The Auston Matthews-less Maple Leafs are keeping their lineup intact as they look to build on a gratifying shutout victory over the Boston Bruins in tonight’s Hall-of-Fame game against the 6-5-1 Detroit Red Wings (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes.
Craig Berube on the team’s performance in Tuesday’s win over Boston without Auston Matthews:
We played a good game. I have seen this over the years. We all have. One of your best players is out of the lineup, so everybody elevates their role a little bit.
Everybody gets a little bit more of a different role at times. They did a good job. They did what we had to do. It is going to be the same tonight.
Berube on his memories of Hall-of-Fame inductee Jeremy Roenick:
Well, he sucker punched me in a skirmish one time when the refs had me. I never got the opportunity to really get him back in a game. Still time, though.
Berube on Morgan Rielly’s recent play:
More than anything, he is making good decisions with the puck and doing a good job in our own zone of checking well and being hard at our net. He’s taking the risk out of his game with the puck and making really good decisions with it.
Morgan Rielly on his memories of competing against Hall-of-Fame inductee Pavel Datsyuk:
The only memory that jumps out is Randy Carlyle aggressively trying to keep me off the ice when he was on the ice in my first season. I was fine with it. It was a little demoralizing, though.
He is an incredible player. One of those guys who everyone idolizes in how he plays. Special player.
Rielly on the team’s 36-19-2 record without Matthews:
It makes me feel a little bit better. I know the record is pretty good when I am out of the lineup, too.
I think it is just a matter of guys trying to take on more responsibility. You realize you are at a loss without him. Guys have to step up and pull more weight.
The goal will always be to have that mentality when everyone is healthy and playing, but when you lose an important player like him, you need more out of everyone.
When you are able to achieve that and come together as a team, guys take on more responsibility and play well. We were lucky enough to get a result we liked last time out. We will see if we can do it again.
Rielly on the team’s power-play success without Matthews and the difference without him on the man advantage:
I don’t think it changes anything, but you don’t have your top guy, so you have to step up. Everyone has to be a bit more “on.”
You want to be able to achieve that when everyone is in and have the high level of execution — and we have had that times without everyone in — but with him out, guys have to step up.
Do you change your plan? A little bit, because he is kind of the focus of it, but I don’t think that is a reflection of the results. It is just a different mentality.
Chris Tanev on the team’s winning performance vs. Boston without Matthews:
It is just about playing a team game and playing how we want to play — smart, simple, hard. As a team, that is what we have been growing toward as the season has gone on.
We have had some really good games and a couple of games we haven’t liked, but for the most part, we have grown as a team. We saw that the other night against Boston. It is up to us to duplicate that effort.
Rielly on the reasons for his successful partnership with OEL:
I don’t know, but I have really enjoyed playing with him. Early on, when we played a bit together over the course of a game when were down, it worked well. It was easy chemistry.
He is an extremely talented player. He has played for a long time. He has that experience as well. He is an easy guy to jump in with. I have enjoyed it a lot.
He is a great puck mover and a great skater. He is tough defensively. I think it has been a lot of fun. Our goal is to continue to work together and build our game to ultimately help the team, but for the two of us, it has been really fun.
Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde on the Maple Leafs under Craig Berube:
I personally have watched the last game back as part of my routine. It was the shutout of the Boston Bruins.
They are probably similar to us. They have an emphasis on keeping the puck out of the net. They look really good. It’s going to be a really hard challenge for us tonight.
Lalonde on whether the opposition lets their guard down when Matthews is out of the lineup:
There is probably a little more comfort not seeing him because it is a guaranteed tough night. He is going to create offense and usually find the back of the net.
It is probably more of a credit to their group. Everybody is giving a little bit more urgency in their game more than the opposition letting up.
Lalonde on re-inserting Justin Holl into the lineup in place of Jeff Petry:
It’s probably more about using everyone amidst a three-in-four with travel. Justin has played very well for us this year. We were kind of giving the younger D an opportunity, and then our D core played well.
It is more about getting Justin back in because he had been playing well for us.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies — #11 Max Domi — #16 Mitch Marner
#67 Max Pacioretty — #91 John Tavares — #88 William Nylander
#74 Bobby McMann — #29 Pontus Holmberg — #89 Nick Robertson
#18 Steven Lorentz — #64 David Kampf — #75 Ryan Reaves
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly — #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#22 Jake McCabe — #8 Chris Tanev
#2 Simon Benoit — #25 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
Starter: #41 Anthony Stolarz
#60 Joseph Woll
Extras: Philippe Myers, Matt Benning, Connor Dewar
Injured (IR): Auston Matthews
Injured (LTIR): Calle Jarnkrok, Jani Hakanpaa, Dakota Mermis
Detroit Red Wings Projected Lines
Forwards
#93 Alex Debrincat — #71 Dylan Larkin — #88 Patrick Kane
#18 Andrew Copp — #37 JT Compher — #23 Lucas Raymond
#48 Jonatan Berggren — #92 Marco Kasper — #11 Vladimir Tarasenko
#27 Michael Rasmussen — #90 Joe Veleno — #36 Christian Fischer
Defensemen
#77 Simon Edvinsson — #53 Moritz Seider
#8 Ben Chiarot — #3 Justin Holl
#20 Albert Johansson — #56 Erik Gustafsson
Goaltenders
Starter: #39 Cam Talbot
#35 Ville Husso
