The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping to right the ship in November after a disappointing opening month, as they take on the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday.
The club’s 6-5-2 record finds the Leafs in fifth spot in the Atlantic Division and just outside of the top eight in the Eastern Conference, but there are reasons for optimism since it is generally accepted that Toronto is not playing anywhere close to their best hockey and find themselves only five points out of first place.
The Boston Bruins have shown no signs of a Stanley Cup hangover with a 9-1-2 record and are tied with the Buffalo Sabres atop the Atlantic with 20 points. Buffalo had the benefit of an easy October schedule, but have lost three of their last four games.
Montreal and Florida are only one point in front of Toronto, in spite of their slow start. The Habs have two wins over the Leafs and have won three games in a row, while Florida has points in 10 of their 13 games in spite of allowing 51 goals against. The only concern for Toronto is that Tampa Bay Lightning struggled in October (6-5-2 - 14 points) as well and will likely get things straightened out with their talented roster.
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It was expected that team captain John Tavares would make his return on Saturday after practicing two straight days and skating with wingers Trevor Moore and Mitch Marner, but head coach Mike Babcock indicated that Tavares will not play in Philadelphia will miss his seventh game with a broken finger.
Per Leafs Nation Network’s Paul Hendrick, the Leafs medical staff were not ready to clear Tavares, since he is still having problems gripping the stick, shooting and applying pressure to the injured area.
“I’m on a day-to-day path, so to speak,” Tavares said on Saturday morning. “That was the thought process knowing we have three more days (before the next game) and I’ll be at that three-week point (since the injury) to get more healing and get some more strength.”
With Tavares scratched, potential return, head coach Mike Babcock inserted veteran center Jason Spezza between Moore and Kasperi Kapanen, moved Marner back with Ilya Mikheyev and Alex Kerfoot and kept the top line of Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Andreas Johnsson and the fourth line of Nick Shore skated between Dmytro Timashov and Frederik Gauthier together.
Jake Muzzin did not travel with the club for the game on Saturday and will be replaced by Martin Marincin on the pairing with Tyson Barrie. Morgan Rielly will partner with Cody Ceci and Travis Dermott will play in his second game with Justin Holl.
Frederik Andersen will get the start for Toronto and Brian Elliott will be in goal for the Flyers, who started sophomore Carter Hart in a 4-3 shootout win over New Jersey in Newark on Friday.
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