Maple Leafs vs. Penguins: Game # 60
Time: 7:00PM EDT
Location: Little Ceasar’s No Seriously There Are Lots Of People Here For Realsies! Arena, Detroit
Broadcast/Streaming: Sportsnet
Tonight, the Leafs look to rebound from a tough loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night. They take on the Detroit Red Wings on the second half of a back to back, in Detroit. The Wings might not be a great team this year but that’ll be tough for the Leafs. The good news is that the Red Wings also played last night with a 3-1 win on the road in Nashville, so they’ll be riding that high with farther to travel to get to Detroit.
The annoying part is this is the third time the Leafs are playing the Wings this year, and every time the Leafs are on the second half of a back to back. They won the first game, at home, 6-3 and lost the second game, in Detroit, 3-1. We’ll see if they have better luck this time.
The Leafs will likely have pretty much the exact same lineup, with the big question mark being how Zach Hyman after he took that dirty hit with a reaction that screamed “concussion!” Maybe Josh Leivo will actually get into a game? Or maybe Babs trolls us all and plays Matt Martin on Matthews’ wing! Only other change we might see is Carrick giving one of the other defense a rest as part of Babcock’s “rotation” of their third pairing guys.
Toronto Maple Leafs (just assuming Babcock doesn’t make any changes)
Forward Lines
Zach Hyman (questionable) - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Mitch Marner
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Connor Brown
Leo Komarov - Dominic Moore - Kasperi Kapanen
Not Playing: Josh Leivo (maybe?), Matt Martin (I hope not!)
Defence Pairings
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Connor Carrick
Not Playing: Roman Polak
Goaltenders
Starting: Curtis McElhinney
Backup: Frederik Andersen
Detroit Red Wings (from Left Wing Lock)
Forward Lines
Gustav Nyquist - Henrik Zetterberg - Anthony Mantha
Tomas Tatar - Dylan Larkin - Andreas Athanasiou
Darren Helm - Frans Nielsen - Justin Abdelkader
Tyler Bertuzzi - Future Leaf Luke Glendening - Martin Frk
Defence Pairings
Jonathan Ericsson - Trevor Daley
Niklas Kronwall - Luke Witkowski
Danny Dekeyser - Nick Jensen
Not playing: Mike Green
Goaltenders
Starting (not yet confirmed): Jimmy Howard
Backup: Petr Mrazek
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GO LEAFS GO!
Who will replace Hyman if he’s kept out of this game?
| Matt Martin | 19 |
| Emergency recall Andreas Johnsson | 28 |
| Jake Gardiner to forward, Connor Carrick to replace him on defense | 6 |
| It would have been Josh Leivo but by now the roots he’s grown have delved deep into the pressbox where he has since become the new Three Eyed Raven like that old tree guy in Game of Thrones | 75 |
