The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off one of their best games of the season, defeating the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 3-2 on Thursday night.
The Maple Leafs out-chanced the Ducks 20-3 in High-Danger scoring chances at 5v5, and rode the return of Jake McCabe to great success. However, the injury to Anthony Stolarz put a damper on the victory, which did however put the Leafs back into first in the Atlantic.
Tonight the Leafs will take on the Detroit Red Wings in Detroit. The Red Wings are once again a highly disappointing team, one whose failure culminated this week in a rumour that their franchise player, fresh off signing an eight-year extension, wants out.
Of course the rumours were shot down by the Wings, but where there's smoke....
First Place Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings Game Preview
When and Where: 7 PM Saturday Night on the CBC for Hockey Night in Canada.
Standings: The Leafs lead the Atlantic Division with an 18-9-2 record, while the Wings are just outside the basement, and are 11-14-4, one point up on the Montreal Canadiens.
Last 10 Games: The Red Wings are in the middle of a terrible stretch, losing seven of their last ten games. Fortunately, two of those were in OT so their record looks better at 3-5-2, but that's only 8/20 points and is quite brutal.
Detroit recently lost five games in a row before beating Buffalo 6-5 on Monday, but they did not keep it going and lost to Philly on Thursday.
The Leafs on the other hand are 7-3 and tend to pick up points in every game they play regardless of how well they play.
Head to Head: The Leafs beat the Wings 3-1 in October, on their only meeting so far this season.
Goalies: It's going to be Joseph Woll for the Leafs, and Ville Husso, who has started five of the last six games for Detroit, but did not play in their last game.
Final Thoughts: The Toronto Maple Leafs once again need to come out and play a hard game like they did against the Ducks on Thursday. What made that game so impressive was that the Leafs had recently played poorly against Chicago and Columbus, so it was good to see them crush a team they are supposed to crush.
Detroit is in the same boat, and anything less than a complete thrashing by the Leafs here is unacceptable.