The Toronto Maple Leafs have maintained a high level of proficiency ever since their slow start, but they will have to keep playing at that level to stay within range of division rivals Tampa Bay and Florida, as the Leafs open up a six-game road trip against the Colorado Avalanche at the Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday.
Toronto has gone 20-4-1 record since losing four straight in late October, but trail the Lightning by five points and the Panthers by three points for top spot in the Atlantic. In spite of an excellent 8-4-1 road record, it will be a tough task to keep pace playing all but one of their eight January games away from Scotiabank Arena because of the province of Ontario’s fan limitations.
The Leafs thrashed Colorado 8-3 in their previous meeting at Scotiabank Arena on December 1, but the Avs have been red-hot since, going 9-1-1 in the last 11 games, with former Leaf Nazem Kadri leading the club with 42 points (5th in the NHL) and Cale Makar leading all NHL blueliners with 14 goals.
"We have played against this team previously and (being sound defensively) was a major focus for us in that game." Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We're certainly gonna have to be really good in that area, but we also have to acknowledge (that Colorado is) not just an offensive team, this team defense extremely well. They've given up the least amount of chances in the NHL defensively, so it makes it hard to get to their goaltender."
Prior to heading out on West on Friday, the Leafs were once again hit by COVID, as forwards Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall were placed in the NHL’s protocol and will leave the club without one of their top scorers and checkers for the first leg of their long sojourn.
Forward Ondrej Kase will also not play but is expected to return to the lineup at some point during the road trip. Toronto’s revamped lines will have Alex Kerfoot on the right side replacing Marner with Michael Bunting and Auston Matthews. Ilya Mikheyev will move up to the second line with John Tavares and William Nylander, with the recently waived Nick Ritchie lining up with David Kampf and Jason Spezza.
Brett Seney (who was recalled along with Joey Anderson on Friday) will center the fourth line with veterans Kyle Clifford and Wayne Simmonds. There will be no changes on defense from Wednesday and Jack Campbell will once again start for the Leafs in goal, with Darcy Kuemper between the pipes for the Avs.
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