Toronto Maple Leafs Look to Spoil Panthers Playoff Dreams

The Toronto Maple Leafs will face-off against the Florida Panthers for the second time in a week when the two teams square off Wednesday night in T.O.

The match-up will be the third of four contests the two teams will take each other on during the 2022-23 season with the Toronto Maple Leafs taking the first two.

The most recent game was played last Thursday in Florida where the Leafs handled the Panthers with ease beating their divisional opponent 6-2 which was highlighted by a two-goal game from Auston Matthews and a three-assist game from John Tavares.

Goaltender Matt Murray turned away 33 of 35 shots which happened to be his only game since January 11 where he has surrendered less than four goals in a game.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Florida Panthers

Speaking of Tavares, the captain  has had a bit of a hot and cold stretch of late where he has had five multi-point games, including a trio of three-point games over his last nine games to collect four goals in 13 games.  However, in  four games he has not produced a point.

All-Star winger Mitch Marner is in the midst of a ten-game point streak where he has amassed 17-points and is nearing his first 100-point season as he sits six points shy with nine games to play.

Star center Auston Matthews has apparently finally got healthy and has points in nine of his last ten games where he has collected eight goals and 16 points including six multi-point games.  Matthews is nearing his fourth consecutive 40-goal season and a Maple Leafs franchise record fifth.

The Leafs currently sit five points up with two games in hand of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second seed in the Atlantic Division which comes with home-ice advantage.  The magic number to clinch the first game in Toronto is down to nine.

Ryan O’Reilly is eligible to come off the injured list for the game, however it does not appear that he will play. On Tuesday O’Reilly was still practicing by himself ahead of the rest of the team taking the ice.  The Hockey News reported that Keefe stated he did not expect the former Conn Smythe winner back this week and was hoping sometime towards next week.

It appears that Timothy Liljegren will return to the line-up as Mark Masters reported that he was the seventh defenseman in practice on Tuesday and Keefe confirmed that he was again going with the 11/7 roster.

Noel Acciari was also not at practice and is not going to be in the line-up as he sustained an undisclosed injury during their last game.  The veteran forward was acquired with O’Reilly just before the trade deadline and has three goals in 17 games, while playing an energy role in the bottom six.

Ilya Samsonov returned to the club after the birth of his first child last week and Joseph Woll was returned to the AHL Marlies.  Woll has been very impressive for both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Marlies this season having combined for a 19-3-1 record, which includes four starts with the big club where he is 3-1-0 with a 2.03 GAA and .934 Save Percentage.  Woll is steadily earning traction in becoming an NHL goalie for next season.

Game time is 7PM and the game is played on Sportsnet.