The Toronto Maple Leafs get right back to the action tonight in Toronto against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After playing one of their worst games last night, against the Detroit Red Wings, the Toronto Maple Leafs will look to get back in the win column tonight against the Penguins.
This is a battle of two teams who both made huge additions this week. If you’re reading this, then you’re certainly away that the Leafs added top pairing defenseman Jake Muzzin to their roster this week, for basically nothing.
The Penguins also made a big trade. They sent out Derek Brassard and Riely Shehean to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann. This is a huge upgrade for the Penguins as Bjugstad is a huge monster who can score and defend, while McCann is an excellent defender and still just 22.
In both cases we have two of the NHL’s best teams getting even better. Which is what should make tonight’s game pretty exciting.
Pittsburgh vs Toronto
The Pittsburgh Penguins might not be near the top of the NHL standings, but don’t make the mistake of underrating them.
They might have two less points than the Islanders, but that is just a fluke of the standings. Though 50 odd games have been played, the NHL is a parity league with a salary cap that has near random standings for much of it’s season.
The Islanders have been lucky enough to have the best goalie in the NHL, which has hidden their otherwise terrible roster. The Penguins, with a bit of bad luck, find themselves behind a team they are far, far superior than.
That’s just the way the NHL goes – there’s literally a team like the Islanders every season, and every season they get massively overrated.
The point is, the Penguins have Malkin, Letang, and Crosby, so you can ignore their place in the standings and assume that they’re every bit as good as they’ve always been.
So not only is this a huge game for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as they look to rebound from a garbage game last night against the Red Wings, but it’s also one of the premier games you can witness in this year’s NHL.
Rielly vs Letang
Malkin vs Tavares
Matthews vs Crosby
What more could a hockey fan possibly ask for?
The Toronto Maple Leafs should be able to handle the Penguins, but that is secondary to the entertainment factor of this awesome matchup.
Game time is 7PM. One assumes Garrett Sparks will be in net.
Go Leafs go!
No stats were used to write this article, but if they were, we’d have gotten them from naturalstattrick.com