Toronto Maple Leafs at Buffalo Sabres

Time: 7:00PM

Location: MarineHSBCKeyFirstNiagaraBankMidland Arenatorium

Broadcast/Streaming: Sportsnet, TVA Sports, NHL Live

Opponent SBNation Site: Die by the Blade

The Maple Leafs should be feeling pretty good about themselves as they prepare to play the perpetually rebuilding Buffalo Sabres. Last night's game against the Predators - while a little, sleepy, at times - was the best performance we’ve seen in a while.

The Predators had Vezina winning goalie Pekka Rinne in net, and now the Leafs will be shooting against Carter Hutton and his amazing below average play.

Of course the Sabres get to shoot on the polarizing Garret Sparks, so you win some you lose some.

Now I’m late getting this preview out, so lets cut the chatter and focus on the facts; first the lines.

Maple Leafs

Forward Lines

Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Andreas Johnsson - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Kapseri Kapanen
Trevor Moore - Nic Petan - Connor Brown

Defence Pairings

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Muzzin  - Nikita Zaitsev
Justin Holl - Igor Ozhiganov

The line up is from last night, Babcock if any changes come, they’ll come at game time.

Goaltenders

Garret Sparks
Frederik Andersen

Buffalo Sabres

Forward Lines

Jeff Skinner - Jack Eichel - Sam Reinhart
Conor Sheary - Evan Rodrigues - Alex Nylander
Vladimir Sobotka - Casey Mittelstadt - Tage Thompson
Zemgus Girgensons - Johan Larsson - Kyle Okposo

Defence Pairings

Zach Bogosian - Rasmus Ristolainen
Rasmus Dahlin - Brandon Montour
Marco Scandella - Casey Nelson

Goaltenders

Carter Hutton
Linus Ullmark


Round one vs Boston Bruins

TorontoTeamBoston
3-2Record2-3
14GF - 14GAGoal Differential14GF - 14GA
27.3% - 5thPower Play35.7% - 2nd
64.3% - 15thPenalty Kill72.7% - 12th
Auston Matthews - 4Most GoalsBergeron, Krejci, Pastrnak, Marchand, Coyle - 2
Morgan Rielly - 4Most AssistsBrad Marchand - 4
Auston Matthews - 5Most PointsBrad Marchand - 6
Nazem Kadri - 19Most PMCharlie McAvoy - 6
Morgan Rielly - 24:34/GTOI LeaderCharlie McAvoy - 16
Frederik Andersen - .925sv%Starting GoalieTuukka Rask - .922sv%

The Maple Leafs haven’t historically had an easy time winning games in Buffalo, even though it’s a home rink for them.. The last game between these two teams ended with a 5-2 victory, the game before that it was a 5-3 win, and before that a 4-3 Overtime win.

It’s going to be an exciting game one way or another. See you all at 7.

Go Leafs go!