Maple Leafs at Rangers
The Toronto Maple Leafs appear to be coming together under new coach Sheldon Keefe and will seek to match a season-high winning streak when they go for their third straight win at the New York Rangers on Friday night. The Maple Leafs have won four of five to improve to 8-4-0 since Keefe took over behind the bench for the fired Mike Babcock.
"It just speaks to the potential of the team," Keefe said after Tuesday's 5-3 win over Buffalo. "Because we're still nowhere near what I think we can look like and what we're capable of, but we're doing a lot of good things." Friday's matchup will be the 14th away from home in the last 18 games for Toronto, which has won six of its last nine on the road. Since winning three in a row just prior to Thanksgiving, the Rangers have sputtered by going 4-4-2 over their last 10. New York also has had to navigate a rugged schedule with seven of nine on the road before dropping a 5-2 decision at home to Nashville on Monday.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NHL Network, Sportsnet Ontario (Toronto), MSG2 (New York)
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (17-14-4): Auston Matthews has five goals in his last five games after scoring twice against Buffalo, lifting his season total to a team-high 21. He also etched his name in the record books, joining Dave Keon as the only players in franchise history with 20 goals in each of his first four seasons. "It's a pretty big honor just to be in the same breath as that guy.," Matthews said. "His career and what he did here, it's pretty unbelievable so just to be mentioned in the same sentence is a huge privilege"
ABOUT THE RANGERS (16-13-4): Coach David Quinn said Alexandar Georgiev, who allowed three goals in Monday's loss before Nashville tacked on a pair of empty-netters, will get the start Friday due to his previous success versus Toronto, going 2-1-0 with six goals allowed last season. Artemi Panarin continued his scoring binge with his seventh goal during a five-game streak to boost his team-leading totals to 20 tallies and 43 points. Mika Zibanejad has collected four goals and an assist in a three-game point streak.
OVERTIME
1. Matthews has only one goal and four assists in nine games versus New York.
2. Rangers F Chris Kreider has two goals and three assists in his last five games and has 14 points in 16 contests versus Toronto.
3. Maple Leafs F John Tavares had three assists in three meetings versus the Rangers in 2018-19 in his first season with Toronto.