The Leafs play the second of a home-and-home match against the New York Islanders tonight at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, LI before getting a week long respite for the league’s All Star Break.. Toronto completed their bevy of January home games with a 6-3-0 record courtesy of a 3-0 shutout last night. Jonas
Gustavsson earned his third shutout in the last eight starts, with Phil Kessel scoring his club leading 26th goal of the season and two goals from Matthew Lombardi, who after scoring only two goals in the first half of the season, has scored four goals in the last four games.
Gustavsson is expected to get the start in net and no lineup changes are expected for Toronto.
Lombardi’s rise in prominence has seemingly coincided with the decline of Clarke MacArthur, who has not scored in the last eight games. After attempting to jump start the slumping winger last week by reuniting him with old linemates Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin last week, MacArthur was relegated to fourth line duty playing with David Steckel and Mike Brown and saw a team low 9:58 of ice time.
In an interview on TSN Radio this morning, insider Darren Dreger hinted that the 26 year old Lloydminster, Alberta native is a candidate to be moved out of Toronto, either for a draft pick to open up salary cap room or as part of a larger deal.
MacArthur’s ability to repeat his 2010-11 season, in which he scored over 20 goals for the first time and led the club with 41 assists, was the primary concern of GM Brian Burke and the reason why he signed him to only a two year deal. While he is on pace to better his goal total, he has only nine helpers in 41 games.
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One name that continues to be mentioned as a possible target of the Blue and White is Jeff Carter. Carter’s season in Columbus has been plagued with injuries, missing 10 games with a fractured foot and currently is out with a separated right shoulder. While Carter is the big center with offensive tools that the Leafs crave, he has 10 years remaining on his current contract, which averages $5.27 Million per season.
Unless Brian Burke has made a radical change in his philosophy towards players with lengthy contracts, a deal for the former Flyer just does not add up.
Would you move MacArthur out of town or do you want the Leafs to be patient?
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All-Star Game Ticket Giveaway!
The 2012 All-Star Game takes place this Sunday, Jan. 29 in Ottawa, and HockeyBuzz is giving you an opportunity to be there in person by giving away two tickets!
Simply answer our trivia question down below by sending your answer to
[email protected]. The winner will be selected at random. The deadline for entries is Thursday, Jan. 26 at 10AM ET.
ASG Ticket Giveaway Trivia Question
When was the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs had three players make the All-Star Game and who were they?
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