK is what we spend more time on.
Auston Matthews on if is line should be putting more shots on net:
Yeah, maybe. I think of the chances we had [on Thursday] were off good plays where we cycled the puck and were patient. Once we have an opportunity to shoot the puck, we shoot it. Seemed to be a lot of havoc in front of the net, so maybe we can shoot it a little bit more, but at the same time, I don’t think we want to force too much and still have a little bit of patience as well.
Morgan Rielly on his career-high point pace this season:
Just trying to get pucks to the net. Obviously, Mitch is doing a great job on the half wall on the powerplay. And just good luck, I guess
Matchup Stats
| TOR | VAN | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 24-16-2 | 16-19-5 |
| GF/g | 3.21 (5th) | 2.65 (27th) |
| GA/g | 2.88 (18th) | 3.25 (27th) |
| PP% | 21.8% (7th) | 20.6% (9th) |
| PK% | 83.7% (7th) | 77.3% (27th) |
| Shots/g | 30.6 (24th) | 29.5 (28th) |
| Shots Against/g | 33.9 (29th) | 31.7 (14th) |
| 5v5 CF% | 49.2% (18th) | 47.6 (26th) |
| 5v5 SV% | .924 (14th) | .920 (23rd) |
| 5v5 SH% | 9.4% (1st) | 7.2% (23rd) |
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lineup
*We have added goal, assist, and point totals for each player below the lines. Total goals per line are indicated, too, as well as save percentage for goalies.
Forwards
Hyman – Matthews – Nylander
(42-7-14-21) – (32-18-14-32) – (42-8-21-29) Total: 33
Marleau – Kadri – Komarov
(42-15-9-24) – (40-14-10-24) – (41-4-6-10) Total: 33
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Marner
(41-17-10-27) – (41-7-13-20) – (42-5-25-30) Total: 29
Martin – Gauthier – Brown
(40-3-7-9) – (2-0-0-0) – (42-10-6-16) Total: 13
Defencemen
Rielly – Hainsey
(42-4-25-29) – (42-3-13-16) Total: 7
Gardiner – Carrick
(42-3-16-19) – (22-2-3-5) Total: 5
Dermott – Polak
(0-0-0-0) – (23-2-3-5) Total: 2
Goaltenders
Andersen (.922 sv%)
McElhinney (.916 sv%)
Scratched: Moore, Borgman
Injured: Soshnikov, Zaitsev
Vancouver Canucks Projected Lineup
Forwards
Vanek – Gagner – Boeser
(40-12-16-28) – (40-6-12-18) – (37-21-17-38) Total: 39
D.Sedin – H.Sedin – Goldobin
(40-8-16-24) – (40-2-24-26) – (11-2-2-4) Total: 12
Granlund – Dowd – Eriksson
(39-7-3-10) – (10-1-0-1) – (28-5-8-13) Total: 13
Gaunce – Chaput – Virtanen
(24-1-1-2) – (5-0-0-0) – (35-5-4-9) Total: 6
Defencemen
Edler – Stecher
(28-1-8-9) – (26-1-2-3) Total: 2
Del Zotto – Tanev
(40-1-11-12) – (26-2-4-6) Total: 3
Pouliot – Gudbranson
(37-2-9-11) – (27-0-2-2) Total: 2
Goaltenders
Markstrom (.906 sv%)
Nilsson (.900 sv%)
Injured: Dorsett, Horvat, Sutter, Baertschi
