Time: 7:30pm ET
Place: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, ON
TV: FSD
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket, 1270 AM
Maple Leafs blog: Pension Plan Puppets
So much for starting a winning streak heading into the holiday break. After a 4-1 win in Carolina where the Wings were badly outplayed at times but made the most of their opportunities. Yesterday the script was somewhat flipped as the Red Wings failed to take advantage of several chances, including four power plays, and fell to the Florida Panthers 2-1. The effort was still not great at times, but it was definitely an improvement over the game they won in Carolina. Maybe they were saving their best effort for tonight’s game? Here is hoping as tonight they take on the red hot Toronto Maple Leafs.
As I am sure everyone knows, Toronto is one of the best teams in the NHL right now, sitting just six points behind Tampa Bay for the best record in the league. Of course they also come in as winners in their last three contests by a combined score of 18-6. This is the third meeting between the long time rivals with each team winning on the other’s ice, the most recent seeing the Red Wings win 5-4 in overtime after blowing a 4-1 third period lead before Dylan Larkin potted the game winner just a couple weeks ago.
The usual names lead the Maple Leafs up front. Auston Matthews (19G/14A), Mitchell Marner (10G/37A) and John Tavares (23G/15A) carry the lion’s share of the offense for the forwards with some nice secondary support from the likes of Nazem Kadri (9G/14A), Kasperi Kapanen (12G/11A) and Patrick Marleau (10G/10A). Their rear guards, namely Morgan Rielly (12G/30A) and Jake Gardiner (2G/19A), will jump into the play when needed and are just as dangerous in their own right. In goal, Frederik Andersen has carried the bulk of the load and is sporting a very nice .923 save percentage. All in all, as one would expect from one of the best teams in the NHL, there are not many holes in the Maple Leafs roster.
For Detroit, no official word on Andreas Athanasiou but it sounded questionable at best yesterday that he would be able to go tonight. Outside of that the only other change expected for the Wings will be likely in goal as Jonathan Bernier will likely see the net tonight since Jimmy Howard returned to action yesterday and looked good for the most part.
As if Dylan Larkin needed more weight on his shoulders, but with the loss of Athanasiou along with the continued absence of Anthony Mantha and Mike Green even more of the offensive load will have to fall onto his shoulders if they are going to leave Toronto tonight with two points.
