Gameday: Maple Leafs end Yandle’s streak

Tonight the Toronto Maple Leafs are in Philadelphia to take on the Flyers, and no one is talking about Auston Matthews 50 goals. Instead the big topic is the Flyers sitting Keith Yandle after he played 989 games in a row.

Toronto Maple Leafs at Philadelphia Flyers
7:00PM - Comcast Arena?
CBC, Sportsnet, NBC Sports Philly
Other guys: Broad Street Hockey

The NHL loves ironman streaks. There was uproar when Andrew Cogliano was suspended, ending his streak at 830. Phil Kessel recently played one shift to keep his streak alive, and there was almost a mutiny in Florida in previous seasons when they weren’t going to start Yandle in game one of the season.

Right now there are two schools of thought on the subject.

The Flyers aren’t making the playoffs anyway, so why not just let him keep playing. He’s not great anymore, and having a bad defender on your team will only improve your draft standing.

Or

The Flyers need to play their younger prospects in games against quality opponents like the Maple Leafs to give them a taste of what the Flyers expect out of them as NHLers.

However, we know the real reason:

The Flyers are so worried about Auston Matthews scoring five goals against them tonight to set the new Leafs season record for goals scored they don’t want to have anyone who can’t handle the Leafs offense on the ice.

Them

The Flyers last played on home ice back on March 20th, where they defeated the St. Louis Blues 2-1. Their two week road trip saw them lose to the Red Wings, Avalanche, Predators, and Wild, all games were lost by 3+ goals, and their only win came against the Blues.

You can read more about the Flyers and how bad they are here:

Lines

Jackson Cates - Joel Farabee - Cam Atkinson
Oskar Lindblom - Kevin Hayes - Hayden Hodgeson
James van Reimsdyk - Morgan Frost - Owen Tippett
Nate Thompson - Patrick Brown - Zack MacEwen

Ivan Provarov - Cam York
Travis Sanheim - Rasmus Risotlainen
Nick Seeler - Ronnie Attard

Carter Hart
Martin Jones

Injuries: Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis, Scott Laughton, Samuel Morin, Travis Konecney

Former Leafs: James van Reimsdyk

Most of these guys are made up, I swear they are.

US

The Maple Leafs are awesome, and Auston Matthews hit 50 goals in a drubbing of the Winnipeg Jets*. They’re 4-1 in their past five, losing only to the Montreal Canadiens, and beat the Panthers, Bruins, Jets*, and Devils. Nothing to worry about here.

Lines

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Ilya Mikheyev - John Tavares - Alexander Kerfoot
William Nylander - David Kämpf - Pierre Engvall
Nick Abruzzese - Colin Blackwell - Jason Spezza

Morgan Rielly - Ilya Lyubushkin
TJ Brodie - Justin Holl
Mark Giordano - Timothy Liljegren

Jack Campbell
Erik Källgren

Injuries: Ondřej Kaše, Petr Mrázek, Jake Muzzin, Rasmus Sandin

Tonight Jack Campbell returns to the starters net after sitting out most of March with a rib injury. Wayne Simmonds and Kyle Clifford sit since there’s no big beef between the Leafs and Flyers. Nick Abruzzese will make his Maple Leafs debut.

Here’s a table

The game is at 7.

Go Leafs Go!