Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Nashville Predators – Game #74 Preview, Projected Lines & TV Info

Puck Drop: 8:00 p.m.  |  Arena: Bridgestone Arena |  TV: SN Ontario  |  Radio: TSN 1050

Game Day Quotes

Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette on the Leafs:

They’ve proven to be one of the top teams in the East. They’re fast, they’re skilled, they’re young, they compete. They present a lot of challenges. It’ll be a good test for us.

Mike Babcock on the challenged posed by the Nashville Predators:

They’re a good team. What I try to do is I try to go back and look at the run we’ve been on. We’ve won a ton of games as well. There is no practice I could design that gives you the opportunity to prepare for the playoffs like this game does here tonight. We thought we played real well in Tampa for two periods and then stopped playing. To me, here is an opportunity again against a real good team to measure yourself and get better and take a step in the right direction.

We’re excited about our opportunity tonight. They’re good in all positions — goal, D, up front. Real good depth. It’ll be a good test for us.

Babcock on the Predators’ enviable top four on the blue line:

They’ve got real good players. Left and right shot, good hockey sense, shoot the puck well. Active. They play hard. In saying all of that, if you can play in the offensive zone by being heavy and hard on it, then you have the opportunity to eliminate a lot of what they do. We look forward to it.

Babcock on the challenge for Nikita Zaitsev and Auston Matthews to get back up to game pace:

It doesn’t just affect you when you’re hurt. It affects you when you come back. Any way you look at it, the league didn’t slow down. It got faster, and you’re arriving to a faster league. That’s why I think it’s important these guys are in now. We still have a good opportunity for them to get… I mean, they’ve worked hard to be in shape, but to be in game shape and to understand what is going on and to get their game going so that they can help us.

[9 games] is more than enough time for that. But what usually happens is you play one, the wheels come off for a little bit, and you get her going. Here’s an opportunity for those guys. They’ve been able to skate in practice, which is positive — not so much for Z, but for Matty for sure. That should help them.

Auston Matthews on the challenges associated with getting back up to speed:

Just getting your timing under you and the pace of play. That’s the biggest adjustment. Hopefully, it doesn’t take too long.

At this point of the season, things are always tight and there is no a lot of room out there. You’ve got to find ways to be effective and adjust.

Laviolette on Mike Fisher’s return to the lineup after coming out of retirement:

He’s been excellent. You’ll see him tonight. If you’ve been watching him, either on the TV or live, you wouldn’t know that he’s missed time. I think our guys did a really good job — our strength coach and his crew, just making sure we never put him in a situation where he might be at risk for injury or to take setbacks. We haven’t played him in back-to-back games. We just kept him at a slow pace in the beginning. There was no rush. There was no timetable for a return. We weren’t in a position where we needed him.

You’ve got to give Mike a lot of credit — after missing any amount of time as a professional athlete, and then to come back and jump into an NHL season that is moving pretty fast, there has got to be a commitment to the work that he put in and he did it. Probably the biggest reason why it’s been successful is just that everyone was patient with it. We made sure he was ready to play and now that he’s playing, he looks really good.

Laviolette on JVR’s impressive season, having coached him when he broke the league in Philadelphia:

I mean, he really fits the National Hockey League. He’s a big guy that can skate and he has a really good set of hands. You put him down in front of the net or near the net and he’s going to be able to score goals. He’s got a good release. There is no surprise that he is having a year like he is right now. He’s got size, he’s got speed, and he’s got skill. When you’re talking about the NHL, those are the things you’re talking about right now.

Matchup Stats

Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lineup

Forwards
Hyman – Matthews – Nylander
(73-14-22-36) – (53-28-22-50) – (73-15-37-52) Total: 57
Marleau – Kadri – Marner
  (73-23-17-40) – (71-28-22-50) – (72-19-41-60) Total: 70
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Brown
  (72-33-16-47) – (72-11-27-38) – (73-13-12-25)  Total: 57
Johnsson – Plekanec – Kapanen
 (3-1-0-1) – (69-6-18-24) – (30-6-2-8)  Total: 13

Defencemen
Rielly – Hainsey
 (67-6-38-44) – (71-4-18-22) Total: 10
Gardiner – Zaitsev
 (74-4-39-43) – (51-4-8-12) Total: 8
Dermott – Polak
(30-1-10-11) – (46-2-9-11) Total: 3

Goaltenders
Andersen (.918 sv%)
McElhinney (.935 sv%)

Scratched: Moore, Martin, Leivo
Injured: Komarov

Nashville Predators Projected Lineup

Forwards
Forsberg – Johansen – Arvidsson
  (58-21-32-53) – (69-12-34-46) – (70-26-29-55) Total: 59
Fiala – Turris – Smith
(70-23-22-45) – (55-10-24-34) – (69-21-23-44) Total: 54
Hartman – Bonino – Sissons
  (68-11-20-31) – (61-10-12-22) – (71-9-18-17) Total: 40
Hartnell – Fisher – Salomaki
 (55-12-10-22) – (7-2-0-2) – (51-2-6-8) Total: 16

Defencemen
Josi – Ellis
 (65-10-37-47) – (37-7-17-24) Total: 17
Ekholm – Subban
 (71-10-21-31) – (72-15-36-51) Total: 25
Emelin – Weber
 (69-1-8-9) – (46-2-3-5) Total: 3

Goaltenders
Rinne (.931 sv%)
Saros (.925 sv%)

Injured: Jarnkrok