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Babcock opts for familiarity on the blueline; Leafs vs. Capitals

February 21, 2019, 1:18 PM ET [949 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs return to Scotiabank Arena after two weeks on the road and face the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals in the first of a four-game homestand on Thursday. The Leafs went 3-2-1 on their six-game road swing and are hoping to keep pace with the red-hot Boston Bruins, who pulled four points ahead of Toronto with their seventh straight win in Vegas on Wednesday.

Nazem Kadri was not on the ice Thursday morning after suffering a concussion on Tuesday and head coach Mike Babcock did not elaborate on the center’s status, other than to say that he would not play against the Caps. William Nylander replaced Kadri at center on the third line between Andreas Johnsson and Connor Brown and Tyler Ennis took Brown’s place on the right side with Par Lindholm and Frederik Gauthier.




The Leafs head coach continued to tinker with his defensive pairings at Thursday’s morning skate, which has been the case since the acquisition of Jake Muzzin last month. Muzzin was slotted on the bottom pairing with Travis Dermott, while the others were the familiar tandems of Morgan Rielly and Ron Hainsey and Jake Gardiner with Nikita Zaitsev.

“(The switching) will continue to happen till we get (the defense) sorted out.” Babcock said. “We thought (Gardiner and Zaitsev) were really good last game, probably as good as (Gardiner) has been in awhile and I thought (Zaitsev) was fantastic on the whole (road) trip,”

Frederik Andersen will make his fifth straight start for the Leafs and Braden Holtby (20-15-4, 3.07 GAA, .907 save %) will go for the Capitals.


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With four days left before the February 25th NHL Trade Deadline, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports that the Leafs, Boston and Nashvile may have kicked tires on Rangers winger Chris Kreider, but we’re told the price for the 27-year-old would be steep.

Kreider is second to Mika Zibanejad in scoring with 44 points (24 goals, 20 assists) and has another year at $4.625 Million, which would seem not to fit with Toronto’s salary cap situation next season unless they would be moving out an equivalent cap hit and their need to bolster the blueline instead of adding another top nine forward.

Brooks also indicated that pending free-agent defenseman Adam McQuaid has drawn interest from Toronto, Boston, the NY Islanders and Tampa Bay, and while the Rangers could get a pick for the veteran defenseman, they may have interest in helping out the Lightning, with New York getting their first round pick if Tampa wins the Cup this season.

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