One more game until the Toronto Maple Leafs get their full complement of forwards together for the first time this season.
In the meantime, there is business to take care of tonight in Minnesota.
Game Day Quotes
Mike Babcock on the Minnesota Wild:
They’re a real patient team. They’re going to be five inside, five above you all night long. If you get impatient, they’re going to capitalize. So we’re going to have to do a good job in our zone keeping them off our net and off our goalie. And then we’ve got to spend some time in their zone. I think it’s a real good game for our team to take a step because they make it hard to do what we need to learn how to do.
Babcock on the matchups with Matthews and Nylander returning:
We matched hard this last while before Matthews came back. We matched hard at home the other night, too, to give him an easier matchup. On the road, you never really can match because they get last change. If you out change them you can get what you want, but what happens is depth of lineup gives you a chance to roll your people out the door.
Babcock on stretch breakouts:
I guess the way I look at it is this: You can pass to a covered guy underneath, but you’ve got to create space. Why do they go long in football?
Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau on the Leafs:
Look at the lineup. They got two of the best centres in hockey, they got speed, they can score, they got a great PP and I know their goalie’s great & they’re a really good road team, so everything about them is a challenge.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#11 Zach Hyman – #91 John Tavares – #16 Mitch Marner
#18 Andreas Johnsson – #34 Auston Matthews – #24 Kasperi Kapanen
#21 Patrick Marleau – #43 Nazem Kadri – #28 Connor Brown
#63 Tyler Ennis – #26 Par Lindholm – #32 Josh Leivo
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly – #2 Ron Hainsey
#51 Jake Gardiner – #22 Nikita Zaitsev
#23 Travis Dermott – #92 Igor Ozhiganov
Goaltenders
#31 Frederik Andersen
#40 Garret Sparks
Scratched: Justin Holl, Martin Marincin, Frederik Gauthier
Coming Soon: William Nylander
Minnesota Wild Projected Lines
Forwards
#11 Zach Parise – #9 Mikko Koivu – #22 Nino Niederreiter
#16 Jason Zucker – #12 Eric Staal – #64 Mikael Grandlund
#18 Jordan Greenway – #14 Joel Eriksson-Ek – #3 Charlie Coyle
#17 Marcus Foligno – #21 Eric Fehr – #23 J.T Brown
Defensemen
#20 Ryan Suter – #46 Jared Spurgeon
#25 Jonas Brodin – #24 Matt Dumba
#36 Nick Seeler – #28 Greg Pateryn
Goaltenders
#40 Devan Dubnyk
#32 Alex Stalock
