Game 54: Ducks Look To Improve In Toronto

Graphic: allevents.in

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks(25-18-10) continue their road trip against the Toronto Maple Leafs(30-19-5). The Ducks are 0-1-0 against the Leafs this season. The game starts at 4:00 PM PT and will be on Prime Ticket locally and AM 830.

Anaheim Outlook:

The Ducks won their first game on this road trip against the red-hot Boston Bruins, but then dropped two games to two teams that weren’t doing as well. Tonight Anaheim faces a Toronto team that is tied for third in points in the entire Eastern Conference. Hopefully they Ducks will elevate their gameplay tonight.

Keys To The Game

The Ducks started out strong against Montreal for the first five to six minutes, but then things quickly fell apart. Montreal was able to score three goals in the first period and Anaheim couldn’t recover. The Ducks did score a couple of goals, but it was too little too late. The Ducks are going to need a good start tonight, but they all need to play better defense and avoid taking too many penalties if they want to earn two points tonight.

Anaheim’s Projected Lineup:

Offense
Rickard Rakell – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano – Ryan Kesler – Jakob Silfverberg
Nick Ritchie – Adam Henrique – J.T. Brown
Chris Wagner – Antoine Vermette – Ondrej Kase

Defense
Cam Fowler  – Kevin Bieksa
Hampus Lindholm – Josh Manson
Francois Beauchemin – Brandon Montour

In Net
Ryan Miller 6-3-5, GAA 2.40, SV% .922 (Confirmed)

Toronto’s Outlook:

The Maple Leafs are in third place in the Atlantic Division with 65 points. They are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games. Auston Matthews leads the team with 23 goals. James van Riemsdyk has 20 goals.

Keys To The Game

The Leafs score an average of 3.11 goals per game which is seventh best in the NHL. If they can score at least three goals then they have a good chance at winning tonight. They do give up 33.4 shots against per game which is fourth worst in the league. Toronto will focus on getting in the shooting lanes. They will also look to improve in the face-off circle. Anaheim won 57% of the draws in the previous meeting.

Toronto’s  Projected Lineup:

Offense
Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – William Nylander
Patrick Marleau – Nazem Kadri – Mitch Marner
James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Connor Brown
Leo Komarov – Dominic Moore – Kasperi Kapanen

Defense
Morgan Rielly – Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner – Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott – Connor Carrick

In Net
Frederik Andersen, 25-15-4, GAA 2.62, SV% .921 (Confirmed)

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February 5th, 2018