Toronto Maple Leafs Game Day #17: Marner and Matthews reunited vs. Nashville

Having won eight of their past nine games, the Toronto Maple Leafs are shaking up their lines for Tuesday’s home game against the Nashville Predators.

The new look is a lot like the old look. That means Mitch Marner and Nick Ritchie are flanking Auston Matthews. William Nylander is back with John Tavares. Michael Bunting is moving to the fourth line.

“I feel like their games are going individually,” said Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe. “I think that is a huge part of why our power play has produced the way that it has.”

“The timing was right with us here – two days between games – we have a chance to breathe and go back to a look that we wanted to start, now that we feel the players are playing better,” Keefe continued.

John Tavares (8 G, 7 A) and William Nylander (7 G, 8 A) are tied for the Maple Leafs scoring lead.

Jack Campbell will start in net for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

FORWARD LINES

Ritchie – Matthews – Marner

Kerfoot – Tavares – Nylander

Engvall – Kampf – Kase

Bunting – Spezza – Simmonds

DEFENCE

Rielly – Brodie

Muzzin – Holl

Sandin/Dermott – Liljegren

GOALTENDERS

Campbell

Woll

Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators are on a good run lately with one regulation loss in the past 10 games.

They are doing this despite some notable injuries recently. Filip Forsberg, who may be their best forward, remains out of the lineup with an upper-body injury. Forward Nick Cousins and defenceman Alexandre Carrier are getting closer to returning. They are not expected to play at Toronto.

Three Predators are tied for the team lead in scoring, each with 16 points. Defenceman Roman Josi is one of the game’s premier puck-moving defencemen. He won the Norris Trophy in 2019-2020.

Matt Duchene is coming off an abysmal season, scoring 13 points (6 G, 7 A) in 34 games. This season, he has 16 points (9 G, 7 A) in 15 games.

Finally, Mikael Granlund has also put up 16 points (3 G, 13 A) in 15 games. That is notably better than he has scored since arriving in Nashville.

The Predators do have some intriguing young talent. Rookies Tanner Jeannot and Philip Tomasino are already playing significant roles.

Juuse Saros will be in net for Nashville.

Here are expected lines for the Nashville Predators on Tuesday:

FORWARD LINES

Kunin – Granlund – Duchene

Jeannot – Johansen – Tomasino

Trenin – Sissons – Olivier

McCarron – Novak – Tolvanen

DEFENCE

Josi – Fabbro

Ekholm – Benning

Borowiecki – Myers

GOALTENDERS

Saros

Rittich

Watch on TSN and listen on TSN 1050 in Toronto.

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