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Puck Drop: 7:30 p.m. EST  |  Arena: Amalie Arena  |  TV: SN Ontario  |  Radio: TSN 1050


Game Day Quotes

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper on the intensity of the games when playing Boston and Toronto down the stretch:

Naturally, you start playing these teams down the stretch, of course they take a little bit of a special interest. [The Leafs] are a division team, but in the end, we haven’t had any real rivalry with Toronto. You know, we’ve played Detroit a couple of times in the playoffs, we’ve played Montreal, but we’ve never really played Toronto. Now where we sit in the standings, does that make it a little more intriguing? There’s no question, but there’s still a long way to go.

Mike Babcock on the addition of Tomas Plekanec:

Well, obviously, he’s a mature player that knows how to play without the puck. Good faceoff guy, especially on his strong side, can penalty kill for us, can play against the best players. What we’re trying to do is get as deep a group as we possibly can have. There’s always injuries and you want to be prepared for that, too — just set yourself up the best you possibly can. We’re excited to have him. He’s been a long time in one spot. I know I was in a long time one spot before I got here. It can be unnerving a little bit, but it gets the energy going. It gets the juices flowing. Should be fun for him.

Babcock on Kasperi Kapanen getting an opportunity next to William Nylander and Zach Hyman:

He should be in his normal spot; we’re just in a spot here tonight trying to spread things around and have the best opportunity for him. The big thing he’s got to do: If he just plays like he’s played, he’ll be fine. As soon as he’s trying to do too much, he’ll be in trouble. We had that conversation this morning. He’s playing with good players, but just do what you do

New Leaf Tomas Plekanec on the ride he’s been through the last 24 hours:

Yeah, I mean, it was pretty fast since yesterday. I didn’t have much time to think about it. I looking forward to that experience for sure. I’m excited to join the Maple Leafs right now and make a good playoff run.

Plekanec on the feeling of throwing on a Maple Leaf jersey after so long in Montreal:

It’s different, right? Like I said, it’s been quick. It’s the business side of it. I’m really excited to join the Maple Leafs right now for the playoffs and I’m really happy about it.

Plekanec on the players he’s familiar with on the team:

I played with a few guys — Ron Hainsey from my first year in Hamilton, and [Dominic Moore] in Montreal.

The other guys are awesome, too. I got texts from a few different guys, which has been great. The guys have been awesome so far. I will try to gel in as fast as possible.

Kasperi Kapanen on what Babcock said to him about “playing his game” when moving up the lineup:

Just using my speed, skating hard on the forecheck, trying to get the puck back. When I have a chance, they want me to shoot it a little more. I’ll be trying to do that today.

Kapanen on whether he shot more in the AHL than he has in the NHL so far:

I don’t think so. Johnsson has a lot of goals down there so I feel like I’ve been passing to Johnny a bit down there. But for sure I’ve had a lot of chances where I also could’ve shot the puck. I just have to have that shooter’s mentality tonight.

Kapanen on playing with William Nylander:

It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ve played together before, but that’s a while back in a different league. I’m just really excited for tonight. Hyman is an amazing player as well. I hope we’re going to have a good game.


Matchup Stats

TORTB
Record39-20-542-17-3
GF/g3.23 (6th)3.55 (1st)
GA/g2.77 (12th)2.66 (7th)
PP%20.4% (14th)
24.6% (2nd)
PK%83.4% (2nd)77.8% (24th)
Shots/g31.8 (16th)32.4 (13th)
Shots Against/g34.0 (28th)32.5 (23rd)
5v5 CF%49.3% (19th)51.3% (12th)
5v5 SV%.929 (8th).933 (3rd)
5v5 SH%9.3% (T-1st)9.3% (T-1st)

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 – Nylander – Kapanen
  (64-11-21-32) – (64-14-34-48) – (21-4-1-5) Total: 29
Marleau – Kadri – Marner
(64-20-14-34) – (62-23-21-44) – (64-16-35-51)  Total: 59
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Brown
  (63-25-15-40) – (63-9-23-32) – (64-12-11-24) Total: 46
Komarov – Plekanec – Leivo
 (64-5-10-15) – (60-6-18-24) – (13-1-2-3)  Total: 12

Defencemen
Rielly – Hainsey
 (58-6-29-35) – (61-4-16-20) Total: 10
Gardiner – Zaitsev
 (64-4-35-39) – (46-4-6-10) Total: 8
Dermott – Polak
(21-1-7-8) – (39-2-7-9) Total: 3

Goaltenders
Andersen (.922 sv%)
McElhinney (.932 sv%)

Scratched: Martin, Carrick, Moore
Injured: Matthews


Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lineup

Forwards
Namestnikov – Stamkos – Callahan
  (62-20-24-44) – (62-24-46-70) – (52-4-10-14) Total: 48
Killorn – Point – Kucherov
(62-11-26-37) – (62-25-29-54) – (62-33-49-82) Total: 69
Kunitz – Johnson – Gourde
  (62-10-10-20) – (61-17-27-44) – (62-22-25-47) Total: 32
Erne – Paquette – Conacher
 (9-1-0-1) – (42-2-2-4) – (26-6-3-9) Total: 9

Defencemen
Hedman – Stralman
 (57-9-35-44) – (60-4-11-15) Total: 13
Sergachev– Girardi
 (60-8-23-31) – (57-3-9-12) Total: 11
Coburn – Sustr
 (55-1-10-11) – (36-2-3-5) Total: 3

Goaltenders
Vasilevskiy (.927 sv%)
Domingue (.907 sv%)