Tonight with have a rare interconference matchup between the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs, in which Minny has won seven straight encounters. Any hockey follower knows however, that the Maple Leafs have transformed drastically over the past couple of seasons, and have turned into a very offensive stacked hockey club.
Both of these teams went over in each of their first five starts to the season, and both operated on a very high tempo start to the 2017-18 season..for better or worse. In their past couple weeks however, we have seen a combination of a step up in defense or a decline in offense with both of these squads. To make matters worse, Auston Matthews will not be playing tonight for the Leafs. Normally, I do not like to put too much stock into injury influence, but in this case, Matthews is really the spark plug of that Leafs first line. Morning skates today indicate that Patrick Marleau will likely be centering Zach Hyman and James Van Riemsdyk on the top line, so I see a bit of a chemistry setback here. Babcock will also have his boys play back a bit more after blowing a two goal lead against Vegas two nights ago.
While Toronto still has a persistent offense, the Wild have been in much better defensive form, as only 3 of their last 8 games have gone OVER the total. Coming off a 5-3 loss in Boston, Minnesota will be wary of Toronto's offense today..despite the absence of their superstar. Minnesota will have to rely on a defensive game, as they too are also without key players, and really do not have much scoring depth outside of the top two lines. Look for the Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon top pairing to be the main factor and focus in the Wild's success today, as they contain the top lines of Toronto while Minnesota's forwards take a defensive but opportunistic approach.
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Wild/Maple Leafs:
Tonight with have a rare interconference matchup between the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs, in which Minny has won seven straight encounters. Any hockey follower knows however, that the Maple Leafs have transformed drastically over the past couple of seasons, and have turned into a very offensive stacked hockey club.
Both of these teams went over in each of their first five starts to the season, and both operated on a very high tempo start to the 2017-18 season..for better or worse. In their past couple weeks however, we have seen a combination of a step up in defense or a decline in offense with both of these squads. To make matters worse, Auston Matthews will not be playing tonight for the Leafs. Normally, I do not like to put too much stock into injury influence, but in this case, Matthews is really the spark plug of that Leafs first line. Morning skates today indicate that Patrick Marleau will likely be centering Zach Hyman and James Van Riemsdyk on the top line, so I see a bit of a chemistry setback here. Babcock will also have his boys play back a bit more after blowing a two goal lead against Vegas two nights ago.
While Toronto still has a persistent offense, the Wild have been in much better defensive form, as only 3 of their last 8 games have gone OVER the total. Coming off a 5-3 loss in Boston, Minnesota will be wary of Toronto's offense today..despite the absence of their superstar. Minnesota will have to rely on a defensive game, as they too are also without key players, and really do not have much scoring depth outside of the top two lines. Look for the Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon top pairing to be the main factor and focus in the Wild's success today, as they contain the top lines of Toronto while Minnesota's forwards take a defensive but opportunistic approach.
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