Toronto Maple Leafs hockey is back with a big test and a massive two points on the line in Tampa Bay (7:30 p.m. EST, Sportsnet)
Game Day Quotes
Craig Berube on whether he will manage Auston Matthews’ workload in the game:
I don’t know about that. I will see where he is at later on today. I’ll see how he is looking on the ice, too. We got back-to-back games, too, so we’ll need everybody tonight in the first game back from a long layoff. We need to manage the minutes, for sure.
I say that, though, and then it changes, eh? Haha.
Berube on the expectations for the first game back after the break:
A little bit of the timing and execution could be off. We haven’t played in a long time. It is going to be quick. The guys will have a lot of energy — the guys who were off. We have to come out skating hard and be a physical team tonight, and be a hard team to play against.
This is a very good team we’re playing against. We all know that. We will have to earn everything we get tonight.
Berube on the decision to start Anthony Stolarz in Tampa:
I liked his last game in Edmonton and how he was trending in the right direction. We kind of want to keep that going with him. We will need both of them in a back-to-back, but that really was the reason. During the week in practice, I thought he got better and better as it went along. That is why I went with him.
Auston Matthews on the challenge of jumping back into the NHL schedule so soon after the Olympic final:
More physical than anything, with the jet lag and time change. The last 48 hours have been pretty crazy. I’ll just try to go out there and do my best.
A lot of it is probably mental, too, but I’ll go out there. I got a good night’s rest. I’ll get a good meal in today, and I’ll just go out there and be a professional.
Lightning coach Rob Zettler on the challenge presented by the Maple Leafs:
Two really good lines. That is our job as coaches, with the Matthews line and the Tavares-Nylander line. They’re both dangerous. They both can make a lot of plays, and they’re very dynamic off the rush. That is where we have to focus our play — not allowing that to happen.
Zettler on the absence of head coach Jon Cooper, who is attending to personal matters after the loss of his father:
I spoke to him last night about a lot of personal stuff. Our thoughts and prayers are with Coop and his family. That is the number one thing — that he takes care of business back home. He left this morning for Vancouver.
I am confident in our guys. They’ve been excellent in so many ways this year, including at times like this when Coop is missing, or something happens to one of the guys. We’ve had guys step up all year, whether people are missing through injury or personal reasons. They’ve really done an excellent job of responding.
I expect nothing less. They expect nothing less of themselves.
Coop is a huge, huge part of this. He leads the way for us in so many ways. We want to make sure we have a good showing for him.
Zettler on the message to his players coming off a long break:
The one thing we talked about, after congratulating all of the Olympians for an unbelievable tournament, was puck management. We’re playing a good team in Toronto, a division team. We haven’t played a ton of division games, so these ones are critical.
We had a really good run into the Olympic break. We just didn’t get a ton of separation from the teams in our division. These are chances for us. We have Toronto tonight, and Buffalo in a couple of nights. These are chances for us to get a little more separation.
Puck management will be a big part of it, especially when you haven’t played in two weeks. We didn’t give up a lot of chances, knock on wood, going into tonight, but our success has come from breaking the puck out and managing the puck coming out of our end. We’ve done a really good job of it over the past couple of months. Hopefully, the trend continues after two weeks off.
Zettler on the expectations for the Olympic participants in the first game back:
Initially, they’ll probably be the best players on the ice, I would think. The bulk of both teams have been watching on the couch and practicing, but ultimately, practices are not like games.
The [Olympians] have been playing at a high level for a couple of weeks now. Generally speaking, they are the best guys on the ice already, but I would guess their execution is going to be at a level higher than the guys who haven’t been playing.
Maple Leafs (27-21-9) vs. Lightning (37-14-4): Head-to-Head Stats
via NaturalStatTrick.com & AdvancedHockeyStats.com
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#74 Bobby McMann – #34 Auston Matthews – #11 Max Domi
#63 Matias Maccelli – #91 John Tavares – #88 William Nylander
#23 Matthew Knies – #55 Nic Roy – #89 Nick Robertson
#18 Steven Lorentz – #24 Scott Laughton – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly – #25 Brandon Carlo
#22 Jake McCabe – #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#2 Simon Benoit – #28 Troy Stecher
Goaltenders
Starter: #41 Anthony Stolarz
#60 Joseph Woll
Extras: Dakota Joshua, Easton Cowan, Philippe Myers
Injured: Chris Tanev (LTIR)
Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines
Forwards
#93 Gage Goncalves – #21 Brayden Point – #86 Nikita Kucherov
#38 Brandon Hagel – #17 Dominic James – #59 Jake Guentzel
#28 Zemgus Girgensons – #37 Yanni Gourde – #29 Pontus Holmberg
#42 Curtis Douglas – #22 Oliver Bjorkstrand
Defensemen
#90 JJ Moser – #43 Darren Raddysh
#51 Charle-Édouard D’Astous – #77 Victor Hedman
#27 Ryan McDonagh – #81 Erik Cernak
#78 Emil Lilleberg
Goaltenders
Starter: #88 Andrei Vaislevskiy
#31 Jonas Johansson
Injured/Out: Anthony Cirelli, Nick Paul, Max Crozier
