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With the loss of Morgan Rielly, the Leafs will have to deal with some adversity for the first time this season. They have been relatively injury free all season long, and tonight’s game against the Rangers will be a very good test for the team.
Gardiner moves up to the top pairing with Nikita Zeitsev, and Frankie Corrado makes it into the line-up paired up with Connor Carrick. Knowing Babs, i don’t foresee Corrado getting more than 10 minutes of ice time tonight, he will be sheltered leaving the other pairings with 15 extra minutes of high impact ice time after the loss of Rielly.
Corrado has been barking about his lack of playing time this season with the Leafs, and Babs summed it up perfectly today, “the balls in your court.” Thank god he just came off a conditioning stint with the Marlies, before that, he was a highly paid season ticket holder in the press box.
The last time the Leafs and Rangers met, the Leafs blanketed the Rangers using their speed and relentless forecheck while not allowing the Blueshirts to use their speed to their advantage. I have a feeling that the Rangers will be playing with a little more fortitude tonight seeing that Hank has been a tire fire of late, allowing 16 goals on 76 shots over his last seven periods.
Vigneault said that Lundqvist will get the start tonight seeing that Antti Raanta is still out with an LBI.
Should be a good game.
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