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The Toronto Maple Leafs hope that they can translate their winning ways on the road to success at home, as they face the Winnipeg Jets for the second and final time at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.
The Leafs beat the Jets 4-2 at the Bell MTS Centre on Wednesday to give them a perfect 5-0 road record to start the season, but at home Toronto is under .500 (2-3-0) and has put forth only one solid effort against the struggling Los Angeles Kings in the opening month.
The Jets will be playing their third game in four nights after a 2-1 win in Detroit on Friday. The club skipped the game day morning skate on Saturday and are expected to go with Connor Hellebuyck in goal after backup Laurent Brossoit made 27 saves in the win over the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.
The Leafs will not be making any lineup changes from Wednesday and Frederik Andersen (5-3-0, 2.66 GAA, .916 save percentage) will make his ninth start in goal. Defenseman Travis Dermott skated for the first time since falling ill earlier this week, but he was paired with healthy scratch Justin Holl, while Martin Marincin was paired with Igor Ozhiganov.
Saturday will be a milestone night for Tyler Ennis and Jake Gardiner, as the 2008 first rounders will be playing their 500th NHL game against the Jets. Ennis played most of his games with the Buffalo Sabres before being traded to Minnesota in June 2017 and signing as a free agent with the Leafs in early July. Gardiner was dealt by Anaheim while still at the University of Wisconsin and has played every game in Blue and White, something that head coach Mike Babcock hopes will continue past this season.
“I think Jake's an elite player. He’s got unreal hockey sense and makes great plays offensively, good defensively (but) every once in awhile, you have to give him a little tightening, but other than that he’s a real good player for us." Babcock said of the pending unrestricted free agent. “When you go around the league and you look at 50-point (defensemen), it’s so hard to be (one). There are 30 (in the NHL), so when you think of that, every team gets one. We’re fortunate enough to have two, just got to find a way to keep him.…
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Kyle Dubas continues to draw attention with recent appearances at NHL arenas this week. The Leafs GM was in New York on Sunday following his trip to Switzerland to meet with William Nylander and spoke with agent Lewis Gross, but also took in the Rangers - Calgary game and then traveled to Philadelphia to watch the Flyers and Colorado on Monday.
On Thursday, Dubas was spotted in Raleigh at the Hurricanes game against the San Jose Sharks and Adrian Dater reported on Friday that two Leafs scouts were at the Avalanche - Senators game in Denver.
Many observers of the negotiations with Nylander expected some movement towards an agreement in the days following the trip to Switzerland, but there has been none from either side.
Carolina has long been an intriguing possibility when it comes to a potential trade for a scoring forward, since they have one of the deepest defense corps in the NHL. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun indicated that the Hurricanes were one team that would have interest in Nylander if the Leafs explore trade options and that 23-year-old defenseman Brett Pesce would likely be the target if talks got serious.
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The Toronto Marlies have rebounded from a sluggish start to even their record at .500 with a 4-1 victory over the Syracuse Crunch on Friday. The win was the Marlies third in a row and is due mostly to a tightening of the club’s defense and goaltending.
After allowing a league-worst 32 goals, veteran goalie Jeff Glass allowed only four goals in home wins over Hartford, Laval and Syracuse, while the Marlies defense held the opposition to 25 shots or less in the victories.
In the win over the Crunch, Trevor Moore continued his hot scoring pace with his seventh goal in nine games and 2018 first rounder Rasmus Sandin scored in his first North American professional game.
First game, first goal.@Rasmussandin's point shot pinballs its way into the net for his first career @TheAHL goal! #MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/xKqwpVKWAO
— Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) October 26, 2018
Sandin was sidelined for nearly a month after suffering a thumb injury in a Marlies preseason game in late September and it is still uncertain whether the Leafs will keep the 18-year-old in North America for the entire season, as the club did with 2017 top pick Timothy Liljegren last year.
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