With both teams meeting each other on the second half of their back-to-back, this should be a sloppy game. The Leafs had the bigger challenge last night, beating the New York Rangers 5-3, while the Wings lost to the Florida Panthers 2-1.

No matter the opponent, though, exhaustion will be setting in for both teams. The Leafs are currently tied for 2nd place in the league with 50 points and are 11-5-1 at home. That being said, the Wings did beat them in their own building when the two teams met last.

If that game was any indication, tonight’s should be a fun one.

Since there won’t be a morning skate today, don’t expect to see updated lines until game time. The more days I look at these forward lines, the more I realize how much they miss Anthony Mantha and Darren Helm. They don’t make the forwards that much better, but they certainly add some danger to the top-6.

Dangerous is definitely something the Wings will need to be more if they want to beat these pesky Maple Leafs. Tough to do with a power shooter in Mantha and their best defenseman in the press box. The last time these two teams met, Green had two points.

Tyler Ennis broke his ankle last night, so expect him to come out of the lineup. But the Leafs won’t miss him too much with their depth. Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen have been better than expected this year, with 16 and 23 points respectively. Both of them are going to make Kyle Dubas’ job more difficult in the coming years.

William Nylander has yet to score his first goal of the season, but Mitch Marner, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, and Auston Matthews are more than making up for it. Their defense may not be great at keeping pucks out of the net, but with the offensive power that they have, they can just out-score their opponents every night.

Which is exactly what they do.

Jonathan Bernier vs. Garret Sparks

If there’s one thing you can expect on the back half of a back-to-back it’s facing the back-up goalie. Bernier will get the nod for Detroit. When he had to fill in for Howard, he did so admirably, although he’s going to need to put up a better performance than the last time he faced his former team. It would be nice to avoid the third period breakdown and post a save percentage of +.900.

For Toronto, expect to see Garret Sparks between the pipes. While he’s got a perfectly average .913 save percentage on the season, Sparks is a true back-up to Freddy Andersen. There is no 1A/1B situation here. His last start was against the Red Wings on December 6th and that was a really bad game for him. He’s rusty and he’s probably working through some butterflies, so the Red Wings should take advantage early in the game.

Puck drop is at 7:30 P.M. ET and you’ll be able to catch the game on Fox Sports Detroit or Sportsnet/CBC in Canada. It is the feature game on Hockey Night in Canada.

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