Costco got it right. People love small samples.

I don't think he's anywhere near as good offensively as he showed in his first 4 games with Washington, just like I don't think he's anywhere near as bad defensively as he was in his next 4 games. But wow that a wild split there. 20% on-ice shooting percentage in his first 4 games, 80% on-ice save percentage in his next 4 games. How does that happen?

https://twitter.com/TomGulittiNHL/status/1637538009074614272

The hockey gods are very, very cruel. There was no way they were going to just let Sandin get away with a 20% on-ice shooting percentage in his first 4 games as a Cap without some swift pay back.

Isn't this a road game?

Doesn't say @ Leafs for a reason!

Formatting it like this saves a bit of time.

https://twitter.com/lukefoxjukebox/status/1637128600963907584

Figured there was a decent chance McMann would get the call-up here. Steeves is just a bit of a practice filler right now.

ZAR
HM Rielly

[Ottawa Senators]

Ottawa Senators 33-31-4, 70 points	vs.	Toronto Maple Leafs 41-18-9, 91 points
	Projected Lineups
Tkachuk-Stutzle-Batherson Debrincat-Greig-Giroux Brassard-Pinto-Brown Gauthier-Gambrell-Watson   Sanderson-Zub Chychrun-Hamonic Chabot-Brannstrom Sogaard		Jarnkrok-Matthews-Marner Bunting-Tavares-Nylander Steeves-Lafferty-Kerfoot ZAR-Kampf-Simmonds Rielly-Brodie McCabe-Schenn Giordano-Holl Murray
	Scratches
Mark Kastelic Mathieu Joseph Parker Kelly Nick Holden		Noel Acciari Timothy Liljegren Erik Gustafsson Conor Timmins
	Injuries
•Anton Forsberg - Knee - Injured Reserve •Cam Talbot - Lower Body - Injured Reserve •Josh Norris -Shoulder - Injured Reserve •Mathieu Joseph - Lower Body - Questionable •Park Kelley - Undisclosed - Questionable		•Noel Acciari - Undisclosed - Out •Ryan O'Reilly - Finger - Injured Reserve •Victor Mete - Lower Body - Injured Reserve •Jake Muzzin - Neck - Injured Reserve •Nick Robertson - Shoulder - Injured Reserve
	Game notes

OTT
•Mads Sogaard (5-4-1, 3.46 GAA, .883 Sv%) will likely start for the sens
•Ottawa was attempting to make a late and probably unlikely push for a possible wild card spot in the East, but a current losing streak of 4 games almost certainly puts an end to that

TOR
•Matt Murray (12-7-2, 2.92 GAA, .903 Sv%) will start for the Maple Leafs
•Keefe said he planned on going with a 12F/6D line-up against Ottawa, and confirmed that Acciari's injury won't change that
•Unless an additional forward gets called up for the trip Simmonds and Steeves will come into the line-up
•Keefe also said that Holl would be going back in. I'm assuming Gustafsson and either Liljegren or Schenn will be the defencemen coming out but that likely won't be confirmed until the morning or pre-game skate

	Streams
	NHL66 Sportsurge

So these refs went hard on their St. Paddy's Day celebrations before the game eh.

[Carolina Hurricanes]

Carolina Hurricanes 44-14-8, 96 points	@	Toronto Maple Leafs 40-18-9, 89 points
	Projected Lineups
Puljujarvi-Aho-Jarvis Teravainen-Kotkaniemi-Necas Martinook-Staal-Fast Noesen-Drury-Stepan Slavin-Burns Skjei-Pesce Gostisbehere-Coghlan Andersen		Jarnkrok-Matthews-Marner Bunting-Tavares-Nylander Kerfoot-Lafferty ZAR-Kampf-Acciari Rielly-Brodie McCabe-Schenn Giordano-Liljegren Gustafsson Samsonov
	Scratches
Paul Stastny Calvin De Haan Jalen Chatfield Antti Raanta		Wayne Simmonds Alex Steeves Conor Timmins Justin Holl
	Injuries
•Jalen Chatfield - Upper Body - Injured Reserve •Jake Gardiner - Hip - Injured Reserve •Ondrej Kase - Concussion - Injured Reserve •Max Pacioretty - Achilles - Injured Reserve •Andrei Svechnikov - Knee - Injured Reserve •Antti Raanta - Lower Body - Questionable		•Ryan O'Reilly - Finger - Injured Reserve •Victor Mete - Lower Body - Injured Reserve •Jake Muzzin - Neck - Injured Reserve •Nick Robertson - Shoulder - Injured Reserve
	Game notes

CAR
•Frederik Andersen (17-7-0, 2.41 GAA, .903 Sv%) will likely start for the Hurricanes

TOR
•Ilya Samsonov (23-8-3, 2.36 GAA, .916 Sv%) will likely start for the Maple Leafs
•Luke Schenn will be back in the line-up and making his Leafs 2.0 debut at home
•Keefe confirmed the team would be going with 11-7 tonight (and 12-6 tomorrow) but didn't say which extra defencemen would be in the line-up so I'm just assuming Gustafsson

	Streams
	NHL66 Sportsurge

That's his agent, so it's legit.

https://twitter.com/JFreshHockey/status/1635848778975698946

Crazy.

Going pro; look for an ATO with the Marlies shortly.

The press release already confirms he's joining the Marlies on a PTO.

[Colorado Avalanche]

Colorado Avalanche 37-22-6, 80 points	@	Toronto Maple Leafs 40-18-8, 88 points
	Projected Lineups
Rodrigues-MacKinnon-Rantanen Malgin-Compher-Nichushkin Cogliano-Eller-O'Connor Galchenyuk-Newhook-Nieto Toews-Makar Girard-Byram Johnson-Hunt Georgiev		Kerfoot-Matthews-Marner Bunting-Tavares-Nylander Lafferty-Jarnkrok ZAR-Kampf-Acciari Rielly-Brodie McCabe-Holl Giordano-Liljegren Gustafsson Samsonov
	Scratches
Kurtis MacDermid		Wayne Simmonds Alex Steeves Conor Timmins Luke Schenn
	Injuries
•Kurtis MacDermid - Lower Body - Questionable •Darren Helm - Lower Body - Injured Reserve •Gabriel Landeskog - Knee - Injured Reserve •Artturi Lehkonen - Finger - Injured Reserve •Josh Manson - Lower Body - Injured Reserve •Erik Johnson - Ankle - Injured Reserve •Pavel Francouz - Lower Body - Injured Reserve		•Ryan O'Reilly - Finger - Injured Reserve •Victor Mete - Lower Body - Injured Reserve •Jake Muzzin - Neck - Injured Reserve •Nick Robertson - Shoulder - Injured Reserve •Luke Schenn - Personal - Questionable
	Game notes

COL
•Alexandar Georgiev (29-14-5, 2.65 GAA, .917 Sv%) will likely start for the Avalanche
•A recent injury to Artturi Lehkonen has given 2 former Leafs bigger opportunities: Malgin, who has 3 goals in his last 5 games, will take his place on Colorado's 2nd line while Galchenyuk, who has 33 points in 33 games in the AHL, has been called up

TOR
•Ilya Samsonov (23-8-2, 2.41 GAA, .915 Sv%) will likely start for the Maple Leafs
•No practice for the Leafs on Tuesday, so any line-up changes are up in the air. Schenn was expected to return to Toronto on Monday so there's a chance he could be back in the line-up

	Streams
	NHL66 Sportsurge

I doubt Keefe goes with 11F/7D come playoff time. If the team is healthy I don't really think there is a "missing" forward. That line-up would look something like:

Kerfoot-Matthews-Marner
Bunting-Tavares-Nylander
Jarnkrok-O'Reilly-Lafferty
ZAR-Kampf-Acciari

Lines of course could/would be juggled a bit but that's 12 forwards strong (still looks like a group that could have used another middle-6 winger, but alas...). Knies would be the wild card. If he blows everyones socks off I could see ZAR getting pushed out of the line-up with Lafferty going down to the 4th line.

But I don't see ZAR coming out to bring in a 7th defencemen. It just makes sense to do it now with ROR out, the defence group still needing time to settle in and figure out where everyone fits, and to give the team experience with the format in the event that circumstances change and it makes more sense to go with 7D.

With that said, I think this attempt at 11F/7D has gone much, much better than it has when Keefe tried it in the past. For starters the 7th defencemen is generally a lot stronger than those last attempts, and is someone that Keefe trusts playing a lot more. I seem to recall the 7D before being someone like Liljegren early in his career or another rookie defenceman. And the forwards make a lot more sense since instead of say Spezza-Simmonds being the duo needing a rotating forward it's more of a 3rd line duo, which gives Matthews/Marner/Nylander or whoever gets the extra shift something more to work with.

Matthews
HM Nylander