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The Toronto Maple Leafs return to action looking to make it 13 straight home victories in a row against the Detroit Red Wings at Air Canada Centre on Saturday.
Mike Babcock was pleased with the response from his club on Thursday in Nashville, bouncing back after giving up four unanswered goals in the loss to Tampa on Tuesday with arguably their most complete effort of the season.
Toronto will stay with the same lineup that won in Music City. Matt Martin, Josh Leivo, Dominic Moore and Connor Carrick were extra skaters at the club’s morning skate on Saturday and will be healthy scratches. Injured winger Leo Komarov was not on the ice and is still listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury.
Frederik Andersen will make his 61st start of the year for the Leafs against the Wings. Andersen is on pace to make 67 starts if Babcock continues to play him in every non back-to-back game.
The Leafs face a busy schedule to end the regular season, with eight games in the final two weeks. Six of those eight games are at home, but unless Toronto sweeps and Boston or Tampa stumbles, they will start on the road when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin on April 11.
The Bruins moved seven points in front of the Leafs after a 3-2 comeback win over Dallas on Friday, and trail Tampa Bay by four points with a game in hand. Boston faces the Lightning two more times in the regular season, which makes it possible that they catch Tampa for top spot in the Atlantic Division and force a Lightning – Leafs first round matchup.
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With the playoffs approaching, Babcock is definitely honing in on the lineup that he intends to use. After the victory over Nashville, the Leafs head coach indicated that with Auston Matthews back and with the addition of Tomas Plekanec, he felt more than comfortable to just to roll his lines and not worry about specific matchups.
“I think (Plekanec) coming here has given us four lines now we can play at any spot.… Babcock said. “I wasn't worried about any matchups at all (on Thursday), I thought that was positive.…
At forward, the only area where there may be some wiggle room is on the fourth line. Andreas Johnsson has played well in his four-game audition, but he will likely be returned to the Marlies when Komarov is healthy.
Rookie Kasperi Kapanen has been steady as an energy forward and on the penalty kill, and should be on the fourth line after getting a taste of post-season hockey last season vs. Washington.
The acquisition of Tomas Plekanec has pretty much left Dominic Moore on the outside looking in, but after shifting to the wing from the middle last week against Montreal, it is possible that the veteran center could be utilized as a secondary faceoff specialist and penalty killer if Komarov is unable to go.
On defense, Zaitsev is slowly being brought up to speed after missing over two weeks with the flu and will likely resume his heavy ice time in the final few games. Roman Polak has seen an increased workload in recent weeks and it seems clear that the big defenseman will be given more responsibilities when the post-season begins.
"It was the other night on the bench when (Polak) ran over one of (Nashville's) best players.… Babcock said. “(Leafs assistant coach) DJ Smith said to me 'what's the Corsi rating for that?'…
Polak played over 21 minutes on Thursday (in part because of Zaitsev just returning to the lineup), but also possibly because Babcock intends to rely more on the bruising blueliner as he did against the Capitals last April.
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