Dennis Hildeby makes his first start of the season as the Maple Leafs hope to put a sloppy loss to Boston behind them when they host the 10-4-0 Carolina Hurricanes in a tired situation for both teams (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes
Craig Berube on the challenge presented by the Hurricanes and their forecheck:
They’re hard. You have to move pucks quickly. We obviously have to win battles tonight on the walls. There is the speed they come with, and their D are very aggressive up the ice.
You have to win battles on the walls tonight. If you make good plays and get pucks out, they give up odd-man rushes.
It is going to be a battle. We have to make sure we are strong on the walls, our D are moving pucks quickly, and we’re moving north. As much as we can, let’s make them work in their own zone.
That is the key for me tonight — what we do through the neutral zone, our forecheck, and then our o-zone play. If we can make them play in their end tonight, they have been giving up quite a bit, too, so we have to make them work in their end.
Berube on the decision to start Dennis Hildeby in goal after Anthony Stolarz and Hildeby ended up splitting the game last night:
I just think Stoly has been obviously overworked. We all know that. We’ll give him a break tonight.
[Hildeby] went in, he was calm, and he was big in net. He did a good job for us, I thought. There was not much he could do about the last goal. Other than that, he was covering a lot of the net and doing what we needed him to do. Coming in like that is not easy, but he did a good job.
Berube on the second power play unit’s success vs. the Bruins:
Just quick movement and movement. It was a heads-up play by Max (Domi), but it is also the movement from [Robertson] going through the box and opening up at the backside. For me, it was the key to the goal.
Nick Robertson on the key to allowing less time and space defensively than the Leafs did in last night’s loss to the Bruins:
Stalling pucks. We didn’t stall any pucks on the forecheck. They bypassed us pretty quickly, and they have speed.
It’s stalling pucks and stopping on pucks as well — not circling.
Jake McCabe on the opportunity to bounce back from last night’s loss:
We were quite frustrated with how we played going into the third, but we still had a chance to get back into the game and force overtime at the end there. We came up short.
The nice thing about back-to-backs after losses: you can get right back on the horse.
McCabe on the challenge against the Hurricanes:
They have done a good job of establishing an identity over there for the last several years of just playing hard, fast, and direct. They play with pace. They shoot the puck a lot. They go to the net. They make it stressful at our net.
We have to do a good job in front of our goalie tonight with box-outs, making sure he can see the puck, clearing out those rebounds, and picking up sticks. We want to play that game against them as well by getting in on their D and getting our forecheck going.
McCabe on the absence of Scott Laughton:
Frankly, he is one of the best dressing room guys I’ve played with. That’s well established, or it should be at least, amongst the media, too. He has a presence and ability to connect with the entire room — young, old, whatever it may be — by keeping it light but having a great edge to him and playing a hard game, too. It’s not only in the dressing room but on the ice that he is a leader for us. He’ll be missed, for sure.
McCabe on whether Nikita Zadorov’s hit on Laughton was clean:
He is a big guy. You hate to see your buddy down like that. I am not a big fan of going back and rewatching big hits, especially when my buddies get hurt, so I don’t really have much to say about that.
Maple Leafs (8-6-1) vs. Hurricanes (10-4-0): Head-to-Head Stats
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies – #34 Auston Matthews – #88 William Nylander
#89 Nick Robertson – #91 John Tavares – #74 Bobby McMann
#81 Dakota Joshua – #55 Nicolas Roy – #63 Matias Maccelli
#79 Sammy Blais – #11 Max Domi – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly — #25 Brandon Carlo
#2 Simon Benoit – #22 Jake McCabe
#95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson – #51 Philippe Myers
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Dennis Hildeby
#41 Anthony Stolarz
Extras: Steven Lorentz, Dakota Mermis
Injured/Out: Scott Laughton, Chris Tanev (IR)
Carolina Hurricanes Projected Lines
Forwards
#37 Andrei Svechnikov – #20 Sebastian Aho – #24 Seth Jarvis
#27 Nikolaj Ehlers – #22 Logan Stankoven – #53 Jackson Blake
#28 William Carrier – #11 Jordan Staal – #48 Jordan Martinook
#71 Taylor Hall – #82 Jesperi Kotkaniemi – #50 Eric Robinson
Defensemen
#21 Aleander Nikishin – #26 Sean Walker
#19 K’Andre Miller – #64 Joel Nystrom
#6 Mike Reilly – #62 Charles-Alexis Legault
Goaltenders
Starter: #32 Brandon Bussi
#52 Pyotr Kochetkov
Injured/Out: Jaccob Slavin, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jalen Chatfield
