Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Tampa Bay Lightning – Game #58 Preview, Projected Lines & TV Info

Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. EST  |  Arena: Air Canada Centre |  TV: TSN4  |  Radio: TSN 1050

Game Day Quotes

Mike Babcock on the value of a deep lineup:

Well, obviously, lots of the time the top six cancel each other out. The deeper you are, the more opportunity. It’s nice to have all lines that can score, but you need lines that can play without the puck for sure if you’re going to have success at playoff time. You know, I think it’s a different game getting in and then it’s a different game playing, as the playoffs go. It’s even a different game at the start [of the playoffs]. There’s way more room. So as it gets tighter and tighter, the depth is important.

Babcock on his matchups in recent games, and if it’s difficult to assign them effectively with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov on different lines:

What we do is — we’ve basically got six guys we play against the top six anyway. That’s what we’ve been doing the last little bit. It hasn’t been as much hard matching as six against six, so we’ll do the same here tonight. If something is working better than the other one, then we’ll go to it. And sometimes, like in the third last game, we went to something harder. Especially with teams like [Ottawa}, they don’t play 12 forwards or four lines. It’s easier if you do it that way. So we’ll do the same tonight — top six against top six — and we’ll go from there.

We decided that we felt either [the Matthews line or the Kadri line] could do it, and it gave better flow off our bench.

Babcock on Travis Dermott:

He’s a good player. He’s just got to figure out what the score is and what the time on the clock is, and make plays accordingly. Once he learns how to sort it out in his own zone a little better, I think he has a chance to be a real good player and a guy who you want to play with because he moves the puck to you, and he’s a guy who can get it to the net. He’s a good player. He’s just got to get some experience and, like I said, when you know the score and you know the time, it helps you make decisions.

Auston Matthews on the team’s recent success:

Yeah, we’ve just been skating and utilizing our speed more. You know, when team’s kind of get into their neutral zone, they clog it up. It’s tough to get through, so we break out fast and just play fast; don’t let them set up. We’re able to get the puck and kind of control it a little more.

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
  (56-11-19-30) – (47-26-18-44) – (55-12-30-42) Total: 49
Marleau – Kadri – Marner
(56-18-11-29) – (54-18-17-35) – (56-12-30-42)  Total: 48
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Brown
  (55-22-12-34) – (54-8-19-27) – (56-12-9-21) Total: 42
Komarov – Moore – Kapanen
 (55-5-10-15) – (38-4-6-10) – (13-4-1-5)  Total: 13

Defencemen

Rielly – Hainsey
 (50-5-28-33) – (54-3-16-19) Total: 8
Gardiner – Zaitsev
 (56-3-30-33) – (39-4-6-10) Total: 7
Dermott – Polak
(13-1-4-5) – (34-2-4-6) Total: 3

Goaltenders

Andersen (.921 sv%)
McElhinney (.932 sv%)

Scratched: Martin, Leivo, Carrick

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lineup

Forwards

Gourde – Stamkos – Johnson
  (55-20-21-41) – (55-21-43-64) – (54-16-26-42) Total: 57
Killorn – Point – Kucherov
(55-9-23-32) – (55-20-26-46) – (55-29-40-69) Total: 58
Conacher – Namestnikov – Erne
  (23-6-3-9) – (55-18-22-40) – (2-1-0-1) Total: 25
Kunitz – Paquette – Callahan
 (55-8-9-17) – (36-2-2-4) – (45-2-7-9) Total: 12

Defencemen

Hedman – Stralman
 (50-8-29-37) – (53-4-10-14) Total: 12
Sergachev – Girardi
 (53-8-21-29) – (50-3-9-12) Total: 11
Coburn – Sustr
 (48-1-8-9) – (21-2-2-4) Total: 3

Goaltenders

Vasilevskiy (.929 sv%)
Domingue (.913 sv%)

Injured: Condra, Budaj