Scouting the Enemy: Toronto Maple Leafs

Record: 12-13-6

Leading scorers: Matt Stajan (7G, 17A, 24pts), Nik Antropov (12G, 11A, 23pts)

Blogs:  Pension Plan Puppets | Maple Leaf Hot Stove

Did you hear?  After sitting out the first four months of the season, Mats...

What's that?  Oh, he didn't?  My mistake. 

Ahem.

Well uh, did you see that Bruins game the other night?  The Maple Leafs were down 5-1 at one point but they rallied back to...

Really?  They lost?  Man, I need to keep up on my news.

Well then.  Prior to Thursday night's 8-5 loss to the Bruins, the Leafs beat the Islanders, Sabres and Devils before entering into a shooting match with Boston.  In other words, they're kinda sorta winning so let's not just dismiss this game as an easy win.  (See?  I'm playing it safe.)

So far this season the Pens have a 1-0 lead in the series courtesy of a 4-1 win back on October 18.  Nothing to really brag about there.  Frankly, up until looking at the schedule for double, triple and quadruple confirmation, I could've sworn the two teams met at least twice.  But I guess I was thinking preseason.

Anyways, what can we expect from the Leafs?  Well, if it comes down to a shootout you can probably expect Jason Blake to do some kind of weird, spin-o-rama thing.  I'd get into the whole argument over whether or not it was legal, but frankly I don't care either way.  They limited the Devils to just one point, so at that moment I was a Leafs fan.

Only that moment.

If Curtis Joseph gets the start in net (unlikely), then it might be safe to say we can expect a win.  He's 0-4-1 this season and does not fair well when used as a replacement goaltender during a shootout either (if that's a factor).

Not that the Leafs would try that again, but whatever.

You can also expect me to be absent for this game thread, although that shouldn't stop you from joining the others - should they be so kind as to stop in.  It seems like it's been pretty hard getting everyone together at once, but I'm sure we'll strike gold some time this season.  I will be watching this one in the presence of a Leafs fan and a Thrashers fan (they exist).  Should be fun times.

Leafs injury report after the jump.