Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. | Arena: Air Canada Centre | TV: TSN4 | Radio: TSN 1050
Game Day Quotes
Mike Babcock on having the luxury of being able to manage his top players’ minutes late in the season:
Well, when you’re ahead and the game’s good, you can manage the minutes. When you’re chasing the game, you can’t manage the minutes. Part of that is situational and part of that is what we’re trying to do. It’s important you start on time, and then everyone can be important on your team.
Babcock on whether there’s a lack of motivation for games like tonight after facing elite teams like Nashville and Tampa last week:
Well, I don’t think so, I think the Red Wings dominated us in the second period last game. We got lots of teaching out of that here this morning, and I can promise you the Buffalo Sabres are going to be all we can handle here tonight. They always are. They’re going to play above us. They’re going to play tight. They’re going to compete hard. There’s no team they’d rather beat than us. It’ll be a great test for our guys here tonight.
Babcock on Jack Eichel’s intensity against the Leafs:
Real good talent, real good speed, excited to play against [Matthews] anyway. He’s a good hockey player. I think Buffalo has lots of pieces. Their powerplay has been good against our penalty kill the last couple of times. If you remember, we got up in the game and took silly penalties to go down 4-on-3 and 5-on-3.
Babcock on the playoff race, and Boston creeping up on Tampa in the standings:
I was watching Nashville-Winnipeg last night and it was awesome — just loved watching it. It was unbelievable how good they were on both power plays. And then I turned over to watch Minny and Boston and I saw Boston make about 15 plays in two minutes on the powerplay, so I shut it off.
Nazem Kadri on the element a healthy Jack Eichel adds to the Sabres:
They’re a more dynamic team. He’s a special player with a lot of offensive talent. He owns exceptional speed through the neutral zone when he builds it up and he can make plays off the rush. He is certainly talented and we are going to have to be aware.
Kadri on the prospect of setting new franchise records for home wins and points in a season, and the excitement the team is generating in the city:
It’s exciting – it’s electric. We appreciate the fan support we get, whether it’s in Toronto or any other road city. It feels like they’re everywhere. We obviously love that aspect. We want to give them a winning team and something to be excited about. Obviously, there is a lot of tradition and history in Leafs Nation and to see any sort of record is a heck of an achievement. At the end of the day, though, that’s not what we are playing for. We envision bigger and better things. But you can definitely feel the excitement.
Connor Brown on the team’s fourth-line depth:
That’s been a key to our success as of late — scoring throughout the lineup, with four waves coming at you. We’re going to try to keep that going.
Brown on the team’s ability to find ways to win games:
A lot of it is just confidence in one another. That’s where we’ve grown the most over the past two years — that ability to believe we are going to win. Those tight games, we’re able to squeak out.
Matchup Stats
| TOR | BUF | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 45-23-7 (97) | 23-40-12 (58) |
| GF/g | 3.31 (2nd) | 2.31 (31st) |
| GA/g | 2.81 (12th) | 3.28 (29th) |
| PP% | 23.3% (4th) | 17.1% (25th) |
| PK% | 82.5% (8th) | 78.1% (23rd) |
| Shots/g | 32.1 (16th) | 30.9 (23rd) |
| Shots Against/g | 34.0 (28th) | 32.6 (23rd) |
| 5v5 CF% | 49.5% (18th) | 47.5% (27th) |
| 5v5 SV% | .928 (7th) | .920 (19th) |
| 5v5 SH% | 9.2% (2nd) | 5.9% (31st) |
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lineup
Forwards
Hyman – Matthews – Nylander
(75-14-23-37) – (55-29-23-52) – (75-17-37-54) Total: 60
Marleau – Kadri – Marner
(75-22-18-41) – (73-29-22-51) – (75-20-44-64) Total: 72
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Brown
(74-34-18-52) – (74-11-30-41) – (75-14-13-27) Total: 59
Johnsson – Plekanec – Kapanen
(5-1-0-1) – (71-6-18-24) – (32-7-2-9) Total: 14
Defencemen
Rielly – Hainsey
(69-6-42-48) – (73-4-18-22) Total: 10
Gardiner – Zaitsev
(75-5-39-44) – (53-4-8-12) Total: 9
Dermott – Polak
(32-1-12-13) – (48-2-9-11) Total: 3
Goaltenders
Andersen (.918 sv%)
McElhinney (.935 sv%)
Scratched: Moore, Martin, Leivo
Injured: Komarov
Buffalo Sabres Projected Lineup
Forwards
Wilson – O’Reilly – Okposo
(42-6-7-13) – (74-20-33-53) – (69-11-28-39) Total: 37
Girgensons – Eichel – Pominville
(67-7-5-12) – (60-22-32-54) – (75-12-16-28) Total: 51
Nolan – Larsson – Reinhart
(64-3-4-7) – (73-4-11-15) – (75-20-23-43) Total: 27
Pouliot – Rodrigues – Baptiste
(71-13-6-19) – (41-6-13-19) – (26-4-1-5) Total: 23
Defencemen
Guhle – Ristolainen
(12-0-1-1) – (66-6-29-35) Total: 6
Scandella – Nelson
(75-5-15-20) – (30-2-5-7) Total: 7
Beaulieu – Falk
(54-1-8-9) – (40-1-1-2) Total: 2
Goaltenders
Ullmark (.935 sv%)
Lehner (.909 sv%)
Injured: Bogosian, McCabe, Josefson, Johnson, Bailey
