> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Preview: Frederik Andersen is in to face the Colorado Avalanche - URL: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/preview-maple-leafs-face-colorado-avalanche-frederik-andersen/ - Published: 2019-01-14T16:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2019-01-14T16:30:00.000Z - Description: Fresh off a shutout from the Habs, the Avs are here with their top line full of all-stars to try again. - Author: Cathy Squires - Tags: Game Coverage, #chorus, #Import 2023-04-05 11:43 ### Toronto Maple Leafs host the Colorado Avalanche: Game #45 ### Time: 7:00 ### Location: Scotiabank Centre ### Broadcast/Streaming: TSN4 and Altitude Sports ### Opponent SBNation Site: [**Mile High Hockey**](https://www.milehighhockey.com/?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) The randomness of the NHL schedule has given the Leafs an opportunity tonight: They can take the template they used against the one-line Boston Bruins and apply it to the one-line Colorado Avalanche and give themselves more opportunity to refine it. The Leafs (and the Lightning) are the perfect teams to beat the sort of team that puts all their scoring players in one top line, have one good power play unit, and send out mediocre depth the entire rest of the game. The method employed against Boston, where John Tavares and Auston Matthews kept the top two lines honest (Boston has some skill on their second line, just not all that much) and opened the floor to Nazem Kadri, Patrick Marleau and William Nylander to easily outmatch the depth, worked. The result was a close game that the Leafs lost, but the Leafs are a process team, not a results team. Which is easy to say if you’re the GM, fairly easy if you’re the coach, and harder to feel if you’re the guys who lost doing everything right. Against the Avs, the Leafs get to go back, Jack, do it again, and if they win, they get a little reinforcement that the process is working. To be honest, I think the only people who think it isn’t are some fans and those media outlets who realize there’s easy money in saying the Leafs are bad and it’s all \[whoever’s\] fault. > Mike Babcock confirms he will match the Hyman-Tavares-Marner line against Colorado's Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen in tonight's game > > That trio also got the match-up assignment against Boston's top line on Saturday > > — Mark Masters (@markhmasters) [January 14, 2019](https://twitter.com/markhmasters/status/1084844533505056768?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) ### Maple Leafs #### Forward Lines Andreas Johnsson - Auston Matthews - Kasperi Kapanen Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitch Marner Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - William Nylander Par Lindholm - Frederik Gauthier - -Connor Brown **Defence Pairings** Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev Travis Dermott - Igor Ozhiganov #### Goaltenders Frederik Andersen Garret Sparks Well, would you look a that? The regular tandem is back in action, just in time to get in a game before they head off to Tampa. ### Colorado Avalanche from their most recent game #### Forward Lines Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen Tyson Jost - Alexander Kerfoot - JT Compher Matt Nieto - Carl Soderberg - Matt Calvert Sven Andrighetto - Sheldon Dries - Colin Wilson #### Defence Pairings Samuel Girard - Erik Johnson Ian Cole - Tyson Barrie Ryan Graves - Mark Barberio #### Goaltenders Semyon Varlamov Philipp Grubauer --- That is a hell of a top line the Avs have. But then the talent all dries up. The Avs have done well to crawl up out of the hole that bad drafting and trading away of picks and players left them in, but it’s a slow process. They’ve chosen to augment their roster with NCAA free agents and other team’s tweeners (like Sheldon Dries, a great player in the AHL last year for the Texas Stars), where the Leafs have gone shopping in Europe. The result is that the Avs are struggling to find defenders after their top three, and while I’m sure a lot of Leafs fans want Travis Dermott to play top pair, the Leafs haven’t been in a hurry to put him there. Although, considering he played the most five-on-five minutes last game, you should watch him closely tonight. The Avs have to play Girard big minutes because they have no one else. The Avs also struggle to find goals from anywhere but their big three. Their goal-scorers with 10 or more goals are: - Landeskog: 27 - MacKinnon: 26 - Rantanen: 20 - Soderberg: 12 - J.T. Compher: 10/ Yes, that’s right, Carl Soderberg is their number four goal-scorer. His line, lurking down the lineup one place from where it likely belongs (the Avs believe hard in their college-boy second line) could be sneakily effective. The Leafs have seven players with 10 or more goals, and Nazem Kadri is idling along at nine, seemingly unable to score even though his line has played very well. Listen to this week’s Back to Excited if you want more depth on that idea: --- #### Related [Back to Excited Episode 45: Bearing down](https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/toronto-maple-leafs-podcast-boston-bruins-toughness/) --- At five-on-five, Kadri has the third highest personal shot rate, the winger with the best Corsi percentage on the team, a personal shooting percentage around Zach Hyman’s, expected goals around Auston Matthews’ (albeit in more games), and if he was any better with any worse results, I’d say he should be playing for Carolina. Someone needs to shout at him that he’s gotta produce. That’ll fix it. Kadri is the picture of process not results in judging a player. He’s not as good as the top two centres on the team, but he’s better than nine goals in 44 games implies. It would just be really nice if he started getting lucky right about tonight! But Freddie’s back! All is well again, and no one will find anything to complain about in tonight’s game. Go Leafs Go.