The fans at Air Canada Centre will be treated to a game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Toronto Maple Leafs when they take their seats on Saturday.
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 17, 2016
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
| ROT | TEAM | PS | OU | Money Line |
| 59 | PITTSBURGH | 0 (-110) | 5.5 (-110) | -110 -110 |
| 60 | TORONTO |
TV: 7 p.m. ET, ROOT (Pittsburgh), CBC (Toronto)
PREDICTION: Penguins 5, Maple Leafs 3
TORONTO — The Pittsburgh Penguins had their seven-game winning streak stopped Friday night when they lost 1-0 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings.
The Stanley Cup champions will try to start a new streak Saturday night at Air Canada Centre when they play the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have one win in their past seven games.
The Maple Leafs have lost their past two games by 3-2 scores in shootouts with the San Jose Sharks and the Arizona Coyotes.
Another streak ended for the Penguins on Friday — Sydney Crosby’s nine-game point streak. He leads the NHL with 21 goals and has points in 20 of 25 games this season.
Matt Murray made his fifth consecutive start for the Penguins on Friday and had 27 saves.
“They did a good job of packing it in and kept us to the outside for the most part, but we played really well,” Murray said. “It was just one of those nights.”
The Penguins picked up another injury on their defense. They already are without Kris Letang for about two weeks with a lower body injury incurred against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. Derrick Pouliot was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to take Letang’s spot.
The Penguins lost defenseman Trevor Daley to an upper-body injury in the second period on Friday and he was still being evaluated.
Brian Dumoulin was hit by a puck in the cheek in the third period but was able to return.
“Those are two guys we need, and who play a lot of minutes,” Dumoulin said of Letang and Daley.
Pouliot had played one game against the Sharks earlier this season and played more than 18 minutes on Friday.
“I thought he did a real nice job,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “He kept his game simple. I thought he played within himself. He was playing with confidence. He used his mobility out there. I thought he had a strong game for his first game back.”
Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri will be trying to stop Crosby.
“I don’t think our game plan is to come out, have a shootout and trade chances,” Kadri said. “That’s not going to work in our favor. We have to be patient, we have to be defensively in sync.”
The Maple Leafs have made a change in their backup goaltender for the game Saturday. They have recalled Jhonas Enroth from the Marlies and loaned Antoine Bibeau to the AHL club.
Enroth had cleared waivers recently before being assigned to the Marlies and Bibeau played well in a loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday. Enroth made 24 saves in a 5-3 win over Hartford Dec. 10 in his only start for the Marlies. He has a 3.94 goals-against average in four starts for Toronto.
The Maple Leafs learned Friday that they will be without defenseman Martin Marincin for four to six weeks. He suffered a lower-body injury in the win over the Bruins in Boston on Saturday when he went hard into the boards.
The first diagnosis was that the injury was not serious, coach Mike Babcock said, but his condition did not improve. Frank Corrado, who has seldom played, might be the replacement for Marincin.
The Maple Leafs know what they need to do to get back to winning.
“We play well with the puck, we have to learn better to play without it,” goaltender Frederik Andersen said.
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