Game 31 preview: Maple Leafs have the losing streak Blues

Toronto Maple Leafs at St. Louis Blues: 7PM ET / 8PM Local
Watch on: CBC, Sportsnet, Sportsnet Now, CBC.ca , NHL.tv, NHL Network, Fox Sports Midwest

Opponent’s site: St. Louis Game Time

The St. Louis Blues are the reigning Stanley Cup champions. Their captain is one of my favourite IceDogs of all time, and they’ve played a lot of legendary hall of famers in their line up - St. Louis hero Martin Brodeur for example - but along with the Minnesota Wild, the Blues are one of those teams that brings out a blank spot in my brain.

I knew there was a game tonight, I just couldn’t remember who the opponent was. I know for sure the Boston Bruins went to the Stanley Cup final last spring, but I can never remember who beat them. I’m not trying to be a smart ass here, or troll Blues fans, it’s just...sorry, I forgot what I was talking about.

Maple Leafs Lines

Pontus Aberg - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Zach Hyman - John Tavares* - Mitch Marner
Ilya Mikheyev - Alexander Kerfoot - Kasperi Kapanen
Pierre Engvall - Jason Spezza - Nic Petan

Morgan Rielly - Tyson Barrie
Jake Muzzin - Justin Holl
Travis Dermott - Cody Ceci

Frederik Andersen
Michael Hutchinson

*Frederik Gauthier played this role in practice as John Tavares was away for personal reasons.

The Maple Leafs last practice was yesterday in Toronto before departing for St. Louis, and we saw newest call up Pontus Aberg slide into Andreas Johnsson’s spot on the top line with Matthews and Nylander.

Petan is in over Timashov on the fourth line.

St. Louis Blues lines

Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Nathan Walker
Zach Sanford - Ryan O’Reilly - David Perron
Ivan Barbashev - Tyler Bozak - Robert Thomas
Mackenzie MacEachern - Jacob de la Rose - Troy Brouwer

Colton Parayko - Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester - Justin Faulk
Vince Dunn - Robert Bortuzzo

Jordan Binnington
Jake Allen

So far in December the Blues have been shutout 4-0 by the Blackhawks, and shut out the Penguins 3-0.  They’re the number three team in the NHL right now with 42 points and 18 victories. The two teams stack up like this:

Preview Stats

If you wan to look back on the last game these two played - a 3-2 Blues victory - you can watch the recap below:

That’s it for the preview. I’ll see you folks tonight when the Maple Leafs take on....their....opponents that....Blues! Yes, those guys.