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Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy makes the lunging pad save against Toronto Maple Leafs Ryan O’Reilly (Photo by Gavin Napier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Lightning & Maple Leafs Face Off in Key Divisional Matchup

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Jim Bay | Last updated Apr 9, 2025 10:35 AM ET

The Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, April 9, a match that could significantly impact their pursuit of the top spot in the NHL’s Atlantic Division. Coming into the game, the Maple Leafs are sitting on top of the division with 98 points, while the Lightning are in second with 96 points. After this contest, each team will have four games remaining in the regular season.

This is their fourth and final matchup of the season, with the Maple Leafs winning the three previous contests. They last played on Jan. 20, when Matthew Knies had two goals and an assist, and Mitch Marner had a goal and two assists to lead the Maple Leafs to a 5-3 victory.

Both teams have already clinched spots in the playoffs. The Maple Leafs are in the postseason for the ninth straight season, but have failed to win the Atlantic Division over that streak. The Lightning have qualified for the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons, the longest run in franchise history.

Last Time Out

On Monday (April 7), Brayden Point had two goals and an assist, and Nikita Kucherov added a goal and two assists to help the Lightning beat the New York Rangers 5-1. Point, who also had an assist, has scored at least 40 goals in three straight seasons. Yanni Gourde and Brandon Hagel also scored, and Jake Guentzel had three assists, while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 38 shots. The Lightning got their 45th victory to reach that mark for an NHL-leading eighth time in 11 seasons.

Toronto fell to the Florida Panthers Tuesday night (April 8), 3-1. Eetu Luostarinen scored about a minute into the third period to give the Panthers the lead. Carter Verhaeghe sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 46.9 seconds left. John Tavares scored his 37th goal of the season for Toronto, and Joseph Woll made 34 saves in the loss.

How Each Team Is Trending

The loss to the Panthers ended Toronto’s four-game win streak, but the Maple Leafs are 7-2-1 in their last ten games. During this streak, the Maple Leafs played intense, balanced hockey, with contributions from their top stars and depth players. They were dominant in their defensive zone, and Anthony Stolarz has played well of late after struggling during the middle part of March. He recently earned his 10th career shutout when he blanked the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night (April 5).

Anthony Stolarz, Toronto Maple Leafs (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

After the victory over the Rangers, the Lightning are 6-3-1 in their last ten games. They just completed a four-game road trip where they went 2-1-1. Kucherov is having another outstanding season and currently sits at 115 points, tied for the league lead with the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon entering Tuesday’s games. Point has had five goals in his last five games and recorded his third straight 40-goal season, which tied for the most in franchise history.

The Lightning are a much better team at home than they are on the road. They have a plus-63 goal differential at home compared to a plus-8 on the road. The story is virtually the same on defense, as they have a 2.14 goals-against average at home compared to 3.05 on the road. These stats explain why the Lightning are 5-2-0 in one-goal games at home but only 3-10-0 on the road. Their record at home is 27-8-2.

Projected Lineups

Lightning

Forwards
Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Nick Paul
Oliver Bjorkstrand – Yanni Gourde – Gage Goncalves
Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening

Defensemen
Victor Hedman – JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix
Darren Raddysh

Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson

Due to injuries, the Lightning have been skating with 11 forwards and seven defensemen in their last nine games.

Maple Leafs (Based on Tuesday’s Lines)

Matthew Knies — Auston Matthews — Mitch Marner
Bobby McMann — John Tavares — William Nylander
Scott Laughton — Max Domi — Calle Jarnkrok
Steven Lorentz — Pontus Holmberg — Nicholas Robertson

Morgan Rielly — Brandon Carlo
Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Chris Tanev
Simon Benoit — Philippe Myers

Joseph Woll
Anthony Stolarz

Stolarz is expected to get the start in net as Woll played last night against the Panthers.

What Each Team Must Do to Win

The Lightning need to take advantage of the Maple Leafs having played last night and not give them a chance to pick up some extra adrenaline. As much as they have this season, the Lightning need to have a strong start. For the season, they have scored 85 goals compared to their opponents’ 55. The numbers are even better at home, outscoring their opponents 49-17 in the opening period. This had led to the Lightning having a record of 33-8-5 when scoring first and a more impressive record of 23-2-3 when scoring first at home.

The Maple Leafs may want to take Ted Lasso’s advice and be like goldfish and put aside the memory of last night’s defeat to the Panthers. The other part of playing last night will be dealing with the physical aspects of playing in back-to-back contests. The Maple Leafs have done well in managing their players’ ice time throughout the season in hopes of having them ready for situations like they will face against the Lightning.

Puck drop for this highly anticipated matchup is at 7 pm EST. The game can be watched on the FanDuel Sports Network in the United States and Sportsnet in Canada.