Saturday game preview

win at the Air Canada Centre last month, Burns scored the overtime winner along with picking up assists on a pair of power-play goals. Heading into Friday’s action, Burns led all NHL defencemen in power-play points with 17, including five goals. In the wake of Thursday’s 2-1 loss in L.A., in which Toronto’s penalty kill went 2-for-2, the Leafs’ man-short unit ranked 16th in the league with an 80.3 per cent success rate.

Home sour home: While the Sharks are among the NHL’s best road teams — heading into Friday only the Washington Capitals could boast more wins away from home than the Sharks, who’ve won 13 of 21 road outings. But the Sharks stand alone as the league’s worst home team with a 5-12-0 record at the SAP Center, where they’ve lost two straight.

Score first: Among the reasons for the Sharks’ misery in their not-so-- friendly confines? They’ve surrendered the first goal in 12 of their 17 home games. They’re 0-12 in those games. Perhaps the Leafs would do well to reverse a trend that has seen them outshot in the first period of their previous two Western road games by a combined total of 34-14.

Up next: Wednesday vs. Columbus, ACC, 7 p.m. Dave Feschuk