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UPDATE - Per the Toronto Sun's Lance Hornby, center Tyler Bozak will not play due to illness and winger Josh Leivo will take his place in the lineup. This likely means that Patrick Marleau will shift to center and that the line combos will be scrambled.
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After the contest against the Canucks, the Leafs have a Wednesday night rematch with Calgary at ACC, followed by a back-to-back in Pittsburgh on Saturday and a rare Sunday night home game against Edmonton.
From that point, eight of the nine remaining games in December are on the road, with the lone home game being a 2pm start on the 19th against the Carolina Hurricanes to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Toronto franchise.
MUST-WATCH: #MapleLeafs 2015 draft choice Martins Dzierkals goes coast-to-coast for the #SolarBears on Friday night against Greenville 🏒😱🚨 pic.twitter.com/dYcNoempRl
— Orlando Solar Bears (@OrlandoHockey) December 2, 2017
The Leafs play three games in four nights twice against Philadelphia, Minnesota and Detroit (December 12- 15), Arizona, Colorado and Vegas (December 28-31), as well as games against Columbus and the NY Rangers.
With their 6-4 victory over Edmonton on Thursday, Toronto is 5-0-1 in their last six road games and 8-4-1 on the season. If Toronto manages to maintain that level of success through the month, the Leafs will have gone far towards locking up a playoff spot, but the schedule tilts in their favor.
On January 1, the Leafs will have 42 games remaining, but 25 of those will be at home and only 17 will be on the road.
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Toronto has a rare opportunity of achieving a three-game sweep of Western Canada against the Canucks at Rogers Arena on Saturday. Vancouver returns home after going 3-2-1 on a six-game road trip and has one of the hottest players in the league in rookie winger Brock Boeser.
Calvin Pickard takes flight to make a huge stop.#MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/vz8sAAOGdY
— Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) December 2, 2017
Boeser leads all NHL rookies and the Canucks with 25 points (13 goals and 12 assists), who are just outside of a Western Conference wild card spot with 28 points.
Frederik Andersen, who was named second star of the month for November by the NHL, will make his third straight start for the Leafs, and Jacob Markstrom is expected to be in goal for Vancouver.
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