Leafs hoping to evade Wild trap
Minnesota playing again one day after beating Ottawa
Minnesota’s Ryan Suter had a long afternoon in the Wild’s 2-0 shutout win against the Senators on Monday.
The defenceman logged almost 25 minutes, with more than 10 of that on special teams.
But the Wild were able to keep Ottawa’s power play off the board on five chances.
Toronto’s Mitch Marner, one of the Leafs’ big guns who’ve been silenced the past few games, is just the man to poke a hole in the Wild’s defence if they get tired on the second half of their back-to-back and stray into more penalties.
Here are 5 Things to Watch for when the Wild and Maple Leafs line up in Toronto on Tuesday:
1.
Wild Not Mild
Auston Matthews was among those pointing out the Wild play a trap game that can get in the head of an offensive team. Monday’s snooze-fest in Ottawa underlined that. But a win’s a win for a team that hadn’t managed one in its first four games. “They play a steady game and wait on you to make mistakes,” Matthews said.
2.
Muzz Messes Minny
The Leafs have hardly played the Wild (22 total games), but defenceman Jake Muzzin has seen them 19 times in his career and averaged 21:38 of ice-time against them. He’ll be in the trenches much of the night, though he did jump up for a goal on Saturday against Detroit.
3.
Back to Fred
It’s a back-to-back and Mike Babcock has decided to give Frederik Andersen the home start against a familiar opponent, coming off a good bounce-back win on Saturday. That leaves Michael Hutchinson with the tall order to hold the fort against Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals on Wednesday.
4.
New Look Defence
Justin Holl and Martin Marincin were a dynamic duo for the Marlies in the farm team’s Calder Cup run in 2018 and they’ll now get a chance to play in the same NHL game as the new third pairing (more on that later). They have size, but so does Kevin Gravel, who was called up Monday and could be in the lineup by Wednesday.
5.
Finding the Range
It’s early for the Leafs, but their 89 missed shots led the NHL as of Sunday afternoon, almost double the number that the conservative Wild have put near the net. But the Leafs have also committed far more giveaways than Minnesota.
As mentioned, the Maple Leafs made their first significant roster move of the young season on Monday when they sent rookie defenceman Rasmus Sandin to the Toronto Marlies.
After a great training camp and fast start with the Leafs, Sandin was exposed at times in the past couple of games.
Though management had three more games to play with before Sandin reached 10 games, when the first year of his entry level contract would kick in, they moved the 2018 first-round draft pick to the farm for now.
Gravel, 27, has played 106 NHL games for Los Angeles, as well as 36 with Edmonton last season.