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The Toronto Maple Leafs hope to take rebound from one of their weakest efforts of the season in Anaheim against the short-handed Ducks at the Honda Center on Wednesday night.
In spite of being without center Ryan Kesler all season, Anaheim is 6-4-1 under former Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle, but the Ducks will be without other key players against Toronto in the second game of their Golden State road trip and first of back-to-backs in Southern California.
Anaheim will be without veteran defensemen Cam Fowler (knee), Kevin Bieksa (hand) and center Ryan Getzlaf (face), who was placed on injured reserve after a deflected puck hit him up high in Carolina earlier this week.
John Gibson (5-3-1, 2.80 GAA, .921 Sv %) will get the start in goal for Anaheim and former tandem partner Frederik Andersen (6-5-0, 3.46 GAA, .896 Sv %) will go for Toronto. Andersen was sharp in a 36-save performance against the Sharks on Monday and will make his 12th start of the season and first start against the Ducks in Anaheim.
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock is looking for more effort and responsible play from a reshuffled lineup to shake his club out of their recent funk.
“We just can’t turn the puck over in the neutral zone. It can’t be an obstacle for us. We have to get on the forecheck and spend time in their zone. We didn’t do enough of that (on Monday). Babcock said after the morning skate. “You want to have the puck and you want to play in the (offensive) zone, that’s the fun zone and in order to do that, you have to get through the neutral zone.…
Veterans Patrick Marleau and Ron Hainsey did not skate on Wednesday with the club playing back-to-back games, but both will be in the lineup.
It is expected that Toronto will maintain the line combinations used in practice on Tuesday. Connor Carrick is expected to take Roman Polak’s spot on the bottom pairing with Andreas Borgman. Josh Leivo will play the right side with Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri, Marleau will center James van Riemsdyk and Connor Brown and Tyler Bozak will be on the fourth line between Matt Martin and Mitch Marner.
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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his 31 Thoughts column reported that the Leafs have the inside track on KHL defenseman Igor Ozhiganov.
The blueliner’s KHL contract expires after this season, which means he will not be available to sign with any NHL club until next April or May.
The 25-year-old is playing his third full season for CSKA Moscow and scored a career-high 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) in 50 games last season, but has just two assists in 20 KHL games this season.
Former NHLer Nikita Nesterov leads CSKA with 12 points and former Leaf Alexey Marchenko has seven points.
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