Tonight Frederik Andersen will be starting his 25th game of the season and the Leafs will be looking to stick it to the Flames for the second time this season. It was just last week that Toronto faced off against Calgary out West. It was a domination victory by Toronto as they handled the Flames with ease and won the game 4-1.
The Maple Leafs has not played since Saturday when they lost 2-1 against the Vancouver Canucks. Plain and simple, the Leafs had a number of chances to put the puck in the net but couldn’t buy one. They will be facing Mike Smith tonight and you can bet they will be scoring more than a single goal. Furthermore I think Vancouver was lucky to get the two points on the weekend as there are not going to be too many games this season where the Leafs hold the opposition to two goals and still lose the game. It’s without question this young Leafs team can put the puck in the net, and Matthews is not only due for a multi goal game but he’s due to break out with a handful in a short time.
Another line that should be doing better is the JVR-Bozak-Marner combination. Last season they were excellent, this season not so much. Bozak’s production in particular is down, as is his play unfortunately. But that could change, the season is still relatively young and a good month or two and this line could be red hot and producing against other team’s secondary or tertiary lines as Matthews and Kadri’s lines more often than not will get smothered with the opposition’s best defensive lines/defenders.
Bozak got food poising when the Leafs travelled to Vancouver over the weekend. It happened Friday night when Bozie couldn’t keep any food down and was out of commission for the next few days. Yesterday he returned to practice and is hopeful to be ready to go tonight.
If by chance Bozak is not ready for tonight’s game against the Flames than William Nylander will slot into the centre position as per Mike Babcock.
Let’s not forget Bozak had a career best 55 points last season and that he’s on a contract year. That shows the importance of the rest of the season for the longest serving Leafs player on the roster.
This line does need to be better and they all know it. Marner has also had some struggles and some tinkering had been done by Babcock to try and get his guys going. It’s been over a month since Bozak scored a goal so you can be sure he’d like to get that out of the way as soon as possible and get himself in better shape as his possible last season as a Maple Leafs player could be upon us.
Bozak has just three points in his last twelve games and this line has had troubles throughout the season keeping the puck out of their own net. They have to be better if the Leafs want to seed themselves in a favorable position come playoff time. Tyler needs to be better at face-offs (something he’s prided himself on in the past) and he and Marner will have to start cashing in some of their chances.
The Leafs will have two more games later this week when they travel to Pittsburgh on Saturday night and right back home on the Sunday when they play the Edmonton Oilers.
Crosby one night and McDavid the next…It’s a thing of beauty.
Let’s hope the Leafs can take care of business this week and get them rolling in the month of December.
Thanks for reading, enjoy tonight’s game!