Toronto Maple Leafs: Laine and Matthews Showdown
Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs will host Patrik Laine and the Winnipeg Jets.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off of a 5-4 win over the New York Islanders and are hungry to grab their third win in a row. In last night’s affair, Mitch Marner continued his point streak and Auston Matthews scored the game winning goal. Matthews’ goal was his 31st of the year. Since coming back from his shoulder injury, he’s been lighting up the lamp. In his last five games, he has 3 goals and 3 assists. In addition, all of his points have came at even strength. It’s evident that no injury can slow him down.
Matthews will be facing a high scoring Jets squad. The Jets are third in the NHL in GF/GP with 3.29 goals. Their top goal scorer this season is Laine. Leafs Nation should be very familiar with Laine, as it was debated back in 2016 whether or not the Toronto Maple Leafs should select Laine over Matthews. At the end of the day, the Toronto Maple Leafs took Matthews and the Jets selected Laine with the second overall pick.
It’ll be quite fun to see Laine and Matthews showdown at the Air Canada Centre tonight.
Toronto Maple Leafs
This morning, the Toronto Maple Leafs had an optional skate, per a report from TSN’s Kristen Shilton. A few members of the roster showed up including Leo Komarov.
Komarov had collided with William Nylander in a match-up with the Buffalo Sabres on March 15th. The Maple Leafs never released the actual injury, they just called it a ‘lower body’ injury. His condition has improved though and he returned to practice earlier this week.
After the optional skate, Mike Babcock spoke with Shilton and explained that Komarov will be a game-time decision for tonight’s game against the Jets. Babcock also shared that Roman Polak will be back in the lineup tonight. He didn’t share where Polak will play, but he’ll likely play on the third line alongside Travis Dermott. Ultimately, this means that Connor Carrick will likely be a healthy scratch.
Winnipeg Jets
Yes, Laine is the leading goal scorer for the Jets, but the team has many more threats. Aside from Laine, the Jets high goal scoring numbers can be accredited to Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers and Dustin Byfuglien. The four of them have combined for 77 goals, 164 assists and 85 PP. It’s safe to say that all three defensive lines for the Toronto Maple Leafs will have put in 110% tonight to shut them down.
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Aside from the Jets offense, their defense and goal-tending is great. Most of the Jets’ defensive unit has a corsi-for percentage higher than 50%. Plus, the Jets’ starting net-minder, Connor Hellebuyck is truly having a phenomenal season. To date, Hellebuyck owns a 2.38 GAA, .923 SV% and 6 shutouts in 63 games played.
Prediction & Notes
Based on the Jets overall play, it could be a long night for the Maple Leafs squad. The Jets have one of the best offensive and power-play units in the NHL. The Maple Leafs will need to play well in the neutral zone and look to grab as many takeaways as possible. The less time that the Maple Leafs allow the Jets to sit in front of the net, the better.
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My prediction is that the Maple Leafs will beat the Jets by a score of 5-3.
Puck drop will be at approximately 7:05 pm EST. The game can be found on CBC.
stats from NHL.com & hockey-reference.com