Red Wings at Maple Leafs
THE STORY: Despite his stellar start to the season, Jimmy Howard may have picked the wrong time to make his debut at the Air Canada Centre. The league's winningest goaltender this season by a wide margin, Howard leads the Detroit Red Wings into Toronto to face a Maple Leafs squad that has revved up its game with the arrival of 2012 by posting a pair of dominating home wins. It will be the only matchup of the season between the Original Six rivals. “Toronto and Detroit, ‘Hockey Night in Canada,’ you know we've all watched it growing up. It's special,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. It marks the third game in a four-game homestand for the Maple Leafs, who blanked Winnipeg 4-0 on Thursday night after trouncing Tampa Bay 7-3 two nights earlier. Howard is looking to become the ninth goaltender in franchise history to reach 100 career wins.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CBS, NHL Network
ABOUT THE RED WINGS: (25-13-1): Detroit is looking to build some consistency away from home in the second of a four-game road trip. The Red Wings are a league-best 15-2-1 at home but a middling 10-11-0 away from Joe Louis Arena. The second line of Valtteri Filppula, Henrik Zetterberg and Jiri Hudler accounted for eight points in Tuesday's 5-4 win at Dallas. Hudler scored twice to give him nine goals in 14 games since snapping a 20-game drought.
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (20-15-5): Toronto got a scare when captain and newly named All-Star Dion Phaneuf took a puck in the face late in Thursday's game. He missed practice Friday but is expected to play Saturday. The Maple Leafs are getting reinforcements with LW Mike Brown and D Mike Komisarek expected to return after missing 22 and 21 games, respectively. G Jonas Gustavsson, coming off his second career shutout, is expected to make his third straight start.
OVERTIME:
1. Toronto is the only team in that league that Detroit’s Howard does not have a decision against.
2. Maple Leafs leading scorer Phil Kessel is riding a seven-game points streak.
3. The teams are meeting for the 644th time and, amazingly, the all-time series is dead even at 275-275-93.