With Joseph Woll back in the net and Connor Bedard out for Chicago, this is a game the Maple Leafs really need to win — for the response after the Edmonton loss, for the points in the standings, and for Joe Bowen on his special night (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes
Max Domi on the importance of a win tonight:
Tonight, we have to get the two points. It is a big night for Joe. We are all going to be playing for him. Ultimately, capping the night off with the two points is what it is all about.
Craig Berube on the response he is expecting from his leadership group:
A good one. In the conversations I’ve had with them in the last couple of days, they know where they’re at. They know they have to be better. I believe they will be.
Berube on managing the workload between Joseph Woll and Dennis Hildeby moving forward:
We all know overloading him is tough a bit at times, depending on the goalie. It is nice that Dennis came in, played well, and has some confidence here. We have confidence in him. We have confidence in both goalies if we can rotate them a little more.
Berube on the team’s urgency as it remains on the outside of a playoff spot:
You go through a lot of adversity throughout the season. It seems like it has been there for quite some time with different things — injuries, goalies, and all types of things. You just have to keep pushing here.
The standings are tight. We all know that. We need to start stringing some wins together and put ourselves in a better spot here by Christmas time.
Blackhawks head coach Jeff Blashill on facing a desperate Leafs team whose head coach called out the leadership group after the loss to Edmonton:
You are cognizant of where teams are at and what their mindset is. For example, we went into St. Louis last week and knew it was going to be an angry St. Louis team based on the game before against Nashville. We probably saw that.
Were we totally ready for it? That’s probably part of the learning process for our guys: understanding that when teams are angry, they’re angry. It is going to be, for a lack of a better word, a battle or war out there.
We are going to have to be more prepared for that this time. That is part of the challenge of guys learning as they go through the league.
Blashill on his team dealing with the adversity of Connor Bedard’s injury:
When this happens, and you lose scoring punch, it has to heighten your defensive awareness and your defensive game. If you don’t tighten up in those areas, it is hard to score at the same rate when you lose somebody like that.
That is something our team has to continue to improve at, with or without Connor: making sure we become a really, really good checking team. It heightens that. Hopefully, there is a great awareness there.
It certainly gives other guys an opportunity to step into heightened roles. It is not to fill Connor’s spot, per se, but it gives those opportunities for guys to step up and show what they’re made of or what they can do.
If you can keep playing good hockey and find ways to win, when he comes back, you feel that much better about it.
Blashill on healthy scratching young defenseman Artyom Levshunov:
Ultimately, he was late coming to the rink yesterday. We have a standard of times the guys have to be here. He didn’t mean to do it, but nonetheless, our standard is not going to slip. He is out tonight. He knows what the consequences are ahead of time.
He is a good kid. One of the things you have to do as a young player is learn how important preparation is. We have had conversations about what he needs to do to make sure he prepares himself to get ready for a practice. It is a learning process for him.
It is not something that hasn’t happened to lots of guys over time, but our goal is to help him become the best person and player he can. Sometimes, these types of things happen.
Blashill on Oakville native Nick Lardis playing his second-ever NHL game in his hometown:
Nick had a good camp, first of all. He is a talented player. The number of goals he scored in the OHL last year is impressive and leaps off the page right away when you see a prospect who has done that.
He is a smart, offensively elusive player. He knows how to get open and utilize that shot. He can pass it, he can skate, and he can do other things as well, but he has an elite shot.
We used him on the power play last game, and we’ll use him again on the power play. He’ll start on a line with Greene and Moore; they’re three young guys who have some familiarity and comfort with each other. We felt it might have been our best line in the first period. That’s how we’ll start.
He is a talented guy who just has to be him.
Maple Leafs (14-12-5) vs. Blackhawks (13-13-6): Head-to-Head Stats
via NaturalStatTrick.com & AdvancedHockeyStats.com
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies – #34 Auston Matthews – #88 William Nylander
#74 Bobby McMann – #91 John Tavares – #89 Nick Robertson
#81 Dakota Joshua – #55 Nicolas Roy – #11 Max Domi
#18 Steven Lorentz – #24 Scott Laughton –#53 Easton Cowan
Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe – #28 Troy Stecher
#44 Morgan Rielly – #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#2 Simon Benoit – #3 Henry Thrun
Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#35 Dennis Hildeby
Extras: Calle Jarnkrok, Matias Maccelli, Philippe Myers
Injured/Out: Brandon Carlo (IR), Anthony Stolarz (IR), Chris Tanev (LTIR)
Chicago Blackhawks Projected Lines
Forwards
#59 Tyler Bertuzzi – #91 Frank Nazar – #28 Andre Burakovsky
#86 Teuvo Teravainen – #16 Jason Dickinson – #95 Ilya Mikheyev
#11 Oliver Moore – #20 Ryan Greene – #76 Nick Lardis
#34 Colton Dach – Dominic Toninato – #8 Ryan Donato
Defensemen
#72 Alex Vlasic – #46 Louis Crevier
#44 Wyatt Kaiser – #24 Matt Grzelcyk
#38 Ethan Del Mastro – #5 Connor Murphy
Goaltenders
Starter: #30 Spencer Knight
#40 Arvid Soderblom
Injured/Out: Connor Bedard, Nick Foligno, Laurent Brossoit, Artyom Levshunov (healthy scratch)
