The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to move over .500 for the first time this season as they take on the Vancouver Canucks at Air Canada Center.
After opening the season 4-0, the Canucks have lost seven straight and are near the bottom of the Pacific Division with a league-worst -11 goal differential and 30th in goal scoring 17 goals.
Defense will be the area of concern for head coach Willie Desjardins on Saturday, as both top pairing defensemen Alex Edler and Chris Tanev are out with injuries.
Vancouver recalled defenseman Troy Stecher from their AHL affiliate in Utica and he will pair with big Russian blueliner Nikita Tryamkin, who has played in just one game this season.
Leafs killer Ryan Miller gets the start in goal. The 36-year-old could rightfully sue his teammates for lack of support.
In five games, Miller has a sparkling 1.79 GAA and .934 save percentage, but is 1-4 because Vancouver has only scored three goals for him. Miller’s career record against Toronto is 32-18-3-3(mostly with Buffalo), with a 2.57 GAA, and .919 save percentage.
Toronto will go with the same lineup that won two straight over Edmonton and Buffalo, including goaltender Frederik Andersen, who made 42 saves and earned first star in a 2-1 victory over the Sabres.
Auston Matthews (who leads the Leafs with six goals and 46 shots on goal) continues to play well entering his second month in the NHL, but is scoreless in his last five games.
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GM Lou Lamoriello has been quite adept at playing the roster shell game so far this season, but decision time may be looming for some players in the next week to 10 days.
The Leafs bought themselves a week by sending forward Josh Leivo down to the Marlies on a conditioning stint.
Toronto plays a pair in St. John’s this weekend and against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday, before Leivo will return to the 23-man roster and force the club to make room by placing Peter Holland, Seth Griffith or Frank Corrado on waivers, send waiver exempt Connor Brown or Nikita Soshnikov down or put Leivo on waivers to be sent down to the Marlies.
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Corrado will be a healthy scratch for the 12th straight game against the club that drafted him in 2011. Injuries to blueliners Martin Marincin and Matt Hunwick have not enabled the 23-year-old to crack the Toronto lineup and Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy reports that the former Canuck is getting frustrated by his lack of opportunity.
Toronto may opt to send Corrado down to the AHL for a conditioning stint (as they did last season during the first half when he was being healthy scratched), but that requires the player giving his approval.
Rejecting the conditioning stint might force the Leafs to place the blueliner on waivers or to facilitate a trade.
Hunwick was placed on injured reserve earlier this week and according to TSN’s Kristen Shilton, there is no timetable for the veteran’s return from a lower body injury, which immediately raises suspicion of whether we’ve seen the last of Hunwick for a significant period of time.
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