Maple Leafs Hit Sin City To Close Out 2017

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December 31, 2017 (1:07 PM)

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"Toronto Maple Leafs 48 pts (23-14-2)
@
Vegas Golden Knights 52 pts (25-9-2)
3:30 p.m. ET
T-Mobile Arena � Las Vegas, NV
TV: Sportsnet
Radio: Sportsnet 590 AM

Season Series/Schedule
Date Game GWG
11/6 VGK 3 @ TOR 4 OT Mitch Marner
12/31 TOR @ VGK

Team Leaders
Maple Leafs Golden Knights
Marner/Matthews, 29 Points Jonathan Marchessaul, 34
James van Riemsdyk, 17 Goals Neal/Karlsson, 17
Mitch Marner, 24 Assists Jonathan Marchessaul, 21

The Toronto Maple Leafs get to spend New Year's Eve in Las Vegas, which sure sounds like a fun place to be when the clock strikes midnight. Unfortunately for Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews they are still not old enough to enjoy all the Vegas offers, but that is probably a good thing.
Before the team can hit the strip to ring in the New Year, they have an afternoon date with the Western Conference's top team. The Golden Knights have surpassed all expectations in their first season and have gone 9-0-1 in their last 10 games.
The Maple Leafs beat the Golden Knights 4-3 in overtime back on November 6 with Marner picking up the game winning tally. Nazem Kadri scored twice in the first meeting and he is likely to return to the lineup today after missing the last game at the Colorado Avalanche with an upper-body injury.
Today's game will not be an easy task with the Knights boasting a 15-2-1 record at the T-Mobile Arena. The strip has provided quite the home ice advantage for the league's newest franchise.

Probable Maple Leafs Lineup
FORWARDS
Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Leo Komarov
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Mitch Marner
Matt Martin - Dominic Moore - Connor Brown
DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Connor Carrick
Andreas Borgman - Roman Polak
GOALTENDER
Frederik Andersen (20-10-1, 2.64 GAA, .923 save %, 3 SO)
INJURY REPORT
LW-Joffrey Lupul (sports hernia) out, RW-Nikita Soshnikov (lower-body) out, D-Nikita Zaitsev (lower-body) out, G-Curtis McElhinney (lower-body) day-to-day, C-Nazem Kadri (upper-body) day-to-day

Probable Golden Knights Lineup
FORWARD
David Perron - Erik Haula - James Neal
Reilly Smith - William Karlsson - Jonathan Marchessault
Brendan Leipsic - Cody Eakin - Alex Tuch
Oscar Lindberg - Pierre-Édouard Bellemare - Tomas Nosek
DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
Brayden McNabb - Nate Schmidt
Deryk Engelland - Shea Theodore
Jon Merrill - Colin Miller
GOALTENDER
Marc-Andre Fleury (7-1-1, 1.96 GAA, .938 save %, 1 SO)
INURY REPORT
D-Clayton Stoner (abdomen) out, RW-David Clarkson (back) out, C-Mikhail Grabovski (concussion) out, G-Oscar Dansk (lower-body) out, LW-William Carrier (upper-body) out, D-Luca Sbisa (lower-body) out"

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