Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Montreal Canadiens in their final game of the regular season.
The last time that these two teams met the Toronto Maple Leafs shut out the Canadiens by a score of 4-0. Curtis McElhinney was unstoppable in net that night and recorded 33 saves. Mike Babcock and Maple Leafs nation will be looking for a similar result in tonight’s contest.
Rychel Returns To Toronto
Toronto Maple Leafs fans will see a familiar face in the Canadiens lineup. Kerby Rychel is returning to Toronto. He played with the Toronto Marlies for two seasons. In his time with the Marlies, he registered 29 goals and 53 goals in 128 games. Unfortunately for Rychel, his success with the Toronto Marlies never translated into an opportunity to play with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
He was dealt to the Canadiens at this years’ NHL Trade Deadline alongside Rinat Valiev and a 2018 second round pick in exchange for Tomas Plekanec and Kyle Baun.
Since the trade, Rychel has appeared in three games for the Canadiens. On Tuesday night, he scored his first goal in a Habs uniform against the Winnipeg Jets. Per dailyfaceoff.com, he’ll likely be featured alongside Logan Shaw and Charles Hudon.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Per a report from TSN’s Kristen Shilton, Travis Dermott is back and healthy. Dermott was on the ice at the Maple Leafs’ morning skate. In practice this morning, Dermott was featured alongside his regular line-mate, Roman Polak.
It was highly expected that Dermott would return to the lineup. In a conversation with the media on Wednesday, Babcock explained that he’d rejoin the lineup against Montreal.
I know a lot of Maple Leafs fans might feel that it would make more sense to rest Dermott, but I feel the opposite. I’d rather have him back in the lineup. Giving him an opportunity to play in a game against a mediocre lineup gives him a chance to make mistakes and learn from them. I’d rather Dermott make mistakes against Montreal and learn from them post game than throw him under the bus in a round one playoff match-up.
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Aside from Dermott being back in the lineup, Babcock hasn’t made changes to his lines.
Prediction & Notes
The Canadiens lineup isn’t great. A lot of the Canadiens valued assets are out of the lineup due to injuries. Claude Julien will be relying on a lot of his prospects from their minor league team, the Laval Rockets. These prospects don’t have much NHL experience, but they shouldn’t be taken lightly.
In addition, tonight’s contest with the Canadiens will be an opportunity for the Maple Leafs to work on puck possession. As I brought up in my previous post, the Maple Leafs truly need to improve puck possession prior to the playoffs. Of course, the Canadiens lineup isn’t as top notch as what the Maple Leafs will face in the playoffs. Yet, it will be a way for the lineup to practice their possession skill-set.
As long as the Maple Leafs shut down the Canadiens in the neutral zone, then they’ll be able to stop them from firing shot after shot on Frederik Anderson. My prediction is that the Maple Leafs will beat the Canadiens by a score of 5-1 on home ice.
Next: Top 10 Goals of the Year
Puck drop will be at approximately 7:05 pm EST and the game can be found on CBC.
stats from NHL.com