Toronto Maple Leafs @ Columbus Blue Jackets
07:00 PM at Nationwide Arena
Watch on: SNO, BSOH
The Columbus Blue Jackets last played away on December 27 against the New Jersey Devils. The Blue Jackets lost by a score of 4-3 in OT, and their current league record is 11-18-7 for a 0.403 Points %.
The Leafs last game was at home on December 27 against the Ottawa Senators, which Toronto lost by a score of 4-2 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 17-9-6 for a 0.625 Points %.
Them
Columbus lost Zach Werenski to injury, which drops their defensive value by a great deal.
They are still missing Patrik Laine and Sean Kuraly, both hurt vs the Leafs, so they're likely more sick of Toronto than Toronto is them. Jack Roslovic is not ready to return quite yet either.
Lines
Coby Maeir via Daily Faceoff from yesterday's practice.
Johnny Gaudreau - Adam Fantilli - Justin Danforth
Yegor Chinakhov - Dmitri Voronkov - Kirill Marchenko
Kent Johnson - Cole Sillinger - Emil Bemstrom
Alexandre Texier - Brendan Gaunce - Mathieu Olivier
Damon Severson - David Jiricek
Ivan Provorov - Andrew Peeke
Jake Bean - Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Danil Tarasov
Us
The good news: Gio is back and is ready to play.
The bad news: Sammy gets the start.
The Leafs must get Samsonov back on track. The other options are to use trade capital needed for defence help on a goalie instead. Or they could grab Michael Hutchinson off of waivers.
Lagesson - Timmins was the forth pair at practice, so they look to be out tonight.
Lines
Dave McCarthy via Daily Faceoff from practice.
Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Tyler Bertuzzi - John Tavares - William Nylander
Nicholas Robertson - Max Domi - Calle Järnkrok
Bobby McMann - David Kämpf - Noah Gregor
Morgan Rielly - T.J. Brodie
Mark Giordano - Timothy Liljegren
Simon Benoit - Jake McCabe
Ilya Samsonov - confirmed starter
Martin Jones
The Game
At five-on-five, the Leafs have "won" 11 times, "tied" seven times and "lost" 14 times. Their overall goal differential is -3.
Win it at five-on-five. It helps to keep you out of overtime, it helps the struggling goalies and it means it doesn't matter if the refs meet once a week in an undisclosed location to plot how to thwart the Leafs.
This is hockey basics 101 and requires no special knowledge or unusual counting up of stuff which alarms the horses. Win it at five-on-five most of the time and life is easy.
