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TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29TH 7:00 P.M. NATIONWIDE ARENA COLUMBUS, OH |
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LEAFS: |
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For the second time in five days, the Columbus Blue Jackets hit the ice for the second leg of a back-to-back Wednesday night when Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs visit Nationwide Arena.
The first back-to-back ended well, with Columbus picking up a 5-4 shootout victory Saturday night over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The first half of this back-to-back was triumphant, too, with another overtime victory — this time a 4-3 defeat of the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.
Now above .500 for the first time on the young season, Columbus will look for their fifth win in six games when they face one of the league's elite offenses.
Here's what to know when the Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs face off for the first time this season:
| TOR | SEASON STATS | CBJ |
|---|---|---|
| 0-2-0 | ROAD / HOME | 1-3-0 |
| 3.50 | GOALS FOR | 3.11 |
| 3.60 | GOALS AGAINST | 3.11 |
| 14.8% | POWER PLAY | 19.1% |
| 82.1% | PENALTY KILL | 63.3% |
| 29.1 | SHOTS FOR | 33.6 |
| 29.8 | SHOTS AGAINST | 32.7 |
| 55.6% | FACE-OFFS | 52.1% |
| TORONTO: LAST THREE GAMES | ||
| FRI, 10/24 | @ Sabres | L, 5-3 |
| SAT, 10/25 | vs. Sabres | OTW, 4-3 |
| TUE, 10/28 | vs. Flames | W, 4-3 |
| TORONTO: TEAM LEADERS | ||
| GOALS |
Auston Matthews John Tavares |
5 |
| ASSISTS | William Nylander | 12 |
| POINTS | William Nylander | 15 |
| ODDS & PROJECTIONS | ||
| CBJ WIN PER MONEYPUCK: | 51% | |
| CBJ ODDS PER BETMGM: | -110 | |
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Like the Blue Jackets, the MAPLE LEAFS are also on the second leg of a back-to-back. They defeated their Calgary Flames 4-3 Tuesday night. That was on home ice, where Toronto has been a lot this season. In fact, this will be only their third road game of the season. They're 0-2-0 in the first two.
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It feels like special teams are slowly improving for the Blue Jackets, but there's no doubt that their BREAD AND BUTTER so far has been 5-on-5 play. The've outscored the opposition 20-14 there so far this season, with the 14 goals tied for second-best in the league at 5-on-5.
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YEGOR CHINAKHOV scored Tuesday night for the second straight game, as he continues to play well after being a healthy scratch for the first several games of the season.
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There are a pair of potential MILESTONE POINTS that can come Wednesday night: Charlie Coyle's next assist will be the 300th of his NHL career, while Sean Monahan's next point will give him 600 for his NHL tenure.
- There are no changes expected to the lineup outside of Merzlikins' start in net. Here are the complete LINEUP PROJECTIONS:
| LW | C | RW | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Dmitri Voronkov | 23 | Sean Monahan | 86 | Kirill Marchenko |
| 38 | Boone Jenner | 19 | Adam Fantilli | 91 | Kent Johnson |
| 4 | Cole Sillinger | 3 | Charlie Coyle | 24 | Mathieu Olivier |
| 11 | Miles Wood | 21 | Isac Lundestrom | 59 | Yegor Chinakhov |
| LD | RD | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Zach Werenski | 5 | Denton Mateychuk |
| 9 | Ivan Provorov | 78 | Damon Severson |
| 15 | Dante Fabbro | 2 | Jake Christiansen |
| Starting Goalie | Back-Up | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | Elvis Merzlikins | 73 | Jet Greaves |
