The Toronto Maple Leafs (47-21-11, 105 points, 2nd Atlantic) will play the back half of a back-to-back on Tuesday when paying a visit to the Tampa Bay Lightning (45-29-6, 96 points, 3rd Atlantic) after playing in South Florida on Monday against the Florida Panthers. Toronto defeated the Montreal Canadiens 7-1 last Saturday and clinched second place in the Atlantic division with just three games remaining on the regular season schedule. Tampa Bay was defeated by the Ottawa Senators 7-4 on Saturday and the Lightning have lost three straight, but have clinched third place in the Atlantic division, with the first three teams in each division automatically qualifying for the postseason. As far as the postseason is concerned, this matchup has no significance.< /p>
The Toronto Maple Leafs are scoring an average of 3.41 goals per game which is 9th in the NHL, while holding opponents to an average of 2.70 goals per game which is also 9th best. Toronto is averaging 32.2 shots per game which is 12th best and the Maple Leafs are holding opponents to an average of 29.2 shots per game which is sixth lowest in the NHL. Toronto's power play scores 25.3% of the time which is second best in hockey and the penalty kill unit for Toronto is 14th at 80.7%.
Auston Matthews is the leading goal scorer for Toronto with 39 and a close second is William Nylander with 38, while John Tavares is third with 35 goals. Mitchell Marner is the leader in assists with 68 and added to his 30 goals is the points leader with 98, while Matthews is second in points with 84. Toronto has scored 62 goals on the powe r play with Tavares scoring a team best 18. Ilya Samsonov is 26-10-5 with a 2.36 goals against average, .917 save percentage and four shutouts.