First game of a home-and-home.
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
(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.