Toronto Maple Leafs at Columbus Blue Jackets
Friday, August 7, 2020 – 8:00 EST
Scotiabank Arena – Toronto, Ontario
TV: Fox Sports Ohio & NBCSN; Radio: 97.1 FM
Opponent’s Blog: Pension Plan Puppets
Toronto Maple Leafs (36-25-9, 81 points, 3rd Atlantic, 8th East)
@
Columbus Blue Jackets (33-22-15, 81 points, 6th Metro, 9th East)
Win and move on. That’s the recipe tonight.
After surrendering three goals, Columbus changed netminders, scored four unanswered goals (including the first ever post-season hat trick for the team courtesy of Pierre-Luc Dubois) and pushed Toronto to the brink of elimination.
🧢🧢🧢
Take a bow, @18Dubois.#CBJ | @MarathonPetroCo pic.twitter.com/ltf4OnxRsJ
— x-Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) August 7, 2020
A win of any kind moves Columbus into the round of 16. Less than 24 hours after being down 0-3 and on the ropes, the Jackets could be well on their way to the next round.
Survive and advance.
Playoff Series
08/02/20 Game 1: Columbus 2 @ Toronto 0
08/04/20 Game 2: Columbus 0 @ Toronto 3
08/06/20 Game 3: Toronto 3 @ Columbus 4 (OT)
08/07/20 Game 4: Toronto @ Columbus
08/09/20 Game 5: (if necessary) Columbus @ Toronto
Stats
| Toronto | Columbus | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.00 (16) | GPG | 2.00 (16) |
| 2.00 (5) | GAPG | 2.00 (5) |
| 12.5% (16) | PP% | 0.0% (20) |
| 100.0% (1) | PK% | 87.5% (9) |
| 52.35% (10) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 47.65% (15) |
| 52.8% (9) | 5v5 Unblocked shot attempt % | 47.2% (15) |
| 3.53 (22) | 5v5 Shot % | 6.17 (13) |
| .929 (10) | 5v5 Save % | .964 (4) |
| Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, William Nylander, Cody Ceci, Nicholas Robertson 1 | G Leader | Pierre-Luc Dubois, 3 |
| A Leader | Cam Atkinson, 3 | |
| Auston Matthews, Alexander Kerfoot 3 | P Leader | Cam Atkinson, 4 |
| Kasperi Kapanen, 14 | PIM Leader | Nick Foligno, Vladislav Gavrikov, Boone Jenner 4 |
| 1-2 | Home/Away | 2-1 |
| 1-2 | Last 10 | 2-1 |
Projected Lineups
I’ll be totally honest – I have no idea what to do here. Alexander Wennberg’s line with Emil Bemstrom and Eric Robinson barely played after the second period. To wit:
Alexander Wennberg played just one shift in the third period and one shift in overtime. The other three lines were rolling. He got demoted. #CBJ
— Mark Scheig (@markscheig) August 7, 2020
Were I a gambling man, I’d guess Kevin Stenlund and Nathan Gerbe go in for Emil Bemstrom (underwhelming thus far this series) and Alexander Wennberg (generally bad, demoted, didn’t play late). I would also expect Elvis Merzlikins to start after making 21 saves on 21 shots last night, but who knows.
Would I be shocked if nothing changed? Not at all, this is John Tortorella we are talking about. But could everything change? Sure.
We’ll find out at 8:00 tonight.
| Alexandre Texier | Pierre-Luc Dubois | Cam Atkinson |
| Gustav Nyquist | Alexander Wennberg | Oliver Bjorkstrand |
| Nick Foligno | Boone Jenner | Liam Foudy |
| Eric Robinson | Riley Nash | Emil Bemstrom |
| Zach Werenski | Seth Jones |
| Vladislav Gavrikov | David Savard |
| Ryan Murray | Markus Nutivaara |
| Joonas Korpisalo |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
| Zach Hyman | Auston Matthews | Mitch Marner |
| William Nylander | John Tavares | Ilya Mikheyev |
| Nick Robertson | Alexaner Kerfoot | Kasperi Kapanen |
| Kyle Clifford | Pierre Engvall | Jason Spezza |
| Travis Dermott | Justin Holl |
| Morgan Rielly | Cody Ceci |
| Martin Marincin | Tyson Barrie |
| Frederik Andersen |
| Jack Campbell |