Can the Maple Leafs hit the reset button on the road and stop the bleeding against the Seattle Kraken? (10:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet Ontario)
Game Day Quotes
Craig Berube on the areas for improvement for Anthony Stolarz after his loss to Vegas:
When you look at him, the game, and the tape, he tried to do way too much. It is understandable, after being out that long and wanting to help your team. But he just needs to do what he is best at and focus on that. Sometimes, you come back, and you are a little too eager. You want to do too much. We felt he was just kind of all over the place.
Be big in the net, let things come to him, and be patient. He had been very good at that, especially going back to last year. He was very patient in the net, taking on the shooter and doing his job while being big in the net. He is good at playing the puck, too, so it’s those types of things. Settle down and do your job.
Berube on the challenge presented by the Kraken:
I think they have defended pretty well this year. Their goaltending has been really solid. They have some skill up and down their lineup. It is not all on one line. They are pretty deep with three lines. They play pretty solid defense. You have to earn your chances.
Special teams will have to be good tonight, and we will have to defend well. It is not going to be an easy game by any means. Lane Lambert has them playing good defense, and that is what they’re relying on, along with their goaltending.
Scott Laughton on the team’s mindset as it attempts to dig itself out of a hole in the standings:
We try to have a pretty narrow mindset. As cliché as it is, you have to go shift by shift at this time of year with where we are at. You can’t look too far ahead. Once you start doing that, it looks like a bigger hole than if you have a narrow mindset.
We have to have urgency. We’ve all talked about it, but we just have to play a good, simple road game and get us started here. I thought we did a good job on the road last trip, and we are going to have to do very similar things to be able to win.
It is easy to say all these things, but we have to go do it. It starts today
Laughton on the challenge presented by the Kraken:
They have some high skill up front and some big defenders on the backend. I haven’t seen much of them this year, but every time we play in this building, it is a hard one to play in. It is a good atmosphere, and they make it hard on you. They have some guys who can shoot the puck on the power play and make plays. We are going to have to be good from the first five minutes out and go from there.
Jake McCabe on the many areas for improvement defensively lately:
It’s puck play, it’s box outs, it’s awareness with F3s, reloads. It’s all of it when you are giving up goals as we have been. You need improvement in a lot of aspects. Communication and work help with that.
Kraken head coach Lane Lambert on the keys to his active defensemen balancing risk-reward against the Leafs:
You have to go at the right times. You have to know when to retreat, so to speak. If there is not something that’s clearly there for you, it is a top-of-the-circle kind of mentality, and get back out. Depending on whether #88 is in the lineup for them tonight, he is a breakaway king, and you have to be very, very aware of him getting behind you.
A lot of teams — not just this team — take off as soon as there is a change of possession, and they look for breakaways. We have seen it quite a bit. When Minnesota was here, Boldy got a breakaway. It is kind of a standard thing now in the league.
It’s just an awareness of how far to go, when to go, and what the risk-reward is from your defense. This hockey team tonight is second in the league in goals for. I was with that organization last year, and they can score.
Maple Leafs (24-20-9) vs. Kraken (24-19-9): Head-to-Head Stats
via NaturalStatTrick.com & AdvancedHockeyStats.com
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#74 Bobby McMann – #34 Auston Matthews – #11 Max Domi
#63 Matias Maccelli – #91 John Tavares – #23 Matthew Knies
#89 Nick Robertson – #55 Nic Roy – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
#18 Steven Lorentz – #24 Scott Laughton – #53 Easton Cowan
Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe – #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#44 Morgan Rielly – #25 Brandon Carlo
#2 Simon Benoit – #28 Troy Stecher
Goaltenders
Starter: #41 Anthony Stolarz
#60 Joseph Woll
Extras: Jacob Quillan, Marshall Rifai, Philippe Myers
Injured: William Nylander (IR), Chris Tanev (LTIR), Dakota Joshua (LTIR)
Seattle Kraken Projected Lines
Forwards
#19 Jared McCann – #10 Matty Beniers – #7 Jordan Eberle
#27 Berkly Catton – #9 Chadler Stephenson – #20 Eeli Tolvanen
#17 Jaden Schwartz – #51 Shane Wright – #84 Kaapo Kakko
#26 Ryan Winterton – #89 Frederick Gaudreau – #63 Jacob Melanson
Defensemen
#29 Vince Dunn – #6 Adam Larsson
#24 Jamie Oleksiak – #62 Brandon Montour
#55 Ryan Lindgren – #41 Ryker Evans
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Joey Daccord
#31 Philipp Grubauer
Injured/Out: Matt Murray
