Last night, the Ottawa Senators defeated the Florida Panthers, which allowed the Toronto Maple Leafs to clinch the playoffs.
Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs will jump on their jet and head down to the City That Never Sleeps. The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Florida Panthers by a score of 4-3 and look to continue their success in the state of New York.
In tonight’s match-up, they take on the New York Islanders. The Islanders are coming off of a road win against the Ottawa Senators and are hungry to grab some late season wins to make up for a lousy second half. Fortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Islanders’ goaltending has been in shambles throughout the 2017-2018 campaign. The Islanders goalies, Jaroslav Halak, Thomas Greiss and Christopher Gibson all have a G.AA higher than 3.20. Tonight’s affair should be a rather high scoring one, in which the Toronto Maple Leafs should be able to dominate.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Yesterday, Kristen Shilton of TSN attending the Toronto Maple Leafs morning practice and tweeted out the lines.
The only change is that Connor Carrick, who hasn’t been in the lineup since March 20th is back in the third line pairing alongside Travis Dermott. So far this season, Carrick has 4 goals, 8 assists and a 53.1 corsi-for percentage.
I’m puzzled by the choice to bring back Carrick into the lineup. As we’ve seen in a few match-ups with the Islanders, they are a physical team. The Toronto Maple Leafs should be looking to counter the physicality of Cal Clutterbuck with Roman Polak.
Perhaps, Mike Babcock is choosing Carrick over Polak due to the poor performance in the third period against the Florida Panthers. The Panthers out-shot the Maple Leafs 14-8. The Maple Leafs failed to get the puck out of their own zone. The choice of putting Carrick on the third line provides a solid puck-mover in-case the Maple Leafs get trapped in their own zone.
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New York Islanders
While the New York Islanders don’t have solid goal-tending, their offense is strong. Their elite centremen, John Tavares and Mathew Barzal have been unstoppable. The two have combined for 53 goals, 104 assists and 15 PPG. Due to the strong play of Tavares and Barzal’s lines, both the first line and the second line defensive pairings of the Maple Leafs will be called upon tonight to shut them down.
Tavares and Barzal haven’t just put up incredible numbers. They’ve also revived and blossomed careers. Their play has significantly impacted the performance of Josh Bailey, Anders Lee and Jordan Eberle. The trio have a combined 82 goals on the season and are a force to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately for Islanders’ fans, their defense is atrocious. The Islanders have the worst GA/GP in the NHL with 3.58. In fact, the Islanders only have two defensemen that own a corsi-for percentage over 50%. The Islanders’ defensive pairings will have a tough task ahead of them as they have to shut down the high scoring Maple Leafs offense.
Prediction & Notes
Tonight, the Maple Leafs should prevail and defeat the Islanders on the road. The Islanders have weak defense and net-minding. As long as the Maple Leafs don’t get trapped in their own zone, they should be in great shape.
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My prediction is that the Maple Leafs will defeat the Islanders by a score of 6-3.
Puck drop will be at approximately at 7:05 pm EST. The game can be found on TSN4.
stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference.com