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Coming off a pair of shutouts last week, Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen was named the second star of the week by the NHL on Monday.
Andersen made 75 saves in a 1-0 overtime win over New Jersey on Thursday and a 6-0 victory in Montreal on Saturday night and has rebounded from a subpar opening month with six victories in November a 1.97 GAA and .941 save percentage.
The Leafs goaltending has been a big part of the club’s winning streak, (currently the longest in the NHL), with Andersen and Curtis McElhinney combining for a 1.29 GAA and .962 save percentage and Toronto will look to extend that to seven games when they take on the Arizona Coyotes at Air Canada Centre on Monday.
The contest begins a busy week for the Blue and White, who bracket the US Thanksgiving holiday with road games in Florida on Wednesday and Carolina on Friday before returning home to face Washington on Saturday.
A loose and jovial Leafs group took to the ice at ACC on Monday, with head coach Mike Babcock returning to familiar line combinations after scrambling his forward lines to get some positive results on Saturday.
Auston Matthews lined up with Zach Hyman and William Nylander, Nazem Kadri centered Patrick Marleau and Leo Komarov, Tyler Bozak skated with James van Riemsdyk and Mitch Marner and Dominic Moore played up the middle with Matt Martin and Connor Brown.
In spite of allowing a league-worst 85 goals against and -31 goal differential, the Coyote pose a challenge for Toronto. Arizona is 4-15-3 and one regulation victory to their credit, but has won their last two games against Montreal and Ottawa and one of the best rookies in Clayton Keller.
Andersen will make his 19th start of the season for Toronto and will be opposed by Antti Raanta, who is 3-4-1 since returning from injury in early November.
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An interesting analysis regarding the possibility of an Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Toronto trade occurring from
TSN’s Bob McKenzie.
The 26-year-old blueliner has spent his entire career with the Coyotes after being drafted sixth overall in 2009. The club has made the post-season only once in that time and Ekman-Larsson is an unrestricted free agent after the 2018-19 season.
McKenzie indicates that Ekman-Larsson has been mostly positive about the prospect of re-signing with Arizona (he is eligible to sign an extension next summer) and that Toronto is not anxious to move one of their top young players (such as William Nylander) to make that deal possible, but there factors such as an icy relationship with new head coach Rick Tocchet and the uncertain arena situation in Glendale could change the landscape for the All-Star blueliner .
The Leafs are not likely to move any of their young core group for a top four defenseman, but they have significant young prospects and depth in the organization and the financial wherewithal to take on a blueliner with a big salary from a team that may be looking to clear cap space.
While that could fit in an Ekman-Larsson scenario, it could be applied to a number of different teams and defensemen.
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