In their second game out of the break, the Maple Leafs can take over the top spot in the Atlantic Division if they can take care of business against the 31st-place Blackhawks tonight in Chicago (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes
Interim Blackhawks head coach Anders Sorensen on his team’s source of motivation in a non-competitive season:
That is a good question. You have pride, right? You have pride as a player. You have pride as a group.
Let’s be honest. There are a lot of guys who are playing for their future here, whether it is for us or for someone else. You have to be ready to go.
It is a business. That is where it is at. You have to take pride in what you are doing.
I don’t think it should matter where you are in the standings at this point. You have to take pride in what you are doing if you are a pro. That is the biggest part of it.
Craig Berube on the keys to victory against this Chicago team:
We have to focus on ourselves and how we want to start the game and play the game. That is the bottom line. We have to get to our game as quickly as possible and play it.
We have to be competitive… They have good special teams — both the PK and the power play — with some guys who can put the puck in the net. They can make plays, starting with their guy, Bedard.
They make plays in the offensive zone. They do a lot of good things with the puck making plays. there are a lot of low plays around the net. We have to check well tonight.
Berube on the performance of the Holmberg – Tavares – Nylander line in the win over Carolina:
They had a great first period. They had the puck a lot in the offensive zone and made plays. They did a lot of good things. They had good chemistry last night together. They had a strong game for us, and we’ll need them to do the same tonight.
Berube on the challenge of playing a back-to-back out of the long break:
Getting that first game out of the way, the timing could be better today. A lot of times, in back-to-backs this year, we’ve had good energy. After the 10-day layoff — or whatever it was — tonight, you could see some better execution and some better timing.
Jake McCabe on the importance of not overlooking the Blackhawks:
Anybody can beat anybody in this league. They have a lot of talented players. Some of them I am really familiar with and have played with recently, and Bedard can really shoot and is dangerous off the rush.
We have to check really hard. That is our game: checking and forechecking, and I like our starts if we do that.
Head-to-Head Stats: Maple Leafs (34-20-2) vs. Blackhawks (17-32-7)
In the 2024-25 regular season statistics, Toronto holds the advantage in four out of five offensive categories and four out of five defensive categories.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies — #34 Auston Matthews — #16 Mitch Marner
#29 Pontus Holmberg — #91 John Tavares — #88 William Nylander
#74 Bobby McMann — #11 Max Domi — #89 Nick Robertson
#18 Steven Lorentz — #64 David Kampf — #46 Alex Steeves
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
#41 Anthony Stolarz
Extras: Ryan Reaves, Philippe Myers, Connor Dewar
Injured: Max Pacioretty
Injured (LTIR): Calle Jarnkrok, Jani Hakanpää
Chicago Blackhawks Projected Lines
Forwards
#84 Landon Slaggert — #98 Connor Bedard — #8 Ryan Donato
#23 Philipp Kurashev — #91 Frank Nazar — #59 Tyler Bertuzzi
#86 Teuvo Teravainen — #17 Nick Foligno — #95 Ilya Mikheyev
#77 Pat Maroon — #73 Lukas Reichel — #15 Craig Smith
Defensemen
#25 Alec Martinez — #4 Seth Jones
#72 Alex Vlasic — #5 Connor Murphy
#78 TJ Brodie — #42 Nolan Allen
Goaltenders
Starter: #40 Arvid Soderblom
#34 Petr Mrazek
Injured: Jason Dickinson, Laurent Brossoit
