St. Louis Blues @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: TSN4, FDSNMW
The Leafs last game was away on October 22 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which Toronto lost by a score of 6-2 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 4-3-0 for a 0.571 Points %.
The St. Louis Blues last played at home on October 22 against the Winnipeg Jets. The Blues lost by a score of 3-2 in regulation, and their current league record is 4-3-0 for a 0.571 Points %.
Them
The Blues have some problems. Worst is that Robert Thomas has a fractured ankle and is out for some time. Their other issue is they aren't playing as well as they want to.
If you read the bit above, you'll notice they have the identical record to the Leafs, and that's a reasonable outcome in only seven games. They have the puck less than the Leafs:
But not a lot less. What this Edge tracking data (all-situations) shows is that offensively the Blues are more tepid than the Leafs, but the difference is minor. The Blues definitely shoot the puck at a lower pace than the Leafs, and they have somehow managed to have a power play so bad, worst in the NHL at Expected Goals rate, that they have given up as many goals as they've scored (2 each way), which says to me they might be the worst team at getting set up.
They've have unsustainably good goaltending at five-on-five, just like Toronto, and are suffering mostly from a merely average Shooting % instead of Toronto's above average.
Neither team has been hard to defend against this year so far, and neither team can hit you with a dagger on the power play. I expect these two teams to get farther and farther apart in results as the season wears on, but that's then, and this is now.
Lines
Matthew DeFranks via Daily Faceoff from the last practice. Both Oskar Sundqvist and Nick Leddy are on the road trip, but did not practice yesterday.
Brandon Saad - Brayden Schenn - Jake Neighbours
Alexandre Texier - Pavel Buchnevich - Jordan Kyrou
Zack Bolduc - Dylan Holloway - Mathieu Joseph
Alexey Toropchenko - Radek Faksa - Kasperi Kapanen
Ryan Suter - Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg - Justin Faulk
Pierre-Olivier Joseph - Scott Perunovich
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
Us
Joe Woll finally joins the team and Dennis Hildeby returns to the AHL where I hope he gets some help shaking off that terrible game. Max Pacioretty did not appear at morning skate after leaving the last game and is day-to-day.
Skate reportedly focused on special teams, and we should not expect any changes to the first power play unit.
Lines
Assumed lines based on who is available.
Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Bobby McMann - Max Domi - William Nylander
Pontus Holmberg - John Tavares - Nicholas Robertson
Steven Lorentz - David Kämpf - Ryan Reaves
Morgan Rielly - Chris Tanev
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Jake McCabe
Simon Benoit - Conor Timmins
Anthony Stolarz
Joe Woll - confirmed starter
The Game
The Leafs need to start producing games against teams with something to prove, like maybe they have something on the line as well.
I don't at all buy in on the "play down to their opponents" business. It's too simplistic, and ignores the other team's very real reasons to play up to the Leafs. But getting spun in a circle by a team that comes out hard and stays hard like the Blue Jackets did needs to be a thing you only do occasionally.
