The Leafs and their depleted blueline will play host to the New Jersey Devils tonight and Frederik Andersen is shaking in his boots.

The team is weak on defense anyway, but now that Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin are sidelined, they’re looking extra thin back there.

#Leafs D pairs: Dermott-Holl; Marincin-Barrie; Sandin-Ceci. Keefe says pairs are fluid. Muzzin progressing to start skating tomorrow.

— Terry Koshan (@koshtorontosun) January 14, 2020

It’s a sad state of affairs when Martin Marincin and Tyson Barrie are tasked with helping to keep the puck out of the teams net, but I’m excited to see the progression of Rasmus Sandin. If the kid can take this opportunity and run with it he’ll never be sent to the minors again (I assume). It’s also a big opportunity for Travis Dermott, whose minutes have been held back after he missed the first couple of months of the season due to injury. Lastly, Timothy Liljegren has also been recalled by the big club, and while it’s not imminent it’s possible that he draws into his first NHL game within the next few weeks.

Keefe on the plan for Timothy Liljegren now: "No real expectation. At this stage he's just here to give us an extra guy and we think given the circumstances that he's very much the next man up. Just having him around a little bit more and around our group would serve him well."

— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) January 14, 2020

So the silver lining in all of this is that the next wave of Leafs defenders have an opportunity in front of them. If they show well it will give a lot of clarity into how the team could look moving forwards.

While it would be easy to concentrate on the lack of depth, I’ll choose to cheer on the kids tonight, and hope they do their best.

#Leafs in warmup:
Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Nylander-Tavares-Engvall
Johnsson-Kerfoot-Kapanen
Timashov-Gauthier-Spezza

Dermott-Holl
Marincin-Barrie
Sandin-Ceci

Andersen
Hutchinson

— Terry Koshan (@koshtorontosun) January 14, 2020

GO LEAFS!!

New Jersey Devils 

Record: 17-21-7

PP%: 14.3% (30th in NHL)

PK%: 80.1% (17th in NHL)

GF/GP: 2.62 (28th in NHL)

GA/GP: 3.38 (30th in NHL)

S/GP: 31.1 (T-16th in NHL)

SA/GP: 31.5 (T-14th in NHL)

Toronto: 

Record: 24-16-6

PP%: 23.2% (7th in NHL)

PK%: 75.8% (26th in NHL)

GF/GP: 3.59 (3rd in NHL)

GA/GP: 3.26 (25th in NHL)

S/GP: 33.6 (6th in NHL)

SA/GP: 32.6 (T-25th in NHL)