The Maple Leafs are looking to complete the weekend sweep of the Blue Jackets as Joseph Woll makes his season debut between the pipes at the Scotiabank Arena (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet).
Besides the crease, no other lineup changes are in store for the Maple Leafs or Blue Jackets coming off of last night’s 3-0 Toronto win. After a rare pair of dropped points by Boston this afternoon, the Leafs have a chance to cut the Bruins’ lead to nine by taking care of business against the league’s worst team for the second night in a row.
Head to Head: Blue Jackets vs. Maple Leafs
In the season-to-date statistics, the Leafs hold the advantage over the Blue Jackets in five out of five offensive categories and five out of five defensive categories.
Game Day Quotes
Sheldon Keefe in the difference in Joe Woll’s demeanor this year vs. last:
Just confidence, naturally — from the fact that he has played and done well in the NHL, and then he has been outstanding or virtually perfect in the AHL.
He is a guy who has dealt with a lot here in his pro career in terms of injury and adversity. He has found his way through that. I think he is feeling good.
For all of those reasons, we are excited to get him in tonight.
Keefe on Alex Steeves’ season debut last night in Columbus:
I think he did fine. He generated a couple of shots and moved his feet. There were times when there wasn’t a lot of rhythm to his game in terms of my use of the fourth line, but for a first game for him — and also coming off of the break — I thought he did a good job. We will get another look at him tonight.
Keefe on the challenge of playing the same opponent twice in 24 hours:
Any time you play the same team twice — whether on back-to-back nights or if there is a day in between — there are some things that are at play there in terms of adjustments and feel for your opponent.
We are approaching it like we would any other time in the schedule when you have a home and home. You look at your opponent, some things that worked, some things that didn’t, and you try to be better than you were the night before.
Keefe on the message to the team when playing against non-playoff opposition:
I think it is just trying to let the game happen and let the players go out and play. We have a good team. In a lot of these games, we have been in good spots, and we maybe haven’t taken care of the game or we haven’t scored as much as we would like to or capitalized on our chances.
Last night is a great example of that. You are playing a good game, you have more chances certainly than you do goals, and you’ve missed a lot. The goalie is starting to feel it. It’s just about being confident and comfortable in that spot. That has really been the message. The players have led the way in that regard.
Keefe on the play of the Engvall – Kampf – Anderson line last night:
They were on it all night. Defensively, they were good. Offensively, they were on top of the puck. I thought Joey Anderson brought a lot to the line. He had a lot of really good moments in the game. Kampf and Engvall are two guys we have come to rely on here for a great deal of time.
The trio was really good no matter how I used them or what the matchup was.
Columbus head coach Brad Larsen on his team’s loss to the Leafs last night:
There were some pockets that we like. We hurt ourselves in some different areas. They are a good hockey team. We know what they can do with their high-end talent and their power play. Four penalties are too much, especially with how we took some of them.
We talk about puck management a lot. Especially early in the first, we gave the puck away in areas of the ice you can’t give it away against good hockey teams. That hurts. It kills some momentum.
We started to take care of it better in the late second and early third, but then we made a couple of mistakes, and it is a three-goal game. Korpisalo was outstanding for us. He kept it at a one-goal game for a long stretch of the game. We were one shot away. Just want to capitalize on something.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#58 Michael Bunting – #91 John Tavares – #16 Mitch Marner
#19 Calle Järnkrok – #15 Alex Kerfoot – #88 William Nylander
#47 Pierre Engvall – #64 David Kämpf – #28 Joey Anderson
#12 Zach Aston-Reese – #29 Pontus Holmberg – #46 Alex Steeves
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly – #78 TJ Brodie
#55 Mark Giordano – #3 Justin Holl
#38 Rasmus Sandin – #37 Timothy Liljegren
Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#35 Ilya Samsonov
Extras: Wayne Simmonds, Jordie Benn, Conor Timmins
Injured: Matt Murray, Auston Matthews, Nick Robertson, Jake Muzzin, Victor Mete
Columbus Blue Jackets Projected Lines
Forwards
#13 Johnny Gaudreau – #38 Boone Jenner – #29 Patrik Laine
#91 Kent Johnson – #34 Cole Sillinger – #86 Kirill Marchenko
#52 Emil Bemstrom – #96 Jack Roslovic – #19 Liam Foudy
#50 Eric Robinson – #7 Sean Kuraly – #24 Mathieu Olivier
Defensemen
#4 Vladislav Gavrikov – #2 Andrew Peeke
#75 Tim Berni – #44 Erik Gudbranson
#15 Gavin Bayreuther – #47 Marcus Bjork
Goaltenders
Starter: #90 Elvis Merzlikins
#70 Joonas Korpisalo
Injured: Jake Bean, Justin Danforth, Zach Werenski, Jakub Voracek, Gustav Nyquist, Adam Boqvist, Nick Blankenburg
