Aiming for their second road win in Columbus this week, the Toronto Maple Leafs will visit the Blue Jackets on Friday in a renewal of what has become a familiar rivalry.
All three regular-season games between the Leafs and Jackets will take place within a 16-day span. The Blue Jackets recorded a 6-5 overtime victory in Toronto on Dec. 14, and the Maple Leafs responded with a 4-1 win in Columbus last Saturday.
Since that last meeting, both teams blew leads in their first games back after the NHL’s Christmas break.
Toronto held a 2-0 lead midway through Wednesday’s game with the Ottawa Senators before Ottawa scored four unanswered goals for a 4-2 result. Parker Kelly’s short-handed goal at 10:17 of the second period both spoiled a Leafs power play and sparked the Senators’ comeback.
“We couldn’t score the third goal, or didn’t score the third goal, so we let them hang around,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I thought they were better than us in the second period for sure, and I think that the period looks a lot worse because our power play gives them a freebie and gives them life and energy.”
The Maple Leafs are 1-3-0 in their last four games, while the Blue Jackets are in a three-game (0-1-2) winless drought.
Victory seemed near for Columbus on Wednesday against the New Jersey Devils, but the Devils twice equalized within the last 4:09 of regulation to force overtime. Timo Meier then scored 2:12 into the extra frame to hand the Jackets a tough 4-3 overtime loss.
“Unfortunately we just couldn’t hold them off a couple of times there,” Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson said. “But, we had a couple shots at it and even in overtime we had a couple of shots at it to end it … Just one of those games where we probably felt like we should’ve deserved better.”
Columbus also lost Zach Werenski to an apparent leg injury in the second period. The defenseman is considered week-to-week, coach Pascal Vincent said Thursday.
Jack Roslovic (fractured ankle) could make his return Friday after a 21-game absence, while Sean Kuraly is day-to-day with an abdomen injury.
Since the Blue Jackets also play on Saturday in Buffalo, the goaltending duties figure to be split up over the back-to-back dates. Elvis Merzlikins will start one of the two games, while either Daniil Tarasov or Spencer Martin will get the nod in the other.
The Maple Leafs are also playing on consecutive nights, so Martin Jones and Ilya Samsonov are likely to split the starts against the Jackets on Friday and against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
William Nylander has 19 points (four goals, 15 assists) over a 12-game points streak. Nylander has at least one assist in each of his last nine games, tying him for the fourth-longest assists streak in Leafs franchise history.
Auston Matthews has also been hot, with 17 points (12 goals, five assists) over an eight-game points streak.
Columbus was 3-for-3 on the penalty kill against New Jersey, ending a streak of six straight games with at least one power-play goal allowed. The Blue Jackets had one of the league’s best penalty-kill units before this recent slump, and they’ll need to regain their form against Toronto’s dangerous power play.
–Field Level Media
