Toronto gets yet another opportunity to tie Florida (and Tampa Bay) in the Eastern Conference standings with 74 points this evening, after dropping a wild defensive battle to the Flyers at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday.
Tonight the Leafs travel to The ATM MSG in a match between one certain bottom dweller and another not far off the pace.
The Rangers (82p) remain on the outside of the postseason door, trailing Boston by three points for the eighth spot. They’ve essentially played .500 hockey over their past ten (5-4-1), while their goals for/goals against differential over the year is precisely even. Love the wacky, trivial stuff. New York has two games remaining after this one. Not out yet, but they need a lot of help.
Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs (72p) are 5-3-2 in ten previous and it goes unspoken that Toronto does not desire in any capacity to hand over a better lottery pick than they must to the Bruins. Is that motivation for the players? Probably no more than if the reverse were the case. They’re still professionals getting paid to win games.
Including tonight, the Leafs can gain a maximum of four points to close the season.
The season series has NY up 2-1, outscoring TOR 13-6.
In any event, we’ll be watching this deal closely.