Housekeeping

For the rest of the season there will be one post on gamedays.

Until it becomes impossible and subject to me remembering, I will put in the Points % required to get to fifth worst. I don't endorse believing in this as plausible, but facts are always nice to have. Here's one: the team is not trying to tank.

It may become impossible to know exact line combinations in advance as the Leafs cope with the compressed schedule while having the cap space to recall whoever they like subject to recall limitations. (Four recalls on the team at any one time, five in total.)

Tampa Bay Lightning @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: SNO, NHLN, CBC, The Spot

The Leafs last game was away on March 5 against the New York Rangers, which Toronto lost by a score of 6-2 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 27-25-11 for a 0.516 Points %.

St. Louis is fifth last with a Points % of 0.460 which would give them 75 points on the season. To get to 74 points, the Leafs would have to play at 0.237 in order to only get nine points in their last 19 games.

The Tampa Bay Lightning last played away on March 5 against the Winnipeg Jets. The Lightning lost by a score of 4-1 in regulation, and their current league record is 38-18-4 for a 0.667 Points % good for fifth in the league.

Them

Corey Perry got to Toronto in time to play today. Acquiring him was their only deadline move. They also lost Curtis Douglas on waivers to the Canucks.

Lines

The Daily Faceoff projection:

Jake Guentzel - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel - Anthony Cirelli - Oliver Bjorkstrand
Zemgus Girgensons - Yanni Gourde - Pontus Holmberg
Scott Sabourin - Conor Geekie - Corey Perry

J.J. Moser - Darren Raddysh
Victor Hedman - Declan Carlile
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak

Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson

Us

No changes from the last game beyond Oliver Ekman-Larsson coming in and Phil Myers sitting out.

Lines

Morning Skate:

Matias Maccelli - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Matthew Knies - John Tavares - Easton Cowan
Dakota Joshua - Max Domi - Nicholas Robertson
Steven Lorentz - Jacob Quillan - Calle Järnkrok

Morgan Rielly - Brandon Carlo
Jake McCabe - Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Simon Benoit - Troy Stecher

Anthony Stolarz -starter
Joe Woll

The Game

This is the hard part, this next 19 games. It's new territory for me entirely on this site, and it's new territory for most of these players, but it's an important set of games to position themselves as a group and as individuals for all that's to come.

None of these guys want to rip it all down.

Failure is a part of hockey, but it's usually an ephemeral thing. One shot and there's always another, one game, and there's the next one. Now there is no next one that really matters, and if you humanize the players, you can accept they might not handle this all exactly how you want them too.

The big tension of the deadline is over, but they know it's just a reprieve. More is coming.

Please remember there are people who will watch all these games. We don't need your announcement about how you don't care in every Gameday post.

Zero political discussion in the GDT remains the rule. The top post on the page is not the FTB remains my plea for people to remember.

Game Coverage