Toronto Maple Leafs @ Columbus Blue Jackets
07:00 PM at Nationwide Arena
Watch on: TVAS, BSOH, TSN4

The Leafs last game was at home on February 1 against the Boston Bruins, which Toronto lost by a score of 5-2. The Leafs have a record of 31-13-8 so far.

The Columbus Blue Jackets last played at home on January 31 against the Washington Capitals. The Blue Jackets lost by a score of 4-3, and their current league record is 15-32-4.

Them

Very soon, this team is going to need bodies to replace the players they’ve traded. Some of them might be familiar to Leafs fans. Their defence is dreadful, and viewed against a background of Erik Gudbranson, Vladislav Gavrikov looks very bright and shiny. Buyer beware. The only intrigue is will one of the two most fantasy traded goalies finally get dealt, or have the Blue Jackets played them through the window when they’d generate good returns.

Lines

Bailey Johnson via Daily Faceoff (lines are from the last game)

Johnny Gaudreau - Boone Jenner - Patrik Laine
Kent Johnson - Cole Sillinger - Kirill Marchenko
Emil Bemstrom - Jack Roslovic - Liam Foudy
Eric Robinson - Sean Kuraly - Mathieu Olivier

Vladislav Gavrikov - Andrew Peeke
Tim Berni - Erik Gudbranson
Gavin Bayreuther - Marcus Bjork

Joonas Korpisalo
Elvis Merzlikins

Us

The Leafs are running out some more callups, and we should expect that to continue as long as the team is missing Matthews. Now is the time to see what all these AHLers have. Tonight’s contestant is Alex Steeves, who is pitted against Joey Anderson, one line up, to show who is the better option. And maybe they’re on display for other eyes as well.

Joe Woll will start one of these games of the home-and-home, back-to-back.

Lines

From yesterday’s practice

Michael Bunting - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Calle Järnkrok - Alex Kerfoot  - William Nylander
Pierre Engvall - David Kämpf - Joey Anderson
Zach Aston-Reese - Pontus Holmberg - Alex Steeves

Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Mark Giordano - Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin - Timothy Liljegren

Joe Woll
Ilya Samsonov

The Game

Toronto at Columbus

TorontoStatColumbus
67.3 - 4thPoints % - Ranking33.3 - 32nd
3.365 - 8thGoals/Game - Ranking2.549 - 30th
2.692 - 8thGoals Against/Game - Ranking3.863 - 30th
25.0 - 6thPower Play% - Ranking16.4 - 28th
79.4 - 16thPenalty Kill% - Ranking76.9 - 20th
10.6 - 7thTeam Sh% - Ranking8.8 - 31st
0.906 - 11thTeam Sv% - Ranking0.890 - 28th
William Nylander - 28Most Goals (NST)Johnny Gaudreau, Boone Jenner, Patrik Laine - 14
Mitchell Marner - 60Most Points (NST)Johnny Gaudreau - 49
Michael Bunting - 62Most PIM (NST)Mathieu Olivier - 70
Morgan Rielly - 22.65TOI Leader (NST)Zach Werenski - 23.6

(Three guys with 14 goals, total cap hit: $22.2 million.)

Blow the rust off quickly, everyone. There’s only 60 more possible points to get, and more is better. Start with two tonight.