Minnesota @ Toronto preview
Scotiabank Arena
Last Meeting ( Dec 4, 2021 ) Toronto 3, Minnesota 4
The Minnesota Wild realize the importance of a strong start when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night in a meeting of struggling teams.
The Wild fell behind 2-0 after one period Tuesday night and took a 4-3 loss to the host Ottawa Senators despite coming back to tie the game in the third.
"It's more frustrating how we started," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "They took the game away from us early, and we didn't catch it until the second period. And this league is too good to spot teams. They started right; we started wrong."
The Wild have lost three of their past four games.
"We've got to be a team that comes out and gets to our game real quick and outwork teams," said Jon Merrill, who scored a goal to tie the game at 3-3 in the third period. "And we just didn't do enough of that in the first period and I thought that was the difference."
The Maple Leafs did score first Tuesday against the host Columbus Blue Jackets but lost 4-3 in overtime after tying the game late in the third period.
Even though it was their fifth loss in the past seven games, the Maple Leafs were encouraged by the performance in Columbus, especially after losing 5-2 Monday to the host Montreal Canadiens.
"I thought our effort structurally was entirely better than it was (Monday) night, so I was happy with that," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "I thought we easily could have had two points here today."
"We did a lot of good things tonight, better than our last two outings," said Auston Matthews, who had a goal and two assists at Columbus. "I think we can be a lot more proud of our effort tonight. We found our way back and got one point, but obviously leaving the rink sour."
Matthews took a career-high 11 shots on goal on Tuesday in recording his fourth game this season with three or more points.
The Wild defeated the Maple Leafs 4-3 in a Dec. 4 shootout at St. Paul, Minn.
With Jake Muzzin (concussion protocol) out, Ilya Lyubushkin made his debut with the Toronto defense on Tuesday and played 15:28. He was obtained in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.
"That first period especially, there were times he had to defend, and he showed that, when you come into his space, generally he gets the play stopped," Keefe said. "That's a good quality and one we need in our defensemen. He battled, he competed."
The Maple Leafs outshot the Blue Jackets 42-30.
"I thought the team played amazing and deserved two points," Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell said. "They just shot and beat me and it's not acceptable on my part. We should have won 3-0, so just have to move on."
Minnesota was without Mats Zuccarello (upper-body injury) on Tuesday.
Zuccarello, who has 17 goals and 35 assists on the season, has a five-game points streak (three goals, seven assists). He has 11 multi-point outings in his past 14 games and has 30 points in his past 18 games.
He is expected to play Thursday. He took part in practice Wednesday, but Jordan Greenway (upper-body injury) did not. Kaapo Kahkonen is expected to start in goal Thursday.
--Field Level Media