No such thing as a lock

One might be tempted to say the Toronto Maple Leafs should have an easy night Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

On paper, that is.

And that’s saying something when you consider the Leafs, who opened the year 4-0-1 at home, have dropped six of their last seven games at the Air Canada Centre and were out-scored 29-10 in those contests.

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Nevertheless, so much about this particular match-up appears to favor the Leafs.

One glance at the standings suggests the game should be Toronto’s for the taking. Despite a recent swoon, the Leafs remain sixth in the Eastern Conference with 33 points.

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, are dead last with 22 points.

Advantage: Leafs

The Leafs possess the NHL’s most deadly scoring duo in Phil Kessel, who is tied for first in goals with 18 and is second in points with 36, as well as Joffrey Lupul, who is tied for fourth in points with 33. Carolina’s top scorer, Jeff Skinner, has 24 points and isn’t expected to play Tuesday night. Their second leading scorer is Eric Staal, who is off to a woeful start to his year with just seven goals and 19 points in 31 games, and he’s a team- worst minus-18.

Offensive advantage: Leafs

As for the special teams, the Leafs have struggled on the penalty-kill once again this season, but they are up against a power play that ranks 25th. Toronto’s power play is second best in the NHL while the Hurricanes are 26th in penalty-killing.

Special teams advantage: Leafs

There’s no question the Hurricanes have the best and most established goaltender in Cam

Ward, but Carolina’s team defence ranks 30th in the NHL compared to the Leafs who are

26th.

Goaltending advantage: Even

Toronto coach Ron Wilson has won 634 games in his NHL career; guided Team USA to a gold medal in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and guided the Washington Capitals to the Stanley Cup final in 1978-79. Carolina’s Kirk Muller has one NHL victory as a head coach in the NHL.

Coaching advantage: Toronto

In spite of all of this, you won’t find anybody in the Maple Leafs dressing room that is looking for an easy game against the Hurricanes.

"Ever since I’ve been in the league, any team can win on any given night," said veteran winger Colby Armstrong. "The teams are so close. You have to have good special teams and you have to have that 60-minute mentality where everyone is playing well. You can’t have any lulls."

Asked if he was concerned anybody would be taking the opposition lightly, defenceman

Cody Franson was definitive in his response.

"No, not with the league being the way it is now; any team can win on any given night," Franson said. "We went into Carolina and they played really well against us. They made it tough for us in their building and we don’t forget those kinds of things. We aren’t going to take these guys lightly. They might be struggling, but they have a good team and they work hard.

"The biggest thing is you don’t want to look back at this point of the season and say, ‘Those two points against Carolina when they were struggling were the points we needed to get into the playoffs.’ You never know which two points are going to be the biggest two points. Every two points count and we have to make up for some lost ground.

We haven’t had enough wins ourselves in the past few games."

The only time the Leafs and Hurricanes met, Nov. 20 in Carolina, it was the home team that escaped with a 3-2 victory.

Since then, though, the Hurricanes have fired Maurice and replaced him with Muller. The veteran of 19 years as a player in the NHL has assistant coaching experience at this level, but this is his first head coaching gig. Carolina is 1-5-0 with him.

That said, the Hurricanes have been in Toronto since last Friday and have had their first real opportunity to learn the new coach’s system.

"We have to know that Carolina, probably for the first time with the new coach, has had a couple of days of good practice," said Toronto coach Ron Wilson. "I’m sure when he took over he didn’t have much time to institute things. His team should be pretty prepared after a few days of practice. We’ve always had a difficult time with Carolina and I don’t think that’s going to change. They play well and their goalie (Cam Ward) plays really well against us. We’re going to have to be on our toes and be ready to work hard for 60 minutes."

Wilson didn’t say who would start in goal for him, but the thinking is he’ll go with James Reimer who is 0-3 since returning from six weeks out with concussion-like symptoms. Reimer, for one, knows his team could be in for a tougher game than some might expect.

"The Hurricanes are a good team; they beat us once already," Reimer said. "It doesn’t really matter what a team’s record is. You look at us last year; we didn’t have a great record and all of a sudden at the end we turned it on and we were one of the best teams in the league. It’s a fine line between winning and losing (in the NHL) and with the new coach I think they’re starting to turn things around. They played really well against Edmonton a couple of days ago so we can’t take them lightly at all."

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy will cover the Toronto Maple Leafs for sportsnet.ca for the 2011/12 season.