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The Toronto Maple Leafs look to sweep their three-game home stand against the Boston Bruins at Air Canada Centre on Friday. The game is the first of a rare back-to-back/home-and-home match with their division rival and the annual Hall of Fame game.
The 2017 class of inductees; Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya, Mark Recchi, former Leaf Dave Andreychuk and Danielle Goyette (in the players category), long time University of Alberta head coach Clare Drake and Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs (in the builders category), hockey writer Cam Cole (Elmer Ferguson Award winner) and the late Dave Strader (Foster Hewitt Memorial Award winner will be honored prior to the game.
Dave Andreychuk and the class of 2017 scrum with media at the Hockey Hall of Fame #HHOF2017 pic.twitter.com/1X9IdNYoSD
— Bob Stellick (@bstellick) November 10, 2017
The Bruins are 6-5-3 and three points out of an Eastern Conference wild card spot, while the Leafs have 20 points and are in second place in the Atlantic.
Both clubs are dealing with injuries to key players. The Leafs will once again be without Auston Matthews, who is day-to-day with an unspecified upper body injury. Matthews has not been on the ice since the 4-3 shootout victory over Vegas on Monday and with a four-day respite looming after the game at TD Garden on Saturday, it is possible that we will not see Matthews in the lineup until next Thursday, when the Leafs host New Jersey.
The Bruins have been plagued by injuries through the first month of the season, center Patrice Bergeron missed the first five games, goaltender Tuukka Rask was out for two weeks and they will be without forwards David Krejci, David Backes and defenseman Adam McQuaid.
Brad Marchand took line rushes at the morning skate with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak after missing the last two games with a hand injury and will be in the Boston lineup.
Backup Anton Khudobin gets the start and Frederik Andersen will go for Toronto, which likely means that the goalies for the Saturday rematch will be Tuukka Rask and Curtis McElhinney.
With Matthews out, Leafs head coach Mike Babcock is expected to stay with the same line combinations, with veteran Patrick Marleau in between Connor Brown and Zach Hyman, William Nylander playing the right side with Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri, Tyler Bozak centering James van Riemsdyk and Mitch Marner and the fourth line of Matt Martin, Dominic Moore and Josh Leivo.
Marner has struggled to repeat the scoring prowess he displayed as a rookie. Although he has three points in the last three games, the 20-year-old is ninth on the club with nine points and has not scored a goal since the season opener against Winnipeg on October 4.
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