The Toronto Maple Leafs are back to work tonight against their old friend, the Montreal Canadiens.
When last they met, the Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in an unfortunate game where the Leafs blew a great opportunity to really take the lead in the division. Heading to the third with a lead, the Leafs allowed two goals and did not even get a point in what was just the third regulation loss of the year for the NHL’s best team.
In tonight’s action, the Leafs will look to win their third straight, while the Canadiens will hope to re-take second place in the division after falling to fourth. Still, the Habs are only two points behind the Oilers with four games in hand, so the standings can be a bit deceiving at this point.
It’s funny to think of how fast the schedule is going by in this shortened season because it seems like just yesterday the NHL media was going crazy trying to justify their now-hilarious declaration that Montreal had the best off-season and was the class of the division.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Canadiens
Tonight’s game will feature some lineup changes for the Leafs.
Sheldon Keefe confirms #Leafs lineup changes as Zach Hyman and Zach Bogosian back in, Nic Petan and Mikko Lehtonen out
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) February 20, 2021
Obviously getting Hyman back is a great thing, but I wish the Leafs would give Lehtonen a longer look. Bogosian isn’t really impacting the game one way or an other, but the high-ceiling of Lehtonen could go a long way in helping the Leafs later this season.
As for Petan, I don’t know what the guy has to do to lockdown a job. Every time he plays, the line of Spezza and Boyd seems look way more dangerous. The stats aren’t great, but he has only 50 minutes of 5v5 icetime, so the sample is unreliably small.
Of course, I am a Petan fan, and I tend to look for him and notice him. It’s possible that confirmation bias is the reason why I think he’s played so well, I don’t know.. He looks good to me, and he’s getting really unlucky in terms of shooting percentage (under 5) and his own goalies save percentage (under .890). (all stats naturalstattrick.com).
I don’t see any reason to play Jimmy Vesey over Petan, but that is the beauty of having a deep team. I also can’t wait to see Galchenyuk on the ice, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen tonight.
Michael Hutchinson played a great game (he got the win!) last time, but Freddie Andersen will be back in net tonight. Should the Toronto Maple Leafs win they will be a full ten points up the Canadiens.