Coyotes at Maple Leafs
Max Domi looks to continue his impressive rookie season in a place where his father played the majority of his 1,020 NHL games as the Arizona Coyotes visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. Tie Domi appeared in 777 contests with the Maple Leafs and recorded a career-high 29 points in 2002-03 while Max, a first-round pick in 2013, has posted nine in his first eight NHL games.
“I play hard, and he played hard too,” Max Domi told the New York Times of his father, who finished with 3,515 penalty minutes – third in NHL history. The younger Domi notched an assist to support Mikkel Boedker’s hat trick in a 4-1 victory at Ottawa on Saturday as the Coyotes evened their record at 1-1-1 on their five-game road trip. Arizona will have to come to play against Toronto, which has won just once in seven games but registered a season-high 52 shots against unbeaten Montreal on Saturday in a 5-3 loss. Leo Komarov leads the Maple Leafs with four goals in the early going.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN Arizona, TSN4, TVA (Toronto)
ABOUT THE COYOTES (4-3-1): As good as Max Domi has been in the first month of the season, fellow rookie Anthony Duclair is turning heads with five goals and two assists. The two youngsters have played a lot of minutes with center Martin Hanzal, who has been solid with a league-leading nine assists after struggling with injuries in 2014-15. After Anders Lindback beat Ottawa in his first start with the Coyotes on Saturday, Mike Smith (5-1-2 lifetime versus Toronto) is expected to start as he has posted a .927 save percentage in the first seven games.
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (1-4-2): Captain Dion Phaneuf shares the team lead with Komarov at five points, and the 30-year-old defenseman owns a plus-5 rating after matching his career worst of minus-11 last season. James van Riemsdyk recorded a goal and an assist Saturday to double his point production for the campaign. Considering Jonathan Bernier allowed five goals on 27 shots against Montreal in the last contest, James Reimer could get the start versus Arizona.
OVERTIME
1. Arizona C Antoine Vermette (lower body) saw his streak of 482 consecutive games end Saturday and is considered day-to-day.
2. The Maple Leafs sat in the bottom six of the league on both the power play (9.5 percent) and penalty kill (75 percent) through Saturday.
3. The Coyotes won both meetings with Toronto last season as Smith stopped 52-of-55 shots.