MORNING SKATE NOTES
- Head coach André Tourigny shared some lineup changes. Dylan Guenther will join the McBain line and Daniil But will play with the Hayton line.
- Liam O’Brien is coming into the lineup, and Kailer Yamamoto is out tonight.
Changes to the Lines
The Mammoth have made some line changes to bring a spark to the forward group and spread Utah’s talent throughout the lineup to match a stacked Toronto team. Tourigny discussed the changes after morning skate.
“When you look at the Toronto lineup they have depth. There’s four lines, their offense is spread out, throughout the offense. We’re looking for that. We’re looking for a spark as well. (McBain and Guenther), they like to play together. They were playing last year a little bit together, and they love to play together. At the same time, I think (But) needs to execute just a little bit better. He played well, he’s playing really well, but he needs to execute at the higher level and playing with JJ (Peterka and Barrett Hayton), that will give him another opportunity to showcase what he can do and we’ll go from there. We’ll adjust if need be. So, we’ll start the game that way, we’ll see how the matchup’s going. We’ll figure it out, we have options.”
Defensive Details
Following a 3-2 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Mammoth want to clean up their defensive details and performance. This will be key against the Maple Leafs who are averaging the fifth-most goals for in the NHL, and have a stacked roster with plenty of firepower.
“I think (Toronto) does really good off the cycle, off the rush,” defenseman Nate Schmidt explained. “They do a lot of their damage there … so our (defensemen) and low forward really have to do a good job of cutting that speed off and making sure that they don’t climb through the half wall because if they do, then it’s going to be a long night for us.”
“They play a really direct game,” Tourigny explained. “They put pucks on the net, they have traffic … they don’t complicate their game. They do a really good job at it and they play hard. So, for us defensively, we’ll need to be consistent. I think it’s a kind of team that (doesn’t) beat themselves. So, we’ll need to make sure we have a good shift, one after the other one.”
