Leafs face another hot goalie in Bruins' Rask (Dec 10, 2016)
BOSTON -- After running into the league's hottest goaltender in a 3-2 loss Wednesday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs have another hot hand to deal with Saturday night.
Devan Dubnyk, who leads the NHL in goals against average and save percentage, made 35 saves, 17 of them in the third period, as the Minnesota Wild sent the young Leafs to their third straight loss.
Now, it's onto the Bruins and Tuukka Rask.
Dubnyk leads with a 1.65 goals against average. Rask is third at 1.79. Dubnyk is on top in save percentage at .946. Rask is sixth at .933, his save number lowered by yielding four in Wednesday night's overtime loss at Washington.
Dubnyk leads with four shutouts. Rask is second with three.
Rask, a first-round draft pick of the Leafs in 2005, is second in wins with 14.
The Leafs, 2-5-1 in their last eight games, have scored just four goals during their three-game losing streak. They faced the Bruins in the first week of the season and won 4-1 -- but that was against Anton Khudobin (the Bruins are 1-7 in games not started by Rask).
The Winnipeg Jets jumped on a Boston team that was on the back end of a back-to-back and took a 3-0 lead before winning 4-2.
The Maple Leafs have been having tough starts.
"Our ability to just get started better, it's real important -- we're a better team than that and we have to play better than that," Leafs coach Mike Babcock said after Friday's practice.
Nazem Kadri noted "good starts" are the key. "That's really what we've preached about," he said. "Can't be getting in the hole and behind the 8-ball early.
"It seems like after that we absolutely dominate the game. After that we're working hard to catch up and we're falling a little bit short."
The losing stretch has left Toronto 10-10-5 on the season. The Bruins got one of a possible four points out of their back-to-back and are 15-11-2 on the season.
Rask is 14-4-2, 6-2 at home. He has also made the Leafs pay for trading him away before he ever played a game for them, bringing a 15-3-2 record, a 1.87 goals against average and .935 save percentage into this likely start.
Khudobin yielded four goals on 22 shots Thursday and both Boston goals came from David Pastrnak, who has 18 and is tied for the league lead -- and he's done it in just 23 games. He has five goals in the last three games and is 11 goals ahead of anyone else on the team.
"Secondary scoring is what makes good teams great and we're trying to find it right now," said defenseman Torey Krug. "Obviously Pasta has been great for us and he can change a game; he changed the momentum tonight and unfortunately we just couldn't come out with that next goal and help our team even more."
Frederick Anderson, slated to start for the Leafs, is 5-0 with a 1.39 goals against average and .956 goals against average lifetime. The first four of those wins came when Anderson, 10-7-4 this season, was with the Anaheim Ducks, and he allowed just one goal against Boston earlier this season.
