The Toronto Maple Leafs complete their Western Canada road swing against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday, hoping to stay within range of the Boston Bruins in the race for home ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Oilers are winners of their last four games and have a slim chance of climbing back into the Western Conference playoff race, as they trail Minnesota by seven points for the final wildcard spot but have two games in hand on the Wild.
Toronto is four points in back of the Bruins and the hottest team in the NHL hosts league-worst Ottawa at TD Garden on Saturday, but after this weekend Boston plays only four of their remaining 14 games at home, while the Leafs have seven games at Scotiabank Arena and seven on the road.
The Leafs are expected to make a few lineup changes after blowing a 2-0 lead in an overtime loss to Vancouver on Wednesday. Nazem Kadri will return after missing eight games with concussion issues and Igor Ozhiganov will sub in for Justin Holl.
Frederik Gauthier was absent from Friday’s practice, with Nic Petan taking his place between Tyler Ennis and Connor Brown. Head coach Mike Babcock indicated that the big center was ill, but expects him to suit up on Saturday after he was not happy with the performance of Petan, Ennis and Trevor Moore against the Canucks.
Frederik Andersen will make his fourth straight and 50th start of the season for the Leafs. Earlier this week, Babcock stated earlier this week that he was looking to play his starter 56 games (which would necessitate an even split of games between him and backup Garret Sparks over the final four weeks), but on Friday he reversed course on a choice that would all but end Toronto’s chances of catching the Bruins.
“The math was wrong. This was on me.” Babcock said. “We have the schedule all laid out. I feel that (Andersen) is going to get around 60 (games), but who knows.”
Toronto has three back-to-backs left on their schedule, which if they followed the practice of playing Sparks only one of those games would give Andersen 61 starts on the season (five less than the 66 games he started each of the last two seasons).
Whether Babcock sticks to his schedule will be determined by whether the Leafs are still in a race with Boston. If they fall further behind, it could mean extra work for the backup to give Andersen more rest, after he appeared sluggish at times during the seven-game series with the Bruins last April. If they are within a point or two, it is possible that Babcock will deviate from his usual modus operandi and play his starter in both ends of of a back-to-back to get the critical extra game at home.
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