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The Toronto Maple Leafs take on the struggling New York Rangers for the second time in a less than a week at Air Canada Center on Thursday, as one of the hottest teams in the NHL and with the odds of making the post-season increasing.
Toronto is 9-1-1 in their last 11 games and registered their first regulation victory at home since late November against Buffalo on Tuesday and continues to get offensive contributions from three lines and solid goaltending from Frederik Andersen.
While it is unlikely that the Leafs can maintain this torrid pace through the remaining 40 games of the regular season, the path to making the playoffs appears to be improving based on what other teams in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference are doing.
Toronto is not only tied for third place in the Atlantic but also for the second wildcard in the conference with Ottawa and Philadelphia, which was made possible by the Flyers coming down to earth after winning 10 in a row earlier this season.
Ottawa has been able to exceed expectations without starting goalie Craig Anderson available for long stretches and with an offense near the bottom of the league.
Boston is two points ahead of the Leafs, but has played six more games after a 6-5 shootout loss in Detroit on Wednesday. The Bruins struggles have begun to generate whispers that head coach Claude Julien may be in trouble.
Florida(49 pts) and Tampa Bay(47 pts) closely trail the Leafs in the Atlantic, but have been weakened by injuries and have had disappointed in the first half.
The Panthers got some potentially bad news on Thursday, as a report from
from NHL.com revealed that top forwards Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau could miss the rest of the season with injuries.
The Lightning have not shown the same resilience they did in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs without Steven Stamkos (who is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season with a torn meniscus) and Ben Bishop (who returned after missing a month with a lower-body injury).
Toronto will face many challenges in the second-half, like losing key players to injury (as they will on Thursday with defenseman Morgan Rielly out of the lineup), being able to respond to increased effort from their opposition and deal with the ramped up expectations from fans.
“The league is tight top to bottom.” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said on Thursday. “A team that feels good about themselves today, five games from now might not be feeling that good about themselves, so it’s just important to prepare for every game.”
If they can clear those hurdles, then Leafs fans will get a chance to see playoff hockey for the first time in four years.
With the absence of Rielly, defensemen Jake Gardiner skated with rookie Nikita Zaitsev at the club’s morning skate on Thursday. Matt Hunwick and Roman Polak are expected to see increased ice time as the second pairing against New York and Frank Corrado will replace Rielly in the lineup, playing with Connor Carrick.
Henrik Lundqvist, who has lost his last three games and allowed seven goals before being pulled against Dallas on Tuesday, gets the start for New York.
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