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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes on the Maple Leafs. The Leafs held a team meeting at the Enterprise Center ahead of Tuesday’s game against the St. Louis Blues. 

The Leafs will wrap up a season-​long trip tonight in St. Louis and this is the biggest challenge of the six-game swing. The Blues are the hottest team in hockey having won 10 straight while outscoring their opponents 40-14. And yet Mike Babcock believes this is actually the perfect opponent for his team to face right now.  

“I think it’s so important for our team to play in this game, to be involved in it,” Toronto's head coach said. “It’s the time of year you've got to get to the next level. You have to have swagger and know you can win these games. We're excited to play them. It should be a lot of fun, there won’t be a lot of space."

The Leafs opened the trip with a win in Montreal before losing against the Rangers despite firing 56 shots on net. That was followed by impressive wins in Colorado and Vegas before a shutout defeat in Arizona. 

“We want to start preparing for playoffs and we have a chance to do that here tonight,” said defenceman Morgan Rielly. “We're not necessarily used to these long trips, but I think it’s been good. I think if we win here tonight it’s a great trip, so that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Toronto is having a great season and yet the team’s longest win streak is just five games, accomplished three times, so they have a lot of respect for what the Blues are doing.

“Yeah, it's crazy,” said centre Nazem Kadri. “You, obviously, need to be feeling it. I think in that span you probably get a little bit of luck as well and, you know, the hockey Gods are on your side at that point. It feels good to go through a stretch like that and you feel pretty invincible, but we got to come in here understanding we can win and having the confidence to do so.”

The Blues are now tied with the Sabres for the longest win streak this season (Nov. 8-27) and can establish a new franchise record tonight. ​

“We're looking to snap the streak,” Rielly said. 

Getting off to a good start will be vital. The Blues haven’t played from behind since Feb. 5, eight games ago​.

Babcock, meanwhile, seems to live for these types of challenges. 

“I like what we have [here] because they’re 15-4-1 or something; they’re the best team in the National Hockey League since Jan. 3. It’s well-documented. You know you’re coming into a game with a good opportunity to play a good team and we’re excited to be doing that,” he said. 

Babcock is actually shortchanging St. Louis by one win. The Blues are 16-4-1 in that stretch (.786), which is just ahead of the Boston Bruins (13-3-4), who have used their hot streak to pull three points in front of the Leafs in the Atlantic Division standings. The Leafs have played two fewer games. 

 

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The Leafs didn't simply burn the tape after that underwhelming effort against the Coyotes. 

"I did my due diligence like you always do," Babcock noted. "We talked about it the other morning; we showed some clips about ourselves. We basically, what we tried to do is, the game wasn’t a good game – we know that – but there was still some detail in the game offensively and defensively that we weren’t good enough at. If we want to get to – we talk about the next level – we have to improve in those areas."

Rielly highlighted a couple specific things that need fixing. 

“We got to do a better job of breaking the puck out and playing off the cycle,” Rielly said. “When you look at the game we played in Phoenix, I don’t think we had a whole lot of speed and I don’t think we had a lot of zone time so, moving forward, we want to improve on that and that will be a focus tonight: breaking pucks out quicker and hanging onto the puck in the offensive zone longer.”

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The Blues run is being backstopped by Jordan Binnington who is 12-1-1 with a .937 save percentage. He's gone 127 minutes and 16 seconds without allowing a goal.

“The kid here looks like a real good goaltender,” observed Babcock. “He can really handle the puck; he helps out their D, for sure. Any time a guy's feeling good, you’ve got to get on the inside and you've got to get some opportunity against him, without any question.”

 

Most of the Leafs won't be all that familiar with the 25-year-old Richmond Hill, Ont., native. There is at least one exception, as Rielly played with Binnington on Team Canada at the 2013 World Juniors in Ufa, Russia. 

What does Rielly remember about Binnington?

“Outgoing. I think the two goalies were Malcolm [Subban] and him so that would make for a dynamic duo so it was pretty fun. I mean, that’s a long time ago. We were all just enjoying the experience.”​

Rielly has done his own pre-scout on his old teammate.

“I've talked to a few of his teammates about him and so we got a challenge tonight,” he said. 

Kadri isn't doing any extra scouting.

“Not any more than any other goaltender,” he said. “We'll watch a few of the goals he's allowed and we've got our goaltending coach [Steve Briere] doing the pre-scout on him. There’s definitely certain things you circle and try and pay attention to heading into the game and hopefully it pays off ... We got to get guys in front and hopefully create some deflections or rebounds.”

So, like the play linemate William Nylander made on Saturday, which led to a disallowed goal due to a high stick?

“That was kind of cool, actually,” recalled Kadri. “That’s exactly what we’re talking about, just creating those random pucks and those are the toughest for goaltenders to stop. But, obviously, great hand-eye co-ordination and it was unfortunate that couldn’t drop, because it would’ve been a big goal for us.”

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Asked what stands out about the big, mobile Blues blueline, Babcock highlighted another attribute.

“Well, I mean, they're long,” he said. “What people don't understand is it’s great to be mobile, it’s great to be skilled and all that, but long takes up room and they've got a number of them. I think [GM Doug Armstrong] Army’s done a good job to build a real D corps.”

Other than the 6-foot Vince Dunn, the rest of the St. Louis defence will be 6-foot-3 or taller tonight. 

Jake Muzzin and Ron Hainsey will be the tallest Leafs defencemen tonight at six-foot-three. 

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After missing Saturday's game with a left leg injury, Andreas Johnsson is trending toward a return tonight. 

"That’s sure the way we're set up to go," said Babcock. "Now, we’ll know more at warm-up time."

Projected Leafs line-up for Tuesday's game: 

Hyman-Tavares-Marner 

Marleau-Matthews-Kapanen

Johnsson-Kadri-Nylander 

Lindholm-Gauthier-Brown 

 

Rielly-Hainsey 

Muzzin-Zaitsev 

Gardiner-Dermott 

 

Andersen

Sparks