Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Detroit Red Wings – Game #36 preview, projected lines and TV info

On By Littum

The Maple Leafs remain without Auston Matthews coming off the holiday break as they look to snap a two-game losing streak against a bottom-feeding Red Wings team seeking a new coaching bump tonight in Detroit (7 p.m. EST, Sportsnet Ontario) ).

Game Day Quotes

Max Pacioretty on the holiday break and the two previous losses:

I got to relax a lot and rest, which I definitely needed. The schedule got a little hectic there at the end for our group and it definitely showed in our play. It was nice to relax and spend time with family. Now we’re back at it.

It was clear that everyone needed some rest there. Each team deals with it, where teams are waiting for you, and it seems that you have traveled every day and played a lot.

It is a good lesson that in those situations you have to tighten up defensively and maybe hold the fort a little bit better than we did. But those situations build teams and make teams who they are.

We had days there to rest. We will be playing against a desperate team who will want to impress their new coach and make a statement. There’s going to be a lot of intensity out there tonight.

New Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan on the message to his new team:

We don’t come in here, wave a magic wand and change the forecheck, neutral zone, d-zone coverages and power plays. We just don’t have time. But what we’ve asked the players to do is play harder, play faster and play a little bit smarter. These are three things we can change without any kind of tactics, systematic or structured game.

The last thing is that the spirit of the team needs to be improved. When something like this happens, the spirit is at a low level. We are going to work hard to build it back up. We’re going to focus a lot more on what happens from minute one to minute 60.

I know there’s a history of being in the playoffs, not being in the playoffs, winning streaks and losing streaks. The players have to answer these questions – it’s their duty and they have to – but I’m asking them to focus on what happens when they put on the equipment, focus on that and not bring baggage to the pitch about, where we are in the standings.

Let’s play and figure each other out.

Morgan Rielly on the immediate impact of a coaching change on a locker room:

When that happens, you as players think a lot about why your team is in that situation. I’ve been there. I would expect that group over there to be competitive and motivated to come out hard. There is always some kind of reaction when something like this happens.

Rielly on the team’s two losses without Auston Matthews before the break:

When he’s out, we need other players to take more responsibility and I think we can play a more well-rounded game that’s a bit more complete. If you look at those games, I don’t think the starters were the best. It will be a focus area.

Craig Berube in the first game back from the break:

You get rest, right? We’ve played a lot of hockey and have had a lot of back-to-backs. We start out again with a back to back, but we need to rest and get energy. The energy must be good.

With three days off, there are issues with timing and things like that – execution – so we’ve got to simplify our game tonight, play a pretty simple hockey game and make sure we’re predictable against each other. It’s about competing, working hard and playing hard.

Berube on the areas for improvement coming out of the two losses before the break:

We always talk insult, insult. We had chances to score in the last couple. It didn’t go in, but it’s the other side of the puck that worries me more.

We gave up three goals to Winnipeg, which I think was easy to fix. I’m talking about details, details and the little things we need to be better at. That’s the focus here.

Head-to-Head Statistics: Maple Leafs (21-12-2) vs. Red Wings (13-17-4)

In the 2024-25 regular season statistics, Toronto has the advantage in five of five offensive categories and four of five defensive categories.

Toronto Maple Leafs projected lines

Extenders
#67 Max Pacioretty — #91 John Tavares — #16 Mitch Marner
#23 Matthew Knies — #29 Pontus Holmberg — #88 William Nylander
#74 Bobby McMann — #11 Max Domi — #89 Nick Robertson
#18 Steven Lorentz — #64 David Kampf — #24 Connor Dewar

Defenders
#22 Jake McCabe — #8 Chris Tanev*
#44 Morgan Rielly — #51 Philippe Myers
#95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson — #2 Simon Benoit

Goalkeepers
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#39 Matt Murray

*decision on playing time

Additional: Ryan Reaves, Conor Timmins
Damaged: Austin Matthews
Damaged (IR): Jani Hakanpää, Anthony Stolarz
Wounded (LTIR): Calle Jarnkrok

Detroit Red Wings projected lines

Extenders
#93 Alex Debrincat — #71 Dylan Larkin — #88 Patrick Kane
#27 Michael Rasmussen — #37 JT Compher — #23 Lucas Raymond
#11 Vladimir Tarasenko — #18 Andrew Copp — #36 Christian Fischer
#90 Joe Veleno — #92 Marco Kasper — #48 Jonatan Berggren

Defenders
#77 Simon Edvinsson* — #53 Moritz Seider
#8 Ben Chiarot* — #46 Jeff Petry
#56 Erik Gustafsson — #3 Justin Holl

Goalkeepers
Starter: #39 Cam Talbot
#34 Alex Lyon

*decision on playing time