The 28th and 30th-place clubs will do battle as both the Blues and Maple Leafs are desperate to kickstart a turnaround in fortunes tonight at Scotiabank Arena (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes
Easton Cowan on Matthew Knies’ prediction that Cowan will break out offensively tonight:
I feel confident. I’ve been scoring a lot in practice. Eventually, they’re going to start going in. I just have to stay positive and keep focusing on the next shift.
Dakota Joshua on the keys to turning around the team’s fortunes after five straight losses:
It starts with focusing on tonight and getting the win tonight. There have been little glimpses or spurts of good hockey. We know we can do it. The belief is there. We just have to put it together for the full 60 and take it all the way home instead of letting off the gas or the incomplete games.
The Blues are kind of in a similar spot. They’re a hungry group over there, too. It is going to be a battle and a big game for two teams that need the two points. We expect their best.
Joshua on the message from Craig Berube:
The urgency needs to come within the room. It is time to go here. Once again, the word would be “belief” within the room. It’s here. But we have to go out, show it, and prove it.
Joshua on his first 19 games as a Leaf:
It’s not the start I would’ve liked coming here. The only thing I can do is move forward, put the first quarter of the season behind me, continue to work at my game, show what I can really do, and make an impact on a nightly basis for our team.
Jacob Quillan on finding out the news about his call-up to the Leafs:
I was on the ice with the Marlies, and they told me to get off and go to the other [rink]. It was a nice surprise.
Craig Berube on the expectations for Jacob Quillan in his season debut:
Q has great speed. He plays both wing and center, but he brings speed to the game. He is a competitive kid. His speed is what drives him; he is a fast player, and he is powerful for a young kid. He is going to bring energy to the game, he is going to work, and he is going to compete. That’s what he’ll bring tonight.
Berube on what he is expecting from his team tonight:
A lot of what we did in the last game. I talked about the Chicago game, and I liked a lot of it. We made a couple of mistakes in the third period that cost us, but the overall process of how we played was pretty good. I expect more of the same tonight.
Blues defenseman Justin Faulk on reaching the 1,000-game milestone tonight:
It hasn’t necessarily sunk in yet. We have had a few here in the last couple of years with Leddy, Fowler, and Schenn. It has been fun to experience theirs, and now to go through it on my end while sharing the experience with those guys and the rest of the team.
It is a good experience and fun for the team, it seems. I’m excited to share the experience.
Faulk on the difficulty of reaching 1,000 games in the NHL:
It is a lot of years. You have to have a lot of things go right. I’m fortunate enough to be in this situation. Injuries can mount up. We’ve had lockouts. We’ve had Covid. We’ve had lots of things that go against a guy staying in the league for a long time.
It is something that I pride myself on a little bit, to try to be healthy and available, to try to be at the top of my game to help the team as much as I can, and to do it for a long time.
Faulk on the people he’s most thankful to in his life:
Ultimately, it boils down to my mom. It is well-documented that my father passed away when I was young. She had to raise my brother and me. She had to be there for us and go through that situation. It is a lot — probably more for her to handle than it was for the rest of us, to be honest. She was working multiple jobs, trying to find ways to support us and give us everything she could provide.
It taught me how to be resilient, in a sense, and to work hard, definitely. There could be worse days than showing up to the rink. There is more to life. She has been the backbone of all of that. That kind of mindset and attitude hasn’t left me at all.
I’ve been lucky to have the support of her and my brother. He’s always along for the ride. He has been super instrumental for me as well. He works a real job; he is a lineman building power lines. He is the one grinding and going out after storms, driving across the country, and putting power lines up after storms to get it back up and running for people. He is doing the real hard work in life, and I get to come here.
Maple Leafs (8-9-2) vs. Blues (6-9-4): Head-to-Head Stats
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#89 Nick Robertson – #91 John Tavares – #88 William Nylander
#23 Matthew Knies – #11 Max Domi – #53 Easton Cowan
#63 Matias Maccelli – #61 Jacob Quillan – #74 Bobby McMann
#81 Dakota Joshua – #18 Steven Lorentz – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly — #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#2 Simon Benoit – #22 Jake McCabe
#36 Dakota Mermis – #20 Troy Stecher
Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#35 Dennis Hildeby
Extras: Sammy Blais, Philippe Myers
Injured: Nicolas Roy (day-to-day), Brandon Carlo (IR), Anthony Stolarz (IR), Auston Matthews (IR), Scott Laughton (IR), Chris Tanev (LTIR)
St. Louis Blues Projected Lines
Forwards
#81 Dylan Holloway – #18 Robert Thomas – #21 Jimmy Snuggerud
#10 Brayden Schenn – #54 Dalibor Dvorsky – #25 Jordan Kyrou
#89 Pavel Buchnevich – #22 Pius Suter – #71 Mathieu Joseph
#13 Alexey Toropchenko – #70 Oskar Sundqvist – #26 Nathan Walker
Defensemen
#6 Philip Broberg – #55 Colton Parayko
#17 Cam Fowler – #72 Justin Faulk
#75 Tyler Tucker – #51 Matthew Kessel
Goaltenders
Starter: #50 Jordan Binnington
#30 Joel Hoefer
Injured: Jake Neighbours
