Wells Fargo Centre, Philadelphia TV: TSN4, TVAS, CSN-PH 7:00 PM The other guys: Broad Street Hockey
The Matchup
The Leafs roll into Philadelphia today and get ready to take on the suddenly streaking Flyers. Philadelphia has won five of their last six ahead of tonight's game and have put themselves just two points out of a wildcard spot with three games at hand. The Leafs, on the other hand, are on a five game losing streak. It hasn't been pretty. They're currently sitting in 29th place with three games at hand over Columbus (30th) and Buffalo (28th).
This is the first meeting between the two teams this season. It looks like Babcock is going to try and shake some things up on special teams in the near future:
Leafs struggling PP sporting different look today: PP1: Phaneuf/Rielly/Parenteau/Bozak/Boyes PP2: Rielly/Gardiner/Komarov/Holland/Lupul
— Jonas Siegel (@jonasTSN1050) January 18, 2016 Notably absent from either power-play unit is Nazem Kadri, who's actually on the penalty killing side. Kadri has 5 PP points.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonasTSN1050) January 18, 2016 Babcock says he wants Kadri to start killing penalties. Plan was to start next season, but that thought changed recently.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonasTSN1050) January 18, 2016 So this is an interesting development. Babcock went on to say that the Kadri on the PK probably won't happen immediately, so you likely won't see it this game. That said, the Leafs currently sit 17th in the league in PK%, right in the middle of the pack. That said, they're first in the league in CA60 on the PK so they've been surprisingly effective at limiting shots against. The story is much the same for scoring chances and high-danger scoring chances according to war-on-ice. It'll be interesting to see if Kadri helps or hurts that.
(The PP is also leading the league in those same categories--CF60, SCF60, and HDSCF60--so the recent PP struggles may be more luck than anything else).
Josh Leivo and Frank Corrado are scratches tonight. Rich Clune remains in and Winnik is back in as well. #TMLtalk
— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) January 19, 2016 Rich Clune in over Josh Leivo?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Lines (via NHL.com)
Leafs
Flyers
