Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. EST | Arena: Air Canada Centre | TV: Sportsnet | Radio: TSN 1050
Game Day Quotes
Mike Babcock on the Panthers and playing important games in February:
Obviously, they’re big games. [The Panthers] are 7-3 in their last ten, they’re playing well, and they’re chasing a playoff spot. We know just by going what we’ve gone through the last couple of years how dangerous we felt when we weren’t in last year and we we’re battling to get in. We understand that. Plus, they have elite players. You know, it’s like every night. It’s going to be tough.
Babcock on the importance of gap control when defending off the rush:
Well, it’s huge. You don’t want to give the other team room, but the beauty of having gap is — if you don’t have F3, you don’t have gap. You’re like a firefighter out there. If the forwards do their job, then you can be right up. If they don’t do your job, then you’re firefighting and waiting for help and buying time. To me, your structure offensively in the offensive zone sets up everything for the defensemen to be involved. If you want all five guys to stay together and be in on offence, then your forwards have to look after them defensively.
Babcock on breaking out of the zone and first passes:
Yeah, I just like it gone as fast as you can. Just like Gordie Howe always used to say, “Just give it to me dirty”. In other words: Don’t take time and clean it off. Just get it going. It’s like anything — if you can get back and get the puck and get your feet turned up ice, you have a chance to make a good play. If your face is in the glass because they’re right behind you or if you arrive when the puck arrives, it’s hard for the D — doesn’t matter how skilled they are — to make plays.
Florida Panthers head coach Bob Boughner on his team’s recent success on the power play (12 PP goals in their last eight games):
Special teams is a bit of a momentum thing. We were solid on the PK for a while. Now we’ve allowed a couple. It’s just the opposite with the power play. The power play is hot as of late. We’re getting good traffic in front of the net. We’re not getting choosey with our shots; we’re getting more pucks to the net. And the retrievals – every time you shoot, it’s hard work out there and you’ve got to outwork the penalty killers to get it back. I think that’s been the strong part of our power play.
Roberto Luongo on his team’s recent play (7-3-0 in their last 10) and the hill to climb to make the playoffs:
We fell a little bit behind early in the year, but we’ve been playing some good hockey over the last two-three weeks. We kind of got ourselves back in the mix a little bit. That being said, there is a long way to go. Sometimes if you look at the big picture it becomes a little bit overwhelming. But, as a group, we try to stay focused on the task at hand here tonight. That’s the way we’ve got to look at it; not really look at the standings and how many points we have to make up.
Matchup Stats
| TOR | FLA | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 36-20-5 | 26-24-6 |
| GF/g | 3.26 (5th) | 2.93 (15th) |
| GA/g | 2.80 (11th) | 3.25 (26th) |
| PP% | 20.2% (15th) | 19.9% (17th) |
| PK% | 82.8% (5th) | 79.2% (22nd) |
| Shots/g | 31.7 (16th) | 34.5 (3rd) |
| Shots Against/g | 34.1 (29th) | 34.7 (30th) |
| 5v5 CF% | 49.1% (19th) | 49.5% (17th) |
| 5v5 SV% | .929 (8th) | .916 (28th) |
| 5v5 SH% | 9.4% (2nd) | 7.0% (24th) |
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
(61-11-20-31) – (51-27-22-49) – (61-14-32-46) Total: 52
Marleau – Kadri – Marner
(61-20-13-33) – (59-22-21-43) – (61-13-31-44) Total: 56
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Brown
(59-24-13-37) – (60-9-22-31) – (61-13-10-23) Total: 46
Komarov – Moore – Kapanen
(61-5-11-16) – (43-5-6-11) – (18-4-1-5) Total: 14
Defencemen
Rielly – Hainsey
(55-5-29-34) – (58-3-16-19) Total: 8
Gardiner – Zaitsev
(61-4-32-36) – (45-4-6-10) Total: 8
Dermott – Polak
(18-1-7-8) – (37-2-6-8) Total: 3
Goaltenders
Andersen (.921 sv%)
McElhinney (.932 sv%)
Scratched: Martin, Leivo, Carrick
Florida Panthers Projected Lineup
Forwards
Dadonov – Barkov – Bjugstad
(48-15-22-37) – (55-20-34-54) – (56-10-19-29) Total: 45
Huberdeau – Trocheck – Malgin
(56-18-35-53) – (56-22-31-53) – (36-10-7-17) Total: 50
McGinn – McCann – Mamin
(51-8-8-16) – (43-6-9-15) – (7-0-0-0) Total: 14
Haley – Mackenzie – Sceviour
(55-2-5-7) – (51-2-8-10) – (50-7-7-14) Total: 11
Defencemen
Yandle – Ekblad
(56-6-29-35) – (56-12-12-24) Total: 18
Matheson – Pysyk
(55-8-14-22) – (56-3-8-11) Total: 11
Weegar – Petrovic
(37-1-4-5) – (45-1-5-6) Total: 2
Goaltenders
Luongo (.927 sv%)
Reimer (.905 sv%)
