Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, the Toronto Maple Leafs (15-9-3, 33 points) and Detroit Red Wings (17-6-5) face-off for the fourth of five meetings this season live from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The game can be live streamed for free here. Toronto fans can hear all of the action on TSN 1050 while Detroit fans can do the same on 97.1 The Ticket.
This is the opening game of a home-and-home as these teams shift gears to close out their season series at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Saturday.
Toronto looks for its third straight win and has notched four victories in its last five outings while Detroit has won three straight matches and seven of eight overall.
The Red Wings have topped the Maple Leafs twice this season, however the Leafs got a measure of revenge with a 4-1 victory the last time these two teams met on Nov. 22.
Detroit is in first place in the Atlantic Division while Toronto owns the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference entering tonight.
The Red Wings are coming off of a 3-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday and look forward to a tough matchup against the Leafs.
"They're good. If you look at the analytics part they're no good, but when you look at coaching and winning games, they're good," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said about the Maple Leafs per NHL.com.
Henrik Zetterberg has paced the Red Wings offensively with 24 points off of five goals and 19 assists while Pavel Datsyuk has 12 tallies and 10 helpers for 22 points and Tomas Tatar has found the back of the net 12 times and added eight assists for 20 points.
The Maple Leafs play for the second time in as many nights and are coming off of a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. Coach Randy Carlyle enjoyed the way his team played in the middle frame.
"The second period was one of the best periods we have played this season from a perspective of playing more of the style of hockey that is required for 60 minutes," Carlyle told NHL.com. "Those are the things you try to capture and then give your team an opportunity [to] watch so they know this is the way we're going to have to do it on a more regular basis."
Phil Kessel has led the Maple Leafs thus far this season with 28 points off of 14 goals and 14 assists while Tyler Bozak has 11 markers and 13 helpers for 24 points and James van Riemsdyk has found the back of the net 11 times and added 12 assists for 23 points.
James Reimer is likely to start between the pipes for Toronto tonight and he is 4-3-0 this season with a 3.64 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage.
Detroit is likely to counter with Jimmy Howard in the crease and he is 13-5-4 thus far with a 2.21 GAA and a .917 save percentage.
The Maple Leafs and Red Wings start a home-and-home when the puck drops tonight at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
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