The Toronto Maple Leafs fresh off a weekend that is open to your own personal spin and interpretation (They were lucky to get 2 points vs two top teams that mostly outplayed them OR they thumped the Oilers then sat back and had to face a top team the next day with 1000 miles of travel and an injury ravaged roster).
Personally, I think it's a bit of both. The Toronto Maple Leafs were set up to lose by circumstances against Carolina (travel, back-to-back and injuries and ultimately should be really happy about the only thing that matters from that game, which is Joseph Woll's play BUT they also came uncomfortably close to blowing a five-goal lead against the Oilers).
Either way, it's a really weird, injury laden lineup for tonight's game against the Devils.
The Devils are my favorite topic for illustrating how ridiculous the narratives that surround this league (or really, anything these days) are. If you follow the NHL at all, you've probably seen all sorts of "What's Wrong with the Devils?" posts, even though what's wrong with them is shockingly simply and not debatable.
They are the 6th best team by 5v5 Expected Goals and they have received the 6th worst Goaltending in the league. They are a contender done in by the fact that their goalies pretty much randomly fell apart. That's the whole story. Also Dougie Hamilton missed about 50 games, so that's gonna hurt too.
Unfortunately for the Devils, they are practically eliminated from making the Playoffs. They have ten games left and if they win them all they still can't get any higher than the 3rd Metro spot or the last Wild Card spot. Any combination of four points won or lost between them and the Flyers will eliminate them from the 3rd Metro spot.
After that, the Capitals, Red Wings and Islanders all stand between the Devils and the final playoff spot, while the Sabres and Penguins are right behind them with more games left to play. A win by the Leafs tonight would eliminated them all but mathematically. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Toronto Maple Leafs Look to Eliminate Devils But Have Many New Injuries
The Leafs will once again be without Mitch Marner, but he has been downgraded to Day to Day from Indefinite.
They will also be without Calle Jarnrkrok who is on the LTIR and can't play until, I think, April 5th.
New injuries however have popped up: Joel Edmundson is not playing tonight, and Morgan Rielly is a game time decision.
Joseph Woll will get the start, looking to build off the best game a Leafs goalie has had in weeks.
With all the injuries, Keefe is finally going with something I recommended a few weeks ago: a top pairing of Jake McCabe and Timothy Liljegren, who has been the Leafs best defender for the last few games at least.
McCabe and Rielly or McCabe and Brodie are both terrible combos, so it only makes sense to use Liljegren with McCabe. Hopefully this will be the start of a great pairing.
The two top defenders have played almost 200 minutes together this year, and have posted a 57% Expected Goals Rating, while winning their minutes 10-6. Not too shabby.
Let's hope it works.