[Open Thread] Game 5/82: Toronto Maple Leafs v. New York Islanders

Two days on from the Leafs' horrific Tuesday and their cages have been rattled by Coach Maurice. Whether those lines are used or not the players must be cognizant of the fact that poor performance will be punished and strong play will be rewarded.

With that in mind it's good to see Steen get a promotion and hopefully we'll see the first glimpse of Stralman instead of Wozniewski. Despite making 32 saves and generally being abandoned Tuesday Toskala might find himself on the bench as Andrew Raycroft gets his second start of the year.

The Islanders are coming off of a big win over the hated Rangers and are 3-1 on the season. Last year DiPietro backstopped the Isles to 2 shootout wins over the Leafs which were wholly undeserved and at the end of the year those two gifted points were the difference in the race for 8th place.

Tonight's game is exclusively on LeafsTV or through LeafsTV Interactive.

Update: Poni is out and Gamache is in. Also, sadly, Wozniewski will remain in the lineup so there will no changes to the 6 defencemen that were torched for 7 goals.

The game might be available for streaming here on Sopcast. Only a couple of games are identified so far but check closer to game time to see if the Leafs game is up.

Tonight's Lines?

Here are the lines from practice:

Jason Blake - Mats Sundin - Alex Steen
Simon Gamache - Matt Stajan - Darcy Tucker
Boyd Devereaux - Nik Antropov - John Pohl
Chad Kilger - Kris Newbury - Wade Belak

Bates gets the night off but I am not too happy with Tucker being rewarded for his weak play with a promotion while Antro gets demoted despite his strong start to the year.

Hal Gill - Ian White
Bryan McCabe - Tomas Kaberle
Andy Wozniewski - Pavel Kubina

What's old is new again on the backend.

Andrew Raycroft
Vesa Toskala

It's not clear who is starting since Coach Mo is remaining tight-lipped.

As always, your thoughts throughout the game are much appreciated in the comments. Each period and overtime/shootout gets their own section so just reply to the relevant section's main post. You need to set up an account to comment so register and share your thoughts.