Toronto Maple Leafs @ Pittsburgh Penguins
07:00 PM at PPG Paints Arena
Watch on: SN, NHLN, CBC, SN-PIT

The Leafs last game was at home on December 6 against the Washington Capitals, which Toronto lost by a score of 3-1 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 16-8-2 for a 0.654 Points %.

The Pittsburgh Penguins last played away on December 6 against the New York Rangers. The Penguins lost by a score of 4-2 in regulation, and their current league record is 11-13-4 for a 0.464 Points %.

Them

Cast your mind back to last year in the spring. The Capitals backed into the last playoff spot, while the Penguins, a seemingly better team crushed by bad luck, didn't make it. Now, a few short months and an offseason later, the Capitals are dangerous and the Penguins are cute little birds waddling around in the zoo.

Almost exactly like Chicago and Nashville, the roster doesn't look like a desperately terrible team. And at five-on-five, well, they're better than the Leafs, not that that's a hard thing to be. Their almost 50% Corsi and Expected Goals says they should be a mediocre team unless something is getting in the way of that.

For goalies (Moneypuck in all-situations) with nine games played (Tristan Jarry's number), the goalies are 44th (Jarry) and 46th (Nedljkovic) out of 53. Which means they are worse than some teams' emergency third goalie recalls. That could get in the way of an actually good team.

Their power play is actually mediocre, as you should expect given their basic level of play. Both the Penguins and the Leafs have 78 goals scored and they have 17 and 15 power play goals respectively. So they aren't getting results worse than the Leafs upfront, they just can't make a save. Their actual in-zone defending is pretty bad too.

Lines

@Penguins via Daily Faceoff

Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Drew O'Connor - Evgeni Malkin - Philip Tomasino
Michael Bunting - Blake Lizotte - Anthony Beauvillier
Kevin Hayes - Cody Glass - Noel Acciari

Marcus Pettersson - Erik Karlsson
Matt Grzelcyk - Kris Letang
Owen Pickering - Ryan Shea

Tristan Jarry
Alex Nedljkovic

Us

Who is even playing in this game? Max Pacioretty's LTIR is up, so he can join the roster, and some of last night's contestants will be dressed in a suit. Max Domi, who has also been practicing, is on IR, and he can return when ready. David Kämpf is not as close, and Jake McCabe is practicing and will return when he feels right. Bobby McMann is on IR, listed as day-to-day, but his status beyond that isn't clear.

Marshall Rifai, who was reported to be back in the AHL on-air may not have been loaned yet, and this is likely why:

If someone else comes back someone is being sent down. But my projection has Nick Robertson in the pressbox just based on his evaporating ice time last night.

Lines

My projection with just Pacioretty returning.

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Max Pacioretty - John Tavares - William Nylander
Pontus Holmberg - Fraser Minten - Steven Lorentz
Nikita Grebenkin - Connor Dewar - Ryan Reaves

Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Chris Tanev
Morgan Rielly - Philippe Myers
Simon Benoit - Conor Timmins

Joe Woll - presumed starter
Anthony Stolarz

The Game

We know the Leafs are capable of relentless offensive pressure and a tough physical game, they just have to combine them effectively.

Go Leafs Go!

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