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Zaitsev returns, Babcock looking to play 'match' game; Leafs vs Capitals

April 17, 2017, 4:15 PM ET [1469 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs tied their best-of-seven series with a 4-3 double overtime victory over the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center on Saturday, but lost defenseman Roman Polak for the season with a lower body injury,

The two clubs will face each other at Air Canada Centre on Monday for Game 3 and Toronto will get defenseman Nikita Zaitsev back in the lineup after missing over a week with an upper body injury.

"Obviously, losing (Polak), you feel bad for the man and the kind of teammate he is and all that, (but) it's nice to get Zaits back and it's an opportunity for him." Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said on Monday. "He's been a real good player for us all year, ultra-competitive, moves the puck, good on the penalty kill, good on the power play. He's an important guy for us."

The absence of Polak forced Babcock to scramble his defensive pairings and split the veteran’s minutes between Jake Gardiner, Morgan Rielly,Matt Hunwick and Martin Marincin on Saturday. Gardiner played a team-high 40:34 in Game 2, Rielly, Hunwick and Marincin each exceeded 30 minutes.

Zaitsev returned to the ice for the first time on Saturday, after suffering what is thought to be a concussion in the regular season finale against Columbus on April 9. He was one of the few Leafs players to take to the ice for an optional skate on Sunday morning and skated alongside Gardiner at the pre-game morning skate on Monday.




The 25-year-old Russian finished second in defensive scoring behind Jake Gardiner with 36 points (four goals, 32 assists) and second in TOI(time-on-ice) to Morgan Rielly at just over 22 minutes per game.

The Leafs will need Zaitsev to resume his role on one of the top two pairings and play in excess of 20 minutes for them to have a chance to take the lead in the series. Marincin was a central figure in Toronto’s 3-2 overtime loss in Game 1 and took an undisciplined slashing penalty that led to Alex Ovechkin’s power play goal in Game 2.

Marincin and Connor Carrick (who strangely played less than 20 minutes with only five blueliners available on Saturday) skated will make up the bottom pairing, but if Babcock follows his usual modus operandi, Toronto will lean heavily on their top four and use the last change on home ice to get the most favorable matchups for their defensive pairings and forward lines.

Babcock played the matchup game all season, so in Game 3, you can expect to see Nazem Kadri, Leo Komarov and Connor Brown lined up against the TJ Oshie-Niklas Backstrom-Ovechkin line and likely the James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Mitch Marner units matched against Marcus Johansson-Evgeni Kuznetsov-Justin Williams.

That would give the “rookie line” of Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews and William Nylander the most favorable matchup against the Capitals third line, centered by Lars Eller. Matthews did not score in the first two games and was appeared tentative early in the series, but started to get up to speed in the third period and overtime of Game 2.

"I think (matching lines) helps, but in some ways, you don't want to get yourself in trouble by letting (Caps coach Barry Trotz) run your bench. You want to do what's good for you. It's pretty apparent by how he sends his guys out on D-zone faceoffs and O-zone faceoffs who he wants to play where." Babcock said. "We have to look at that but we also have to get our people on the ice so it's the best for our situation. We need some rhythm coming off our bench, sometimes you get too carried away and get no rhythm. That's no good either."




The Leafs got some unexpected offense from the fourth line on Saturday, as rookie Kasperi Kapanen scored the tying goal in the second period and game-winner in overtime. In Game 3,
Toronto will need Frederik Andersen to repeat what he did on Saturday, but will also need special teams to play much better and make the difference against the more experienced and heavily favored Caps.

Toronto’s power play (ranked second in the NHL during the regular season) went 1 for 6 in Washington, while their penalty killing (10th in the league) has allowed three goals in six attempts.

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Listen to the latest edition of the Blue N' White Tonight Podcast, as we discuss the first two games of the Leafs - Capitals series.



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