Gameday: Maple Leafs vs Oilers-ish

EDMONTON OILERS AT TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
7:00 - SPORTSNET
OPPONENT SITE: COPPER N BLUE

Previously on Leafs vs Oilers:

Related

Maple Leafs game recap: Soups on!

The Maple Leafs defeated the Oilers 5-1, and it had a great ending:

Oilers jersey on the ice pic.twitter.com/1P2yfLSbDK

— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 15, 2021

And that was the Maple Leafs final game in December. They wouldn’t play again until this past Saturday when they defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-0.

THEM

The Oilers are bad. Very bad. They are 2-6-2 in their past ten games, They haven’t won a game since December 18th when they were in Seattle, and are coming back from their New York road trip where the lost to the Devils, Islanders, and Devils.

The loss to the Rangers, led to this quote from Head Coach Dave Tippett:

“Our goaltender wasn’t very good and we didn’t fire enough pucks at the net to get us back in the game.”

With this coming from Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen:

Mikko Koskinen on critics from Tippett, media: ”It’s not nice being thrown under the bus. I have to be better but at the same time we scored 7 goals in my last 6 losses. I can’t score goals.” #LetsGoOilers #NHL https://t.co/GGxX8EKJnI

— Tommi Seppälä (@TommiSeppala) January 5, 2022

Things are going well in Edmonton. Speaking of going well, the Oilers will be without these players tonight:

• Oscar Klefbom
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
• Tyson Barrie
• Kris Russell
• Derek Ryan
• Connor McDavid/

This seems bad for them, but very entertaining for us. Heres what the lines could be tonight:

Warren Foegele - Leon Draisaitl - Kailer Yamamoto
Zach Hyman - Ryan McLeod - Jesse Puljujarvi
Tyler Benson - Devin Shore - Zack Kassian
Bredan Perlini - Colton Scievour - Kyle Turris

Darnell Nurse - Evan Bouchard
Duncan Keith - Cody Ceci
William Lagesson - Slater Koekkoek

Mike Smith
Mikko Koskinen

US

The Maple Leafs are great, and doing great. The postponed games gave them time to rest up and they came bursting out of the gate with a 6-0 win over the Senators built on depth. Living up to the coaches motto:

Keefe:

“It’s important to play well every night”

— Mike Stephens (@mikeystephens81) December 11, 2021

The Maple Leafs aren’t fighting through the media, winning games, and are only missing Timothy Liljegren and Ondřej Kaše.

Possible lines:

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Alexander Kerfoot - John Tavares - William Nylander
Pierre Engvall - David Kämpf - Ilya Mikheyev
Nick Ritchie - Jason Spezza - Wayne Simmonds

Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Jake Muzzin - Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin - Travis Dermott

Jack Campbell
Petr Mrázek

This should be a bloodbath.

Up to date numbers:

Preview Stats

Again. A bloodbath.

Game is at 7, Go Leafs Go!