The Toronto Maple Leafs play the Phildelphia Flyers tonight in an exciting intra-conference games.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off a lovely outing against the St. Louis Blues in which their injury decimated team played their best game of the season.
Timothy Liljegren on the top-pairing, Nick Robertson on the second line, and a Bobby McMann hattrick.....what was not to like?
The Leafs are getting Marner and Tavares back tonight, which is great, but it's a bummer they didn't stick with the Bertuzzi-Domi-Robertson line. At least Ryan Reeves isn't playing!
Injury News + Trade Rumours + Toronto Maple Leafs vs Flyers
Calle Jarnkork has been sent to the LTIR because he is "not close" to returning, there is no update on Joseph Woll, but a high-ankle sprain is a terrible injury to come back from, so who knows how much you can even expect of him when he does.
Samsonov is in net tonight with Dennis Hildeby backing him up. This really bugs me, because Samsonov has been brutal this year and Hildeby is a rookie who has backed up for several games now, and deserve to get an NHL game in.
Why not just give the kind a chance? It's not like Samsonov is any kind of a reasonable bet to have a good game, so there is nothing to lose.
The Hannifin rumours continue to run rampant online and it's actually kind of exciting. Hannifin is likely the best defenseman out of the ones who are said to be available. This is a clear upgrade over Tanev or Parayko, and unless the Leafs go and get someone for the top of their lineup, they are in trouble.
With Liljegren and Benoit both showing promise (though I am unsold on the latter because he has no offense in his game) the Leafs could swing a trade for Hannifin and sent Brodie back the other way to cover the majority of the cap space.
Tonight's game should be fun as it will be interesting to get a look at the Flyers who are one of the NHL's biggest surprises this year. They looked like they were easily going to be caught by the Penguins and Devils, but have since rattled off four wins in a row.
Flyers Morgan Frost is a player the Leafs should be very interested in should the Flyers decide to become sellers, and of course defenseman Sean Walker has been mentioned several times in trade rumours as well.