Although Game 4 felt like a must-win game for the Toronto Maple Leafs, down 2-1 in the series at the time on home ice, Game 5 was most definitely a must-win game after being on the brink of elimination entering TD Garden down 3-1 in the series, with their backs against the wall. Fortunately, as we all know now, they pulled off a narrow 2-1 overtime win in Boston less than 48 hours ago, forcing a Game 6 back on home ice tonight in Toronto at Scotiabank Arena after one of their better all-around efforts in this series without Auston Matthews after he departed Game 4 ahead of the third period.
Playing without your best player is not ideal, especially for the Maple Leafs. But after coming out victorious on Tuesday night, forcing another game on home ice, it has been announced today the team will still be without the three-time Rocket Richard winner as he remains sidelined with his illness/injury.
Sheldon Keefe confirms that Auston Matthews is NOT available for Game 6 @TSN_Edge
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) May 2, 2024
With that being the case, the Maple Leafs will have to continue to have the next-man-up mentality if they want to force a Game 7 in Boston on Saturday night. In their Game 5 win, it wasn’t the big boys who carried. It was Jake McCabe, who scored his first career playoff goal, Matthew Knies, who has 95 games of NHL experience (regular season and playoffs), scoring the overtime winner and rookie goalie Joseph Woll, who made his third career playoff start after being called upon.
Tonight, without Matthews, they’ll need their big boys to be their big boys and their depth scoring to contribute if possible. This is familiar territory for some of the Maple Leafs players after once trailing their best-of-seven series 3-1 against the Bruins in 2018 and ultimately forcing a Game 7 and losing. But that was six years ago. This year’s team has plenty of players who aren’t associated with the past Maple Leafs, and the Game 5 hero, Matthew Knies, is one of them as he looks to take another step in his game and be an essential contributor to this lineup. You can read more about Knies and the other young Maple Leafs in tonight’s Game 6 preview here, by Arun Srinivasan.
Pregame details:
Toronto Maple Leafs’ lineup:
Tyler Bertuzzi – Max Domi – Mitch Marner
Matthew Knies – John Tavares – William Nylander
Nick Robertson – Pontus Holmberg – Calle Jarnkrok
Connor Dewar – David Kampf – Ryan Reaves
Morgan Rielly – Ilya Lyubushkin
Simon Benoit – Jake McCabe
Joel Edmundson – Timothy Liljegren
One lineup note: As mentioned above, Auston Matthews will not be in the lineup tonight for Game 6. However, according to Mark Masters, he was seen on the ice again before the Maple Leafs held their morning skate. So, I guess that is still a good sign, but this whole situation remains weird.
Auston Matthews is NOT on the ice at Leafs skate
He did skate earlier
It’s looking doubtful the Leafs centre will play in Game 6 https://t.co/JqpOeHauYa
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) May 2, 2024
Boston Bruins’ lineup:
Jake DeBrusk – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand – Charlie Coyle – Morgan Geekie
James van Riemsdyk – Trent Frederic – Justin Brazeau
John Beecher – Jesper Boqvist – Pat Maroon
Mason Lohrei – Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm – Brandon Carlo
Parker Wotherspoon – Kevin Shattenkirk
Projected goalies:
Joseph Woll (TOR) vs Jeremy Swayman (BOS)
Broadcast:
Sportsnet, 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT
(Projected lineups from dailyfaceoff.com)
