Preview: Maple Leafs at Kings

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Los Angeles Kings
07:00 PM at Crypto.com Arena
Watch on: NHLN, CBC, SN1, BSW
Opponent’s Site: Jewels From The Crown

The Leafs last game was an away game on October 27 against the San Jose Sharks, which the Leafs lost by a score of 4-3. The Leafs have a record of 4-3-1 so far.

The Los Angeles Kings last played at home on October 27 against the Winnipeg Jets. The Kings lost by a score of 6-4, and their current league record is 4-5-0.

Them

The Los Angeles Kings are emerging from a rebuild/retool (whichever they want to call it) after their two Stanley Cup championships. We’ll still see veterans Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar, Alex Edler, and Jonathan Quick out there but they’ll be joined by emerging stars for the team Brandt Clarke, Sean Durzi, and Trevor Moore.

They’re winning most of their games on the road (3) and have just a single win at home. The losses have been big - 4-1 (SEA), 6-1 (PIT) - and the wins have all been within one goal, including one overtime and one shootout. If the Leafs can get out to a strong lead early the game should be theirs. This is also an afternoon game for the Kings starting at 4:00PM local time which will have the Leafs start at their usual 7:00PM Toronto time. Sometimes a small change like this can push the odds in the visitors favour.

If you’re into the “former Leafs score against the Leafs” trope the Kings have three former Leafs players / picks in Trevor Moore, Carl Grundström, and Sean Durzi.

Lines

Source: Helene St. James via Daily Faceoff

Adrian Kempe - Anze Kopitar - Gabriel Vilardi
Trevor Moore - Phillip Danault - Viktor Arvidsson
Carl Grundström - Blake Lizotte - Kevin Fiala
Brendan Lemieux - Jaret Anderson-Dolan - Arthur Kaliyev

Mikey Anderson - Drew Doughty
Sean Durzi - Matt Roy
Alexander Edler - Brandt Clarke

Jonathan Quick

Us

Sure, other teams like the Avalanche, Lightning, and Panthers have similar records to the Leafs and we aren’t hearing the same complaints about their records, but I don’t care. I’m not a fan of those teams. Yes, the Leafs record right now is very similar to last season which was overall pretty good, but I’m living in the now and just like, win more games and do it better.

The Leafs have made a good move recently playing Nick Robertson with John Tavares and William Nylander, but there’s still something missing from the top line. It seems like the Leafs answer to this is wait it out and they’ll figure things out on their own.

Losing to teams like the Canadiens, Coyotes, and Sharks have people down, but with this Kings team on their way up, we should expect the Leafs to play better tonight against a team with expectations.

The black “flipside” jerseys are on deck tonight which I’m sure will lead to lots of close ups of Justin Bieber in his suite.

Lines

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Nick Robertson - John Tavares - William Nylander
Pierre Engvall - Alex Kerfoot - Calle Järnkrok
Zach Aston-Reese - David Kämpf - Denis Malgin

Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Rasmus Sandin - Justin Holl
Mark Giordano - Filip Král

Ilya Samsonov

The Game

Toronto vs Los Angeles

These aren’t two evenly matched teams, and if I had to make a prediction I would say we’ll see nine goals scored in this game, the Leafs will win, but I can’t figure out if it will be a 5-4 nail biter, or a 7-2 blow out.

Which former Leaf scores tonight?