The NHL’s second star of the week Martin Jones remains in net as the Maple Leafs look to sweep all four points from the home-and-home against the San Jose Sharks at Scotiabank Arena (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes
Mark Giordano on the team’s strong play on the California road trip:
In the last couple of weeks, we’ve defended a lot better, played a lot better in our own zone breaking pucks out, and just defended better as a team. Whenever you do that, you give yourself a chance every night.
As these last few games have gone on, we have been really patient within the game. There have been some close games where we have carried play but we haven’t gotten frustrated. We just stayed patient, and the results came.
Jake McCabe on the takeaways from the three-game sweep in California:
We were patient in all three of those games.
LA was a great test. I really liked our start there. We played a really solid game.
In Anaheim, we were all over them all night and ran into a good goaltender, but we still stayed patient in our approach even while down 1-0. We came through in that one.
San Jose was the same thing. The puck wasn’t going in. We were driving play, but we still stayed patient with the approach and got the one late in he second to make it 2-0 going into the third. We took care of the puck in the third as well to close it out.
Sheldon Keefe on how Martin Jones is handling the increased workload in net:
He is handling it great. He handled it great, certainly, on the road trip. There hasn’t been much of a workload in the last little bit. Going into the game, he has only played one game in the last five days. From that aspect, I think he is feeling good, rested, and confident. It’s an easy decision to keep him going.
Keefe on the Pontus Holmberg – Max Domi – Calle Jarnkrok line:
I liked it a lot in the last game. In the first game in Anaheim, he was still sort of finding himself a little bit there. In the last game, I thought he was excellent.
I thought that line was excellent. Domi was terrific in that game and Jarnkrok, but Holmberg did a really nice job in that game of winning the puck back, being above the puck, and making some plays. It was more the type of game you’d like to see from him regardless of the position he plays, but it has been important for us to get him that look.
There haven’t been a lot of opportunities up the middle this year since we put Domi there. The last game was a really good indication of what we think he is capable of.
He is a versatile guy — not only because he plays center, but whether it is playing alongside Domi in more of an offensive type of role but also supporting that line defensively the way Jarnkrok does… [Holmberg] can also move, play with Kampf, and do a good job there, too. He has a lot to offer us that way. He can help on the penalty kill, too.
Sharks head coach David Quinn on his team’s performance against the Leafs on Saturday in San Jose (4-1 Toronto win):
We’ve been in a tough stretch and one of the things as a group we felt pretty proud about is we’ve lost some games we probably should have won. That wasn’t one of them.
Head-to-Head Stats: Maple Leafs vs. Sharks
In the season-to-date statistics, the Leafs hold the advantage over the Sharks in five out of five offensive categories and five out of five defensive categories.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies – #34 Auston Matthews – #16 Mitch Marner
#59 Tyler Bertuzzi – #91 John Tavares – #88 William Nylander
#29 Pontus Holmberg – #11 Max Domi – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
#74 Bobby McMann – #64 David Kampf – #18 Noah Gregor
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly – #78 TJ Brodie
#22 Jake McCabe – #2 Simon Benoit
#55 Mark Giordano – #37 Timothy Liljegren
Goaltenders
Starter: #31 Martin Jones
#41 Dennis Hildeby
Scratched: Conor Timmins, William Lagesson, Nick Robertson
Injured: Joseph Woll, Ryan Reaves
San Jose Sharks Projected Lines
Forwards
#72 William Eklund – #48 Tomas Hertl – #68 Mike Hoffman
#10 Anthony Duclair – #64 Mikael Granlund – #20 Fabian Zetterlund
#94 Alexander Barabanov – #11 Luke Kunin – #90 Justin Bailey
#18 Filip Zadina – #22 Ryan Carpenter – #41 Scott Sabourin
Defensemen
#38 Mario Ferraro – #6 Ty Emberson
#3 Henry Thrun – #84 Jan Rutta
#33 Calen Addison – #4 Kyle Burroughs
Goaltenders
Starter: #36 Kaapo Kahkonen
#29 MacKenzie Blackwood
Injured/Out: Logan Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Nico Sturm, Matt Benning, Oskar Lindblom, Givani Smith, Jacob MacDonald
