Toronto Maple Leafs: Komarov Out of Lineup for Game 3

Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs return to the Air Canada Centre to take on the Boston Bruins in game three.

The Leafs will be without their best defensive forward, Leo Komarov. He’s suffering from a knee injury after a check from Kevan Miller of the Bruins in game two. Per a report from TSN’s Mark Masters, he missed the Toronto Maple Leafs’ morning skate this morning. In addition, he’s listed as ‘day-to-day’.

Toronto Maple Leafs Lines

With Komarov and Nazem Kadri out of the lineup, Babcock has made a few changes with his offensive lines.

Per a tweet from Shilton, the only line without any alterations is the third line. The other three lines have been adjusted. Babcock has opted to put Zach Hyman back on his top line alongside William Nylander and Auston Matthews. Additionally, Tomas Plekanec has moved up to the second line to join Patrick Marleau and Mitch Marner. Lastly on the fourth line, Dominic Moore, a healthy scratch in game two, returns to the lineup to play with Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen.

I’m particularly interested to see how the second line plays tonight against the Bruins. Since joining the Maple Leafs via a trade with the Montreal Canadiens, Plekanec has been quiet in the offensive end – he was acquired for his defense.  He’s registered two assists in 17 games with the Maple Leafs.  The responsibility will be on Mitch Marner to be effective tonight to take some pressure off the top line.

Aside from the offensive changes, the defensive lines remain intact. Plus, Babcock has chosen to go with Frederik Andersen tonight in net. Andersen will be looking for redemption after allowing 3 goals in 12:13 TOI on Saturday night.

Boston Bruins Updates

This morning, Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic Boston posted the Bruins’ lines from practice.

The major changes for the Bruins include that centre, Riley Nash will be back in the lineup and Nick Holden will take Matt Grzelcyk‘s spot on defense.

Holden hasn’t been in the lineup since April 7th when the Bruins took on the Ottawa Senators. Bruce Cassidy has him penciled into the lineup due to Grzelcyk’s injury. Unfortunately for Bruins’ fans, Grezlcyk suffered a lower-body injury on Saturday.

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This season, Grezlcyk was  phenomenal for the Bruins. He tied Charlie McAvoy with the highest corsi-for percentage for Bruins defensemen with a percentage of 54.8. Holden also had an impressive stint with the Bruins this season. He was dealt to the Bruins from the New York Rangers at the deadline and has made the Rangers look foolish for trading him. In 18 games played with Boston, he owned a 54.0 CF%. So, all-in-all this isn’t a major loss for Cassidy.

On the offensive side of the ice, Nash, who was suffering from concussion symptoms is back in the lineup. Nash had an amazing season with the Bruins and provides the third line with a solid play-making centreman. He’ll join David Backes and Danton Heinen on the line.

Prediction & Notes

Obviously, this is a must win game for the Toronto Maple Leafs. After two awful games at TD Garden, the Toronto Maple Leafs must bounce back.  That means getting better goaltending.  Doesn’t matter what happened Saturday, the Leafs weren’t winning that game with goaltending like that.

Next: Take a Play for Lightning's Book

My prediction is that the Maple Leafs flourish in Toronto and beat the Bruins by a score of 6-5.

Puck drop will be at approximately at 7:05 pm EST and the game can be found on NBC Sportsnet in the United States and CBC in Canada.

stats from NHL.com & hockey-reference.com