Toronto Maple Leafs: Matthews And Kuznetsov Are On Fire

Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs will face the Washington Capitals at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.

In this game, two of the best offense in the National Hockey League will face each other. The defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Washington Capitals are off to a solid start. Currently, they sit in third in the Metropolitan Division and are coming off a horrid 6-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

Even though they’ve had an okay start, the Capitals have a lot of fire power. Evgeny Kuznetsov has been the best Capitals forward in the offensive zone. After 4 games played, he has 3 goals, 4 assists and a 25 shooting percentage (S%). While Kuznestov’s S% will decrease over time, he is still a major threat in Washington’s lineup. The one thing to note for Kuznetsov is that more than half of his points this season have come on the power-play. He is still a threat at full strength, but the Toronto Maple Leafs should avoid giving the Russian centre any chances. Mike Babcock will hopefully be encouraging the Leafs to stay out of the box as Kuznetsov is just one power-play specialist in one dominant power-play unit.

In addition, Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and John Carlson are also strong assets for Todd Reirden, head coach of the Capitals. The four Capitals mentioned above have combined for 11 goals and 12 assists.

The Capitals biggest weakness is there play in their own zone. The only Capitals defenseman with corsi-for percentage (CF%) higher than 50% is Christian Djoos. Yet, Djoos’ CF% is a bit inflated as he doesn’t get too much ice time. After 4 games, Djoos owns a 14:30 ATOI. So, the key to beating the Capitals is to keep the puck in their own zone and throw shot after shot at Braden Holtby.

Hopefully, that shouldn’t be a problem for the Toronto Maple Leafs as the team has been scoring goals non-stop.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Earlier today, Paul Hendrick of the Leafs Nation Network tweeted out the lines that Mike Babcock will be rolling with in tonight’s tilt. The lines are in the below tweet.

From Hendrick’s tweet, it appears that Babcock has made a couple changes on the fourth offensive and the third defensive pairing. After plugging Martin Marincin in for the match-up against the Detroit Red Wings, Babcock has opted to use Igor Ozhiganov in his place for the game against Washington.

On the offensive side of the house, Babcock has decided to put Andreas Johnsson back into the lineup. Johnsson was scratched for the last couple of games and Tyler Ennis filled in for him. Tonight, Babcock wants to test Johnsson and see if a couple games in the press box has motivated him to redeem himself.

Aside from the line changes, Auston Matthews has been red hot. In 5 games played, Matthews has tallied 9 goals, 3 assists and 5 power-play points. While a decent amount of his success has come on the power-play, he is no slouch to 5v5 scoring. Last season, he was one of the best in the NHL in 5v5 scoring. Look for Matthews to extend his goal totals tonight in Washington.

Additionally, Morgan Rielly and John Tavares have been outstanding. As a Leafs fan, it’s been a joy to watch the two light up the lamp over and over again. Hopefully, Rielly and Tavares will be able to continue their success against a horrid Capitals defensive unit.

Recap

As long as the Toronto Maple Leafs can put consistent pressure on the Capitals defensive core, the Leafs should be on their way to another win. My prediction is that the Maple Leafs will defeat the Capitals by a score of 6-4.

Tonight, the tilt can be found on CBC in Canada and NHL Network in the United States. The game will approximately start at 7:05 pm EST.

stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference.com