Preview: Stars @ Maple Leafs

Dallas Stars @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: SNO, BSSW

Opponent’s Site: Defending Big D

The Leafs last game was at home on October 17 against the Arizona Coyotes, and the Leafs lost by a score of 4-2. The Leafs have a record of 2-2-0 so far.

The Dallas Stars last played at home on October 17 against the Winnipeg Jets. The Stars won by a score of 4-1, and their current league record is 3-0-0.

This is going to be Nick Robertson’s season debut and his second game against his brother, Jason Robertson. In the first last March, Nick played 11 minutes and got two shots, no points on the second line. Tonight, he gets another chance with Tavares and Nylander to hopefully make a bigger difference.

On the injury front, Timothy Liljegren and Jordie Benn are skating with the Leafs in practice, but as of yet there is no new timeline for their returns. Jake Muzzin was not with the team on the ice after being put on IR yesterday, but the players are hopeful he will return soon.

Keefe says he doesn’t have much of an update on Benn or Liljegren.

— David Alter (@dalter) October 20, 2022

TJ Brodie says Jake Muzzin seems “good”. “We’re all hoping he’ll come back soon.”

— David Alter (@dalter) October 20, 2022

Them

The Stars are one of three undefeated teams left in the league after three games. their hot start has almost unsurprisingly come from their rejuvenated second line of Seguin, Dellandrea, and Mason Marchment. Marchment leads the team with three goals and five points as the second line has scored four times in the first three games. The first line continues to be good with Hintz, Pavelski, and Jason Robertson also combining for four goals on the season so far.

The Stars have taken a step forward this year with young talent coming into the team and the free agent signing of Marchment.

Jake Oettinger is expected to start for Dallas since the team hasn’t played since Monday and their next game isn’t until Saturday, same as the Leafs.

Lines

Source: Matthew DeFranks via Daily Faceoff

Jason Robertson - Roope Hintz - Joe Pavelski
Mason Marchment - Tyler Seguin - Ty Dellandrea
Jamie Benn - Wyatt Johnston - Denis Gurianov
Joel Kiviranta - Radek Faksa - Luke Glendening

Miro Heiskanen - Colin Miller
Ryan Suter - Jani Hakanpää
Esa Lindell - Nils Lundkvist

Jake Oettinger - projected starter
Scott Wedgewood

Us

When Keefe said after the last game that there were going to be changes to the lineup, I hoped that it would’ve been more than Malgin swapping with Robertson so the kid could play against his brother. But alas, that’s the only lines change we will see at forward.

On defense, Sandin steps up to fill Muzzin’s spot, with Mete coming in onto the third pair. Sandin will also take Giordano’s position at the top of the second power play unit (with Robertson taking Malgin’s on the wing) in order to prioritize Giordano for the penalty kill.

Ilya Samsonov is going to start in net, most likely.

Lines

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

Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Rasmus Sandin - Justin Holl
Mark Giordano - Victor Mete

Ilya Samsonov - projected starter
Erik Källgren

The Game

What’s going to happen tonight?

Forgive me, I just took a class on multiple choice assessment best practices. Trying them out. /s