While goaltender Anthony Stolarz is out day-to-day, the Maple Leafs are inching closer and closer to full health among their player group, as Bobby McMann returns to the lineup for a Saturday night clash with the struggling Detroit Red Wings (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet/CBC).
As McMann joins Max Domi and Fraser Minten on L3, and Pontus Holmberg shifts down to a fourth line with Steven Lorentz and Connor Dewar (bumping Ryan Reaves from the lineup tonight), can the Maple Leafs finally get more than two lines rolling and chipping in some offense at five-on-five?
This is the strongest position the bottom six has been in produce arguably all season, as the only currently absent piece among their top 12 forwards (excluding Calle Jarnkrok) is David Kampf, who has been replaced by Minten for the time being.
Outside of their current top six forwards (Knies – Matthews – Marner / Pacioretty – Tavares – Nylander), the Leafs have tallied just 12 five-on-five goals. Six of them have been scored by Bobby McMann.
Game Day Quotes
Craig Berube on the challenge presented by the Red Wings despite their current struggles (five losses in their last six):
They have a lot of skill, right? It is a good mixture of younger and older talent. With Seider and Edvinsson, they have some big defensemen.
They’re a good team with a lot of players who have a lot of skill. That is the way I look at it. Dangerous.
Berube on Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider:
He kind of does everything, you know? He is a big guy who is a very physical player. He does a great job of getting up the ice with the play and doing his thing in the zone with his shot and his ability to move.
He is a hard guy to defend and a hard guy to beat in the offensive zone because of his size, stick length, and skating ability. Very good player.
Berube on his team’s 20th-ranked power play:
It is a little bit [surprising]. We look at other metrics, too. We have had a lot of opportunities. I don’t know where we are ranked right now, but it wasn’t long ago that we were ranked pretty high in the league as far as shooting pucks from very good areas and creating grade-As.
We have to keep doing it. They don’t go in all the time, but we have to stay with it and find a way to produce a little bit more that way.
It is not from a lack of generating looks. I think we are getting good looks and doing some real good things, but we just haven’t scored. It is like our five-on-five scoring, too, a little bit. We get looks, and we have to find a way to get some more goals.
As long as we are getting the looks… Yes, we have to finish better, but we are getting looks.
Berube on the return of Bobby McMann to the lineup:
His size, speed, and strength help us a lot. He brings a lot of speed to our team. He did a good job of finishing his plays and scoring for us. We like the size and the ability he has to be physical and do good things around the net. He helps a lot.
Bobby McMann on the keys to a successful return to the lineup:
It is just about sticking with what worked before and how you started the season; sticking with what your strengths are. For me, that is speed, physicality, trying to get to the net, being hard on their guys, and being strong defensively.
Matthew Knies on the return of McMann:
He is strong, fast, plays physically, and has contributed to some big games with some very big goals. We are excited to get him back to the lineup. He is going to bring some juice for us for sure.
Knies on the keys to turning it around on the power play after a 2-for-16 stretch:
Simplicity. We have been moving the puck on the outside a little too much and haven’t had chances around the net. That is what we are trying to focus on: getting it down there and creating loose pucks. That is what we are looking to do with these new units. It is going to be important for us to get the puck around the net.
Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde on the keys to success against the Leafs:
Own the middle ice.
It has been an interesting team to watch back in that they haven’t been the offensive juggernaut they have been in the past.
Obviously, they have high-end guys. We can’t give their top-end guys easy ice and easy looks. That will be the challenge.
This is a really good team. I didn’t mind our game in Toronto last time out. We limited some offense from them, but we got checked pretty well, too.
It is on us to stay within our game. In the last game, we did not for the last 10 minutes of the second period.
Patrick Kane on the challenge against the Leafs:
They have some really special players over there — four or five of them. It seems like they’re playing a more disciplined game this year, too, so it’ll be a tough challenge.
Head-to-Head Stats: Maple Leafs (18-9-2) vs. Red Wings (11-14-4)
In the 2024-25 regular season statistics, Toronto holds the advantage in three 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
#67 Max Pacioretty — #91 John Tavares — #88 William Nylander
#74 Bobby McMann — #39 Fraser Minten — #11 Max Domi
#29 Pontus Holmberg — #24 Connor Dewar —#18 Steven Lorentz
Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe — #8 Chris Tanev
#44 Morgan Rielly — #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#2 Simon Benoit — #25 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#35 Dennis Hildeby
Extras: Ryan Reaves, Nick Robertson, Philippe Myers
Injured (day-to-day): Anthony Stolarz
Injured (IR): Jani Hakanpää
Injured (LTIR): Calle Jarnkrok, David Kampf
Detroit Red Wings Projected Lines
Forwards
#27 Michael Rasmussen — #71 Dylan Larkin — #23 Lucas Raymond
#93 Alex Debrincat — #92 Marco Kasper — #88 Patrick Kane
#11 Vladimir Tarasenko — #37 JT Compher — #18 Andrew Copp
#48 Jonatan Berggren — #90 Joe Veleno — #14 Tyler Motte
Defensemen
#77 Simon Edvinsson — #53 Moritz Seider
#8 Ben Chiarot — #46 Jeff Petry
#56 Erik Gustafsson — #3 Justin Holl
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Ville Husso
#32 Jack Campbell
Injured: Cam Talbot, Alex Lyon
