Toronto Maple Leafs @ Nashville Predators
07:00 PM at Bridgestone Arena
Watch on: SN, CBC, FDSNSO

The Leafs last game was away on December 18 against the Washington Capitals, which Toronto lost by a score of 4-0 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 15-13-5 for a 0.530 Points %.

The Nashville Predators last played at home on December 17 against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Predators lost by a score of 4-1 in regulation, and their current league record is 13-16-4 for a 0.455 Points %.

Them

A few weeks ago, I looked over the whole league in a serious way and concluded that the actually bad teams were Nashville, Vancouver and St. Louis. The Kraken have since contested that idea and St. Louis has been a little better by points. What of Nashville?

They've been better in the last month at five-on-five, but their special teams are sinking them a little. Their main problem in the early going was a total inability to score backed up by some iffy goaltending.

They've actually gone from mediocre to excellent by Expected Goals differential lately, and while that could be influenced by who they've played, it's fair to say this team has genuinely improved. Their power play is very poor, but now that they've started to score goals, they can win with their league-average team Save %.

Lines

Max Herz via Daily Faceoff from yesterday's practice.

Filip Forsberg - Ryan O'Reilly - Luke Evangelista
Michael Bunting - Erik Haula - Steven Stamkos
Tyson Jost - Fedor Svechkov - Matthew Wood
Reid Schaefer - Michael McCarron - Cole Smith

Roman Josi - Nick Perbix
Brady Skjei - Adam Wilsby
Nicolas Hague - Nick Blankenburg

Juuse Saros
Justus Annunen

Us

Well, what of the Leafs. The Leafs stole a win against Chicago, and they knew they'd got away with something, and they responded the next game with one of the worst performances of the season. The fact that it's got competition for how bad it is is also very bad.

This is now a double double response opportunity.

There seemed to be a general expectation that Craig Berube would totally mix the lines up. I don't know what people were thinking here. Auston Matthews on the fourth line, Scott Laughton as the 1C? There is only so much maneuvering room with this roster, which is one big reason why the season has been a struggle.

Judging by yesterday's practice lines below, Calle Järnkrok comes in for Steven Lorentz, and that's about it. The Tavares line worked very well, so it should be left alone. The Roy line works with the configuration below or Cowan, so it shouldn't be messed with. And no one, including Berube, wants Domi in the top six.

I know everyone has seen Phil Myers make mistakes, so he's bad and should never play, but he is a better puck mover than Henry Thrun. And why the hell not? Were the defence good in the last two games?

Lines may be changed up as well as Max Domi apparently skated with the scratches.

Lines

David Alter via Daily Faceoff and subject to change

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Nicholas Robertson - John Tavares - Easton Cowan
Dakota Joshua - Nicolas Roy - Bobby McMann
Max Domi - Scott Laughton - Calle Järnkrok

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

Joe Woll - confirmed starter
Dennis Hildeby

The Game

Step up. That's it, that's the only plan they can have.

I have quite a bit of sympathy for the emotional and mental strain of trying to work through an "everything is going wrong all the time" period in your life. But you can't just refuse to deal with it. And I gotta tell you, I do not know how people can do that in public, in a milieu where there's examples right under their noses of people who aren't flopping over dead.

If John Tavares isn't enough of an example, I don't know what would be.

The only way forward is through it.

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