Toronto Maple Leafs @ New York Islanders
06:45 PM at UBS Arena
Watch on: ESPN+, HULU, TSN4

The Leafs last game was at home on April 8 against the Washington Capitals, which Toronto lost by a score of 4-0 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 32-32-14 for a 0.500 Points %.

The New York Islanders last played away on April 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Islanders lost by a score of 4-3 in regulation, and their current league record is 42-31-5 for a 0.571 Points %.

With the Leafs dropping back to 0.500, an 82 points pace, you'd figure that bottom five spot is easier to get now. Nope. Seattle is still holding fifth last, and Florida is right there too. Seattle only has 75 points, the Leafs, the Panthers and the Blues all have 78. Sure the Leafs can lose all four of their remaining games, but so can Seattle or Florida or the Blues.

That quest to turn the Los Angeles pick into a second rounder is at least very possible. Edmonton helpfully beat the Sharks last night, so LA at 83 points with five games to play and Nashville at 84 with four look to be in a duel to the last day. LA has the easier schedule, though.

Them

New coach bounce, bounce, bounce.

At 0.571, the Islanders are in fourth place, but tied with Detroit for the eastern wild card spot. They have 89 points with four games left. They have two ways to make the playoffs. They can leap over the Flyers, who have 92 points and four games left or they can catch the Ottawa Senators who are in the second wild card spot with 92 points and four games left.

They play the Senators on Saturday. Obviously, they are a tiny bit more motivated to win this game than the Leafs are.

Lines

Stefen Rosner via Daily Faceoff from yesterday's practice

Anders Lee - Bo Horvat - Simon Holmstrom
Brayden Schenn - Mathew Barzal - Calum Ritchie
Maxim Shabanov - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Emil Heineman
Ondrej Palat - Kyle MacLean - Marc Gatcomb

Matthew Schaefer - Ryan Pulock
Adam Pelech - Tony DeAngelo
Carson Soucy - Scott Mayfield

Ilya Sorokin - confirmed starter
David Rittich

Us

Ow! That's the theme of the Leafs right now.

Anthony Stolarz is hurt, almost certainly for the rest of the four games remaining. Artur Akhtyamov has been recalled.

Brandon Carlo is hurt, after he left last night's game. William Villeneuve has been recalled.

Dakota Joshua is hurt, and this was a visible injury after a hit, and Luke Haymes has been recalled. This was already a planned swap with Bo Groulx, because of those waivers issues again. Look, they said Groulx was on emergency recall, and I have no idea how they're doing this, as usual, they just are.

To guess at some lines – we'll have the real thing at game time (note the time) – Haymes is likely coming in on the fourth line, and Calle Järnkrok is likely to move up to the third line. There's no reason to touch the top six.

Troy Stecher could come back in on defence, so I don't know what's going on there as there was no firm statement that Villeneuve is playing.

Lines

Projected lines.

Easton Cowan - John Tavares - William Nylander
Matthew Knies - Max Domi - Matias Maccelli
Nicholas Robertson - Jacob Quillan - Calle Järnkrok
Steven Lorentz - Luke Haymes - Michael Pezzetta

Morgan Rielly - Jake McCabe
Philippe Myers - Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Simon Benoit - William Villeneuve/Troy Stecher

Artur Akhtyamov - confirmed starter
Joe Woll

The Game

The point here is to see how Double A does. This is also the last TSN game of the years, so it's farewell for this year to Mike Johnson and Gord Miller.

Game Coverage