Pre-Game Brief: Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Tampa Bay Lightning, Game 4

Look for the Toronto Maple Leafs to have an extraordinary game with team defense, timely goals and mastery saves by Jack “Soup” Campbell.  The Leafs will be looking to break the streak held by Tampa Bay Lightning in the the postseason going 15 – 0 after a postseason loss.

The Maple Leafs will start Alexander Kerfoot on the top line to the left of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.  Michael Bunting will play on the fourth line with Colin Blackwell and Jason Spezza.

Maple Leafs projected lineup

Alexander Kerfoot — Auston Matthews — Mitch Marner

William Nylander — John Tavares — Ondrej Kase

Ilya Mikheyev — David Kampf — Pierre Engvall

Michael Bunting — Colin Blackwell — Jason Spezza

Morgan Rielly — Ilya Lyubushkin

Mark Giordano — Justin Holl

Jake Muzzin — TJ Brodie

Jack Campbell

Erik Kallgren

Scratched: Wayne Simmonds, Timothy Liljegren, Nicholas Abruzzese, Kyle Clifford, Joey Anderson

Injured: Rasmus Sandin (knee), Petr Mrazek (groin)

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat — Steven Stamkos — Nikita Kucherov

Alex Killorn — Anthony Cirelli — Brayden Point

Brandon Hagel — Ross Colton — Nicholas Paul

Pat Maroon — Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — Corey Perry

Victor Hedman — Erik Cernak

Ryan McDonagh — Zach Bogosian

Mikhail Sergachev — Cal Foote

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Brian Elliott

Scratched: Riley Nash, Jan Rutta

Quotes

The master communicator Coach Cooper said:

“Just a ton of faith in the veteran group here so I expect a bounce-back”

“I can’t sit here and guarantee what’s going to happen but we’ll bounce back.”

“There’s always a misnomer out there that it’s the amount of goals you score … It’s the amount you prevent and that’s where we have to be better.”

Well Coach you should be concerned, your 3rd and 4th lines are slower and less skilled than the Toronto Maple Leafs. Intimidation by those lines were addressed in the first game!

Commentary

The Maple Leafs are poised for a another big game by their defense.  The Leafs scoring depth will continue their mastery against the Lightnings’ slower and less skilled 3rd and 4th lines.

I think coach Cooper should be worried.  Tampa Bay Lightnings’ veterans have been sluggish and slower than those of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I predict the Toronto Maple Leafs will defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning in game 4 by a score of 3 – 1.

Stay tune for a tight match-up between the Leafs and Lightning.

This is E. Sentry Sorgini reporting for GTA Weekly News.  Enjoy the game!

SOURCE NHL