Leafs are banged up on defense, news at 11
Toronto Maple Leafs @ Washington Capitals
07:00 PM at Capital One Arena
Watch on: NHLN, CBC, SNO, SNW, SNP, NBCSWA
Opponent’s Site: Japers’ Rink
The Leafs last game was an away game on December 15 against the New York Rangers, which Toronto lost by a score of 3-1. The Leafs have a record of 19-6-6 so far.
The Washington Capitals last played at home on December 15 against the Dallas Stars. The Capitals lost by a score of 2-1, and their current league record is 15-13-4.
Them
Nicolas Aube-Kubel is a healthy scratch for the Caps tonight against his former team.
Alex Ovechkin sits on 20 goals for the season and 800 goals for his career. He is three behind Gordie Howe for second on the list.
Now I’ll have special guest, Omar, come in to say Ovi’s definitely not getting that hat-trick tonight.
Omar: “Alex Ovechkin ain’t scoring.”
…well now that’s out there!
Lines
Source: Morning Skate (Dec 17) via Tarik El-Bashir
Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Conor Sheary
Sonny Milano – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Anthony Mantha
Marcus Johansson – Lars Eller – T.J. Oshie
Aliaksei Protas – Nic Dowd – Garnet Hathaway
Erik Gustafsson – John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov – Nick Jensen
Matt Irwin – Trevor van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Us
The Leafs reportedly have a couple banged up players on their back end beyond just Timothy Liljegren, who had x-rays following the last game. As a result, Mac Hollowell was called up on an emergency basis this morning. If one defenseman can’t go, Jordie Benn will draw into the lineup. If two can’t go then Hollowell will play as well.
Sheldon Keefe says they felt good about Timothy Liljegren’s availability today given the x-rays following the game came back negative. Mac Hollowell was called up as a precautionary move as Liljegren wasn’t the only player banged up.
— David Alter (@dalter) December 17, 2022
Beyond the lineup, the Leafs changed up their power play units today. Mitch Marner is now at the point on the first unit, with Michael Bunting moving into the bumper. Rasmus Sandin is on the second unit, having switched with Bunting. This smells like trying to manage Giordano’s minutes as he’s been playing power play, penalty kill, and top pair minutes.
Leafs PP2 sees Sandin and Timmins. Along with Engvall, Anderson and Malgin. https://t.co/NDJVMJalgY
— David Alter (@dalter) December 17, 2022
Looks like the #Leafs are going with 5 forwards on their PP1 unit vs the Capitals:
Marner, Matthews, Bunting, Nylander and Tavares pic.twitter.com/br1X4uhAmT
— Claire Hanna (@clahanna) December 17, 2022
Lines
Michael Bunting – Auston Matthews – William Nylander
Denis Malgin – John Tavares – Mitch Marner
Alex Kerfoot – David Kämpf – Pierre Engvall
Zach Aston-Reese – Pontus Holmberg – Joey Anderson
Mark Giordano – Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin – Timothy Liljegren
TJ Brodie – Conor Timmins
Ilya Samsonov
Matt Murray