Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs return to the Air Canada Centre to take on the Detroit Red Wings.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off of 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators in Tennessee. In the contest against the Predators, the Toronto Maple Leafs were flawless. They out-shot the Predators 28-25.
Auston Matthews scored in his first game back from his shoulder ailment. Plus, the power-play unit continued to succeed. James van Riemsdyk and Mitch Marner each grabbed a power-play goal in the win.
In addition, William Nylander and Jake Gardiner each picked up a goal 5v5. Gardiner has been outstanding offensively as of late. In his last five games, he has 1 goal and 3 assists and is among the NHL leaders for points by a defenseman at 5v5. Nylander and Gardiner both will look to continue their recent success tonight against the Red Wings.
Toronto Maple Leafs Lines
Earlier today, Kristen Shilton of TSN tweeted out the lines from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ morning skate. From her tweet, it’s evident that Mike Babcock is very content with his lines as he hasn’t changed them at all from the win in Nashville. Hopefully the lines will be as successful against the Red Wings.
#Leafs lines at morning skate:
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) March 24, 2018
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Marleau-Kadri-Marner
van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Brown
Johnsson-Plekanec-Kapanen
Leivo, Moore, Martin
Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Dermott-Polak
Carrick
Andersen
McElhinney
Detroit Red Wings
The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t have a very tough match-up with the Red Wings. In the last ten games, the Red Wings are 1-8-1. In addition, the Red Wings have had challenges putting pucks behind opposing net-minders this season. To date, they have a 2.49 GF/GP and 17.3 PP%. The Red Wings offense is absolutely dreadful. They are in the bottom of the pack in terms of Shots/GP with 30.3. In fact, the Red Wings’ top scorer, Anthony Mantha only has 23 goals on the season with a good chunk of success stemming from the power-play. If the Red Wings decide to retain Ken Holland, he’ll have his hands full in rebuilding the Red Wings’ offense.
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Offense isn’t the only issue in Michigan. The Red Wings also have plenty of issues in their defensive zone. Nick Jensen, is their only defense-man that has registered a corsi-for percentage higher than 50%. To date, the Red Wings have a 3.08 GA/GP and a 78.0 PK%. So it appears as long as the Toronto Maple Leafs stay away from the penalty box, they’ll be in a good shape.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs are a man down at some point in the content, they’ll need to pay special attention to Henrik Zetterberg, Mike Green, Niklas Kronwall and Mantha. The four of them combined have 53 PPP this season.
Recap & Notes
If the Toronto Maple Leafs stay out of the box and don’t give up a ton of scoring chances to the Red Wings and their abysmal offense, then they should be able to grab another home ice win. My prediction is that the Toronto Maple Leafs will defeat the Red Wings 4-2.
Next: What To Do Once Officially Clinched
The Leafs are currently four combined wins or Florida losses from clinching a playoffs spot. Though that is just a technicality, they have essentially been clinched since Christmas.
stats from NHL.com & Hockey-Reference.com