Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Ottawa Senators – Game #48 Preview, Projected Lines & TV Info

Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. EST  |  Arena: Canadian Tire Centre |  TV: CBC |  Radio: SN 590

Game Day Quotes

Mike Babcock on wanting the team to get its swagger back:

100%. We actually think, during this time, we’ve done a lot of really good things. The way I evaluate that — without emotion the very next day, I watch the game. I see how many great clips there were and how many poor clips. Sometimes when we win, there is not a lot of good clips. You say to yourself, “Okay, we stole one.”

We’re going through something right now where we haven’t played hard enough and haven’t been detailed enough. We have had chances to win every one of these games. Don’t get me wrong — I want to win in every game, and an ugly win is a great win. But sometimes the lessons in the league are what help you get better. This is one of those opportunities and I think it’s adversity and we need to dig in here a little bit.

Everybody wants to have an off day tomorrow after a win. It just feels better. So let’s get out there and play right.

Ron Hainsey on what the team needs to do to get back on the winning side of things:

We need to be a little smarter in some aspects. We have had the good fortune of having a lot of leads in the third lately and the bad fortune of not polishing up games. We’ve got to do a bunch of things a little better as far as details. It’s easy to pile on the last couple of games as far as we gave up a bunch of power play — that’s not a great way to hold a lead. We gave up a 6-on-5 goal the game before that and got running around a little bit. And then before we had the break, we had a few errors that cost us points.

It’s not one common thread. The good common thread is we’ve had some leads so we’ve just got to polish them off. We’ve got to tighten up and improve in a bunch of different areas. Our goaltending has been outstanding and given us chances every night, but there are a bunch of little things that if we add them all up, we would be in a little bit better shape than where we’re at, but we’re hanging in there.

Babcock on the team learning to “grind”:

We have to learn to grind better. My favourite thing about this whole thing is the internal accountability that seems to be coming. When you are a team with no expectation, there is none of that. As you create a real good team over time, the players take over that accountability thing and sometimes it’s not kind but it’s real. Living in the real world is important in our league.

Babcock on internal accountability:

It doesn’t mean you’ve got to have a big song and dance, but you’ve got to make sure the unacceptable isn’t accepted. It’s way easier to go through life and never say anything. Wear beige and no one even knows you’re alive.

Babcock on Connor Brown’s versatility:

I just think Brown is a worker. I say this lots of times: If you do it right, and you become a a dependable, that’s what your boss is looking for. If it’s not you, have a look. You go in every day and do it right every single day. Connor Brown does it right and he gets better and better, so you can use him in any spot.

The other thing about him is he doesn’t sag when he doesn’t get his way. He just keeps on going and is a real good example to us. We have a number of guys like that. You always need more. I think part of the process with our young people is that they figure that out.

Hainsey on the play of the blue line without Nikita Zaitsev:

Okay. He’s obviously a big part of our group, so it’s an adjustment. We’ve had a lot of guys step in and kind of rotate. We had some guys called up. You’d rather have him in the lineup, but all teams [have injuries]. We’ve been pretty fortunate overall as far as defence injuries — me, Jake, Morgan have been in all the games to this point. That’s not too bad. Nothing to complain about there. But we’re excited to get him back, obviously.

But we’re hanging in there. We’ve created a lot of chances. We’ve been in a lot of tight, low-scoring games lately — 2-2, 1-1, 1-0. We’ve, overall, done okay with it and our goaltending has been outstanding. That is always a big help.

Matchup Stats

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
  (47-7-16-23) – (38-19-14-33) – (46-9-23-32) Total: 35
Marleau – Kadri – Komarov
(47-15-9-24) – (45-14-10-24) – (46-4-8-12)  Total: 33
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Marner
  (46-19-10-29) – (45-8-16-24) – (47-5-26-31) Total: 32
Martin – Gauthier – Brown
 (45-3-8-11) – (7-1-0-1) – (47-12-6-18)  Total: 16

Defencemen

Rielly – Hainsey
 (47-5-26-31) – (47-3-14-17) Total: 8
Gardiner – Carrick
 (47-3-17-20) – (28-2-3-5) Total: 5
Dermott – Polak
(4-0-1-1) – (28-2-4-6) Total: 2

Goaltenders

Andersen (.922 sv%)
McElhinney (.916 sv%)

Scratched: Moore, Borgman
Injured: Soshnikov, Zaitsev

Ottawa Senators Projected Lineup

Forwards

Hoffman – Duchene – Ryan
  (43-11-18-29) – (29-6-7-13) – (33-6-12-18) Total: 23
Dzingel – Brassard – Stone
(43-13-5-18) – (43-12-16-28) – (43-18-24-42) Total: 43
Smith – Thompson – Pyatt
  (29-3-7-10) – (40-4-7-11) – (43-5-10-25) Total: 12
Burrows – Chlapik – Dumont
 (42-3-4-7) – (8-0-2-2) – (17-1-1-2) Total: 4

Defencemen

Oduya – Karlsson
 (38-2-4-6) – (38-3-27-30) Total: 5
Phaneuf – Ceci
 (41-3-10-13) – (43-5-5-10) Total: 8
Borowiecki – Chabot
 (13-2-1-3) – (24-3-6-9) Total: 5

Goaltenders

Anderson (.900 sv%)
Condon (.894 sv%)

Injured: Pageau, Wideman