The Toronto Maple Leafs will host the San Jose Sharks tonight in the ACC.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are 14-5-5, clearly one of the best teams in the NHL, and they will be playing the Sharks who are one of the worst teams in the league, but especially awful on the road with a 2-8-4 record this year.
The big news for tonight’s game:
The return of Ilya Samsonov. Samsonov hasn’t played since the Leafs played Boston on November 5th. If you remember, he was hurt on a penalty shot.
Matt Murray has been great, but he’ll get the night off. In other goalie news, Joseph Woll is back and playing for the Marlies, so the Leafs once again have four healthy capable goalies.
Aaron Dell will man the crease for the Sharks.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs San Jose Sharks
The Leafs have won four games in a row.
They are unbeaten in nine games, and only lost a single game in regulation in November.
They have only lost the one time in regulation in over a month.
Only two teams (Boston and New Jersey) have lost less in regulation than the Leafs. The Leafs beat them both in regulation and took three of four points from the Devils so far.
The Leafs are currently fourth overall in the NHL, and sixth by points percentage. The only teams ahead of them are getting ridiculously lucky, and eventually they will be passed by the Leafs.
Auston Matthews is heating up and has 5v5 goals in back-to-back games. IN total over the last two games he has five points. He will be looking for his third straight multi-point night tonight.
And of course, the big news is Mitch Marner.
Marner is only 5 points out of the league lead in 5v5 points, he is only 11 points back of the scoring title after a bit of a slow start.
However, Marner is on a 17 game points streak, and he will tie the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise record tonight if he picks up a point.
Since last season when he returned from injury, Mitch Marner leads the NHL in 5v5 points, is second in 5v5 goals, and is only slightly behind Connor McDavid for the overall points lead.
Nick Robertson will get back into the lineup tonight. He’s been a healthy scratch a lot, but it’s also really hard to make the best team in the NHL. He has played decent and has a really bright future. I don’t think he likes sitting out, so I’d expect him to score tonight.
No word on if Connor Timmins is in the game or not.