The key for the Leafs tonight is avoiding the trap game in the first game back home after a long road trip against a team that is among the bottom-feeders in the league at 8-13-4.
As they learned in their visit to San Jose, like most teams in the NHL, there are enough dangerous elements on this Sharks club to hurt you if the effort and execution level isn’t sharp: Erik Karlsson is turning back the clock with Norris Trophy-level play and production, they have an elite penalty kill, and they have three impact forwards inside the top six (Timo Meier, Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl) that can hurt you on any given night.