Toronto Maple Leafs vs Knights On New Years Eve

After a disappointing finish against the Colorado Avalanche, the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Vegas Golden Knights on New Years Eve in Las Vegas.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to rebound against the Golden Knights after a painful finish in the Mile High City on Friday night. The Leafs were close to picking up two more points in standings, but Colorado Avalanche centre, J.T. Compher shattered those hopes as he put the puck past Calvin Pickard in overtime.

On Friday morning, Pickard was recalled from the Toronto Marlies due to a lower body injury to Curtis McElhinney.

Toronto Maple Leafs Starting Goaltender

After a night off against Colorado, Frederik Andersen should be back in net against Vegas.

The Toronto Maple Leafs could go with Pickard, but due to the matchup it’d be a mistake. While Pickard played extremely well in his first NHL game since last season, the matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights is more critical. The Vegas Golden Knights are first in the Pacific Division and are second in the Western Conference in GF with 124 goals. So, it would make more sense for Andersen to be in goal for the Leafs.

Andersen will need to have a better night in net then the last time that the Leafs faced Vegas. In Andersen’s last outing against Vegas, he had 28 saves on 31 shots and sported a SV% of .893.

Since the Leafs faced Vegas in early November, the Golden Knights have found their groove. The Golden Knights’ second line has been blossoming into an elite line. William Karlsson, Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault have totaled 39 goals and 42 assists. So Andersen will need to be awake tonight and shut down Vegas’ second line to ensure a Maple Leaf victory.

Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines

The projected lines for the Toronto Maple Leafs are below:

Lineup from Daily FaceoffLWCRWZACH HYMANAUSTON MATTHEWSWILLIAM NYLANDERJAMES VAN RIEMSDYKTYLER BOZAKMITCH MARNERJOSH LEIVOPATRICK MARLEAULEO KOMAROVMATT MARTINDOMINIC MOORECONNOR BROWNDEFENSIVE PAIRINGSMORGAN RIELLYRON HAINSEYJAKE GARDINERCONNOR CARRICKANDREAS BORGMANROMAN POLAK

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ top two lines have excelled in the last few games. William Nylander and Zach Hyman have been extremely dominant and have totaled 4 goals and 6 assists in the last five games.  With Auston Matthews now healthy, the top line is now in much better shape.

The second line has been lethal as well, especially on the power-play. Mike Babcock chose not to separate Tyler Bozak, Mitch Marner and James van Riemsdyk on the power-play and it’s worked out. In the last five games, the trio has posted nine points on the power-play. In addition, it seems that pairing Bozak with the Maple Leaf leading goal scorer, van Riemsdyk has paid off. Bozak seems to have had a resurgence and gotten out of his offensive slump.

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On a side note if Lou Lamoriello is looking to trade Bozak, now is the time to cash out. Perhaps Lamoriello will be taking a look tonight at Vegas’ defensemen and wingers to see if he can identify another asset for the Maple Leafs to acquire before the trade deadline.

Leafs First Line Defensive Struggles

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had some defensive struggles as of late. The defensive play of first line pairing of Morgan Reilly and Ron Hainsey has been rather abysmal.

Hainsey has been the true outlier. He currently has the lowest corsi-for percentage of his career and was a -2 against the Avalanche.

Babcock and Toronto Maple Leafs’ defensive-minded assistant coach, D.J. Smith should look to swap out Hainsey with another defenseman. If Nikita Zaitsev wasn’t on injured reserve, he’d be an obvious defenseman to pair with Reilly. Due to Zaitsev’s injury, it seems that Connor Carrick would be the next defenseman that Smith and Babcock would experiment with. The last few games have been a struggle for Carrick and perhaps switching lines might be beneficial for Carrick’s defensive game. Perhaps Babcock will make a change in his defensive pairings for tonight’s game against Vegas.

Prediction

I’m not too confident that Babcock will change his defensive pairings before the game tonight against Vegas. I’m not confident because Babcock hasn’t been tempted to alter his defensive pairings throughout the season even though Hainsey’s defensive play has been rather inconsistent.

Next: The Toronto Maple Leafs Top 10 Prospects, Christmas Update

I predict that the Leafs will give Vegas a rare home loss. It will likely be a high scoring game with both offenses leading the league in goals-for, and provide some great New Years Eve Entertainment.