After heavily outshooting their opposition in two-straight losses, the Maple Leafs are looking for some puck luck in their first-ever visit to Seattle to close out their Western road trip (9 p.m. EST, Sportsnet)
Contrary to the Vegas Golden Knights’ Cinderella run in their first season as an NHL franchise, the Seattle Kraken’s debut season has been much closer to what you’d traditionally expect out of a first-year expansion team. The Kraken aren’t totally inept (certainly not Montreal Canadiens bad), but they’ve only mustered a 16-28-4 record that has them firmly in the basement of the Pacific Division.
Above all, goaltending has been the most disappointing downfall for the Kraken this season. While their overall output as a team both offensively and defensively is about where you might have expected it to be (bottom five), their tandem of Chris Driedger and Philipp Grubauer has performed way below expectations. Driedger is still relatively unproven at the NHL level — 45 games started since 2019 — but the more experienced Grubauer certainly had loftier expectations placed on him to go along with his six-year, $5.9 million AAV contract. Grubauer and Driedger have started 34 and 11 games, respectively, both sitting just above and a .895 save percentage and averaging over three goals against per game. The former is the confirmed starter tonight.
Not to rain on his parade amidst a very solid season, but Alex Kerfoot has fallen off a bit lately amid a dip from the Leafs‘ second line. While we knew his production would cool off after a hot stretch through November was powered by an abnormally high on-ice shooting percentage, Kerfoot is now goalless in 11 consecutive games and pointless in his past four. He also saw some of his minutes nabbed by Ilya Mikheyev later in the game against the Canucks, something that would have been less notable had the Leafs not been looking for offense in the third period. He finished with his lowest TOI total of this season at only 10:35.
Keefe, seemingly liking how the rest of his lines are set up at the moment, will leave the Tavares line together after issuing a challenge for them to step up:
It hasn’t been to the level that they had established. It starts to snowball a little bit. You start to overthink things a little bit.
My message to that line is to continue to skate, work, and bring the level of intensity every shift. That is going to set you up for success be it with the puck or without the puck — whatever the game is going to call for to do that.
They have been a little bit disconnected in that way. I am not focused necessarily on the production part of it. I don’t know how many breakaways or clear looks Willy has had in the last few games that normally go in for him.
There have been opportunities for goals there, but just looking in terms of controlling play and getting extended shifts on offense, there hasn’t been as many here of late. We would like to get that going.
In net, Jack Campbell will receive the start tonight as he looks to rebound from a tough game in Calgary and get the trend line on his season pointing north again; extending the sample back to December 7th, Campbell has been below a .900 in eight of 13 games with a .889 save percentage despite an 8-3-1 record over that span. The Kraken ranking 24th at five-on-five goals per 60, 30th in xG per 60, and 28th in power-play percentage should hopefully make for the kind of environment where Campbell can start to find his groove again.
Game Day Quotes
Sheldon Keefe on Timothy Liljegren’s potential and if he sees a limit on his ceiling:
I don’t think it would make sense to put any sort of limit on him. He’s a young player. He’s been with the organization a while now — he played with the Marlies as an 18-year-old so you forget how young he is. It takes a while for defensemen to develop and really become who they’re going to become, so I think he’s still on that path.
The fact that he’s played in the NHL as much as he has here this season, as consistent as he’s played, the fact that he’s moved up and down the lineup and has done a good job there — that just speaks to that fact that he’s got great potential here still, so we don’t think he’s limited in any way.
The fact that he was able to be a really strong and reliable penalty killer shows that there’s great potential there. He was drafted as a guy that has great offensive abilities as well, so we think there’s more to come from him in that sense, too.
Keefe on Liljegren’s confidence and consistency as a player:
I think he’s still finding his way there. It’s certainly game-to-game for young players, and sometimes even shift-to-shift that you’re managing it. It doesn’t always go the way that you want [it] to, but that’s part of growing and adjusting to the league.
I think he’s managed it well — whether he’s had a bad shift, or he’s had a bad game, he’s bounced back really well. I point to the game against the Rangers where it didn’t go great [for him], and then he’s still playing in the top four with Muzzin and Holl out, and he goes out against the Islanders and is excellent.
That really showed us a lot in terms of his development because that’s really where young players [struggle] — when the mistakes start to pile up. That’s a sign that maybe a player is in over his head or isn’t ready. We haven’t seen that with Liljegren or Sandin for that matter.
Two young guys that have taken on a lot of responsibility — they’ve managed the ups and the down very well and that’s a good sign for them staying in the league and gives them more of an opportunity to continue to develop here.
Keefe on Michael Bunting earning his spot next to Matthews and the value of his contributions:
It’s so important for us to have a player like that. We added some guys this summer and we knew we were going to provide some opportunities. In Bunting’s case, it’s really popped and he’s run with it.
It hasn’t been easy for him. If you recall [earlier] in the season, we moved him around a little bit. He spent some time on the fourth line, but [since then], he’s taken advantage and hasn’t looked back since he’s gotten the opportunity there to play with Matthews.
I thought that as I looked back on that Calgary game — I know we’re down a bunch — but just the spirit and the fight that he had AND how he competed [was great]. You match that with the skill set that he has, and it just shows that, to me, he’s a guy that can change momentum at any time in our favour.
I love to see that in him. He’s another guy that, despite the fact that he’s older and spent some time in the [AHL], is still finding his way in the NHL, too ,and picking his spots and figuring things out. He’s going to continue to get better.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#58 Michael Bunting – #34 Auston Matthews – #16 Mitch Marner
#5 Alex Kerfoot – #91 John Tavares – #88 William Nylander
#65 Ilya Mikheyev #64 David Kampf – #25 Ondrej Kase
#47 Pierre Engvall – #19 Jason Spezza – #24 Wayne Simmonds
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly – #78 TJ Brodie
#8 Jake Muzzin – #3 Justin Holl
#38 Rasmus Sandin – #37 Timothy Liljegren
Goaltenders
Starter: #36 Jack Campbell
#35 Petr Mrazek
Extras: Travis Dermott
Seattle Kraken Projected Lines
Forwards
#16 Jared McCann – #21 Alexander Wennberg – #7 Jordan Eberle
#19 Calle Jarnkrok – #37 Yanni Gourde – #22 Mason Appleton
#9 Ryan Donato – #67 Morgan Geekie – #10 Austin Czarnik
#43 Colin Blackwell – #15 Riley Sheahan – #72 Joonas Donskoi
Defensemen
#5 Mark Giordano – #6 Adam Larsson
#4 Haydn Fleury – #24 Jamie Oleksiak
#55 Jeremy Lauzon – #29 Vince Dunn
Goaltenders
Starter: #31 Philipp Grubauer
#60 Chris Driedger
Injured: Jaden Schwartz, Carson Soucy, Brandon Tanev (season)
