New York Rangers @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: SN, NHLN, CBC, MSG

The Leafs last game was at home on October 16 against the Los Angeles Kings, which Toronto won by a score of 6-2 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 3-1-0 for a 0.750 Points %.

The New York Rangers last played away on October 17 against the Detroit Red Wings. The Rangers won by a score of 5-2 in regulation, and their current league record is 3-0-1 for a 0.875 Points %.

Them

The Rangers have a reputation for tepid five-on-five play and an overreliance on their star goalie, Igor Shesterkin. This is a little overstated as most takes are. Shesterkin currently makes $5.7 million, and is on the last year of his contract. He will eventually become the highest paid goalie in the NHL, even counting the one who doesn't play, but he's not the whole story for the Rangers, particularly not in their early going this year.

Last season the Rangers were in the bottom third of the NHL for Expected Goals and mediocre at shotshare. They managed, in other words, to make a poor five-on-five performance worse with the shot quality for and against. This year in their opening games, they have the highest rate of Expected Goals For in the league and would lead in overall Expected Goals % if the Hurricanes weren't doing Hurricanes things again. They've also played Detroit twice.

Their power play has been good, and was the main reason they got wins last year beyond Shesterkin's contribution. Artemi Panarin leads the NHL with three power play goals. He leads in all-situations points and is second in all-situations goals.

The Trochek line has 22 points combined.

Lines

Last Game (2024-10-17) via Daily Faceoff however the first and second lines are reversed in line rushes.

Artemi Panarin - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lafrenière
Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Reilly Smith
Will Cuylle - Filip Chytil - Kaapo Kakko
Adam Edstrom - Sam Carrick - Jonny Brodzinski Matt Rempe comes in.

K'Andre Miller - Adam Fox
Braden Schneider - Jacob Trouba
Zac Jones - Victor Mancini

Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick

Us

With an optional skate today, lines can be assumed to be from yesterday's full practice. Timothy Liljegren was in for one game, and now he's out again. And the three scoring lines format continues.

Lines

David Alter via Daily Faceoff from yesterday's practice.

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
Dennis Hildeby

The Game

The Leafs must shut down that Rangers top line, no matter what order it comes out in. As was made abundantly clear in the win against the Kings, the new, unimproved John Tavares line with Pontus Holmberg and Nick Robertson as wingers cannot win a matchup against a strong centre. Phillip Danault ate them for dinner. The job is going to go to Auston Matthews.

There is a theory that a top player needs to be able to do things like take that matchup and also score lots of goals in his free time. And sometimes Matthews does this, but other teams have good top lines too where the expectation is they win the matchup and score lots. Matthews isn't going to win every contest. So if you see the second line getting a lot more chances, that's a feature not a bug on this lineup design.

I don't understand that Tavares line or what it's meant to do, so don't ask me on that one.

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