Toronto Maple Leafs: No Rielly vs Avs

Morgan Rielly is out for tonight’s matchup against Colorado, whilst the Toronto Maple Leafs look for their second straight win.

Mike Babcock stated the Toronto Maple Leafs number one defenseman is still considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury. In addition, he added that he doesn’t know what that means, considering Nikita Zaitsev has been day-to-day since December 15^th.

Babcock didn’t seem to mind, seemingly believing the Leafs can still play three defensively reliable lines tonight.

I’ll spare us all another Polak bashing article (for now), explaining why Babcock is wrong for thinking that. According to him, it would have been hard deciding who to scratch tonight if Rielly was able to play.

In the absence of Rielly in the game against Ottowa, Jake Gardiner stepped up and provided the Toronto Maple Leafs with the much-needed offensive input from the blue-line. Registering a three-point game, Jake Gardiner had more than just a solid game.

And with Rielly out again tonight, the Leafs will need Gardiner to step up again.

Projected Lines

It seems the Toronto Maple Leafs will start with Marner on the fourth line again, meaning Connor Brown will start on the Bozak line again. I did not expect Marner to be starting from the fourth line again tonight, but apparently, Babcock thinks otherwise.

Baffling as it may be, Babcock continues playing his future star players on the fourth line. Yes, the Maple Leafs have the luxury of being able to play a potential 20 goal scorer on that line. That doesn’t however, justify playing players like Marner and Nylander on that line, nor should Connor Brown be played there for that matter. Babcock, however, still prefers veteran presence on the ice over young talent seemingly.

Colorado Avalanche

Tonight’s matchup will be a difficult one, hosting one of the hottest teams in the league right now.

Colorado is currently riding a nine-game winning streak and will look to stretch that to ten tonight. Presumably, Babcock will try to shut the Nathan MacKinnon line by matching it with Kadri’s line.

Probably the biggest key to winning the game tonight is to shut down the MacKinnon line.

If Babcock indeed matches Kadri with MacKinnon tonight, Kadri will try to help end MacKinnon’s Pointstreak of nine games in which he has collected 19 points (eight goals and eleven assists). Something that will be even harder to do without our best defenseman on the ice.

Prediction

Tonight’s matchup will be a tough one in which we will probably see Kadri’s line making top minutes. Still, I believe if Kadri’s line can shut down their top offensive line, we stay out of the penalty box and the Matthews and Bozak line are able to provide good offense, we will win this game.

My prediction is that the Toronto Maple Leafs will top the Avalanche 4 – 2, ending the winning and point streak of Mackinnon.

Next: Remembering Dion Phaneuf

Enjoy the game!