The Toronto Maple Leafs look to bounce back from a wanting effort in a 4-1 loss to Detroit at Air Canada Center Friday night, as they face the Red Wings in the second of back-to-back games at Joe Louis Arena Saturday night.
The Leafs fell to 2-3 on the season and 1-3 at home with an effort that drew boos from the soldout ACC crowd and saw another jersey thrown on the ice.
Johan Franzen scored a pair for the Red Wings, Gustav Nyquist and Justin Abdelkader added singles, and Henrik Zetterberg had 4 assists in the club’s first road win.
Goalie Jimmy Howard had a relatively easy night with 23 saves, but suffered a groin injury and was placed on injured reserve Saturday morning. Petr Mrazek was recalled from Grand Rapids of the AHL and will backup Jonas Gustavsson. The former Leaf has not played since allowing five goals to Toronto in their preseason finale on October 1.
Jonathan Bernier is expected to be between the pipes for Toronto after sitting three straight games in favor of James Reimer. Reimer made 31 saves for Toronto in the loss, but did not step up with a big save to change the momentum of the contest, which went decidedly in Detroit’s favor after Franzen’s opening goal at the 10 minute mark of the first period.
Franzen pulled a leg muscle in the second period and will be a game-time decision for Detroit coach Mike Babcock.
Leafs winger Brandon Kozun was injured in the game and is out indefinitely after suffering a lower body injury in the second period.
Head coach Randy Carlyle indicated after the game that the speedy forward might have suffered a high ankle sprain after being checked behind the net by Detroit defenseman Kyle Quincey and will have an MRI to discover the extent of the injury.
Carlyle is expected to replace Kozun with Matt Frattin, but will make no other changes to the lineup.
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Sportsnet’s Damien Cox reported Friday that Maple Leafs GM Dave Nonis was in Edmonton to scout the Oilers – Vancouver Canucks game. The Oilers added veterans Benoit Pouliot, Nikita Nikitin, Mark Fayne and Teddy Purcell in the off-season but those additions have not changed the direction of the club under former Marlies coach Dallas Eakins.
The Oilers are winless after five games, have given up a league-leading 25 goals against and have goaltender Viktor Fasth out with a groin injury.
There is no indication whether there is ongoing trade discussion between the Leafs and Oilers, but the areas of need for the two clubs might be a fit for a possible deal.
Adding veterans Andrew Ference, Nikitin and Fayne in successive off-seasons have improved their depth on the blueline, but Edmonton still does not have a legitimate top pairing defenseman to team with Justin Schultz.
The Oilers could have interest in defenseman Jake Gardiner, who Eakins coached in Toronto and who was the defense partner of Schultz at the University of Wisconsin.
The Leafs throughout the summer have been looking to add a top six forward and currently are using Daniel Winnik as a winger on the second line with Joffrey Lupul and Nazem Kadri, which could indicate an interest in 2012 first overall pick Nail Yakupov(who is in the last year of his entry level deal) or Jordan Eberle(who is making $6 Million for the next four seasons).
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