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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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TORONTO – It’s barely December, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are already talking about must-win games.

In measuring his team's track towards a potential playoff berth, coach Mike Babcock wants to earn six points from every five-game segment this season. The Maple Leafs have five points heading into Wednesday's game against the Minnesota Wild, the last of this segment. Currently sitting in the basement of the Atlantic Division as a .500 team, the players see no room for error.

“In our minds, it’s a must-win,” said Auston Matthews. “To get the points that we want in each segment, it’s definitely a big game. We’re at home, it’s our building and we want to make a statement.”

Toronto reached its six-point goal in only one of the previous four segments, but the idea is a spot in the playoffs is still possible if they can get on track.

“What I found over the years is, whether we’re winning 50 games in Detroit or here in Toronto, if you just stay focused on what you’re doing, things work out in the end,” Babcock said. “If you get six in every five-game segment, it’s absolutely perfect. You get to playoffs.”

It’s hardly a revolutionary concept, but the players have bought into the one-game-at-a-time approach. Nazem Kadri claimed he’s so zeroed in on the contest at hand, he doesn’t even know who the team’s next opponent is.

“For a young team, it helps us to focus a little more,” Kadri said. “You self-critique yourself as a player every night, almost every shift. It can get a little more specific than that, but the segments help.”

Toronto is 8-3-0 at home this season, and they hope being back here yields a better result than their first matchup with the Wild. Back on Oct. 20, the Maple Leafs blew a third-period lead and fell 3-2 on the road.

Going from game four to game 25 includes evolutions for any team, and Minnesota is a heavier, harder-hitting group than Toronto saw earlier in the season. Wednesday is the fifth and final game of the Wild’s current road trip, with only one win to their credit.

“Early in the season, we didn’t really know our systems yet and neither did they,” said Mitch Marner. “They’ve turned their season around since we saw them. They battle hard down low. We can’t give them much off the rush and have to cycle hard.”

To earn a desperately needed win, the Maple Leafs’ tallest task will be solving Devan Dubnyk in net. He leads the NHL with a .946 save percentage and has carried the Wild. When he takes the ice in Toronto it will be for his 300th career game.

“Each game progressively on this trip, as far as stopping other team’s offence, has been a challenge and this is no different,” Dubnyk said. “These guys have a lot of young talent that can put the puck in the net and they’re really good in this building. There’s no underestimating [the Maple Leafs] from us.”

Morning skate notes

-  Martin Marincin was the only player absent from morning skate (aside from Peter Holland, who isn’t expected to return with a potential trade pending). Babcock said afterwards Marincin would be available to face the Wild. Like Kadri, Matt Martin and Frederik Andersen already in the past week, Marincin is likely suffering from a flu bug going around the Maple Leafs room. “We’re together all the time, so it’s hard to stay away from,” Kadri said. “It’s nothing we can’t fight through.”

- Kadri doesn’t usually get the better of Tyler Bozak in the faceoff dot during drills at the end of skate, but on Wednesday he dominated his teammate, much to his delight. Kadri admitted his faceoff percentage is one of the first things he checks on the score sheet after each game, along with time on ice and the other team’s faceoff percentage.

- William Nylander continued to skate in the fourth-line centre position he’s been relegated to for more than a week. Babcock hasn’t shied away from moving Nylander around throughout each game to keep his playing time up and maximize matchups. “Someone else is playing in [Nylander’s] spot and they’re playing well,” Babcock explained. “He’s playing a lot of different spots right now. We have 10 guys for nine spots, and right now this works good for us so that’s what we’re doing.”