Connor vs Auston! Nazem vs RNH! Leafs jerseys filling up 95% of Rogers Place! It’s that time of year again when Toronto takes on the Edmonton.
The Leafs are currently on their western Canadian road trip and coming off a 4-1 win over Calgary at the Saddledome while the Oil are riding a two game win streak coming into tonight’s tilt.
Last year’s season series saw the Leafs take both games 4-2 and 3-2 with the 3-2 OT win in Toronto infamously coming after Nazem Kadri picked the pocket of #97 in the extra frame and just seconds later ending things.
Cam Talbot has an upper body injury and at the time of this writing it came out from the Oilers that he’s been placed on the IR. Laurent Brossoit will start in between the pipes tonight with Nick Ellis being recalled from Bakersfield.
Keys To The Game
Edmonton: Contain Toronto’s young core. There’s so much more to the young guns of Toronto than Auston Matthews, in their win over Calgary, Zach Hyman, Matthews and William Nylander had points while Mitch Marner had five shots on goal, it’s a scary group of youngsters than can break out any time.
Toronto: Get all the rubber towards the net. All of it. Make Laurent Brossoit’s night miserable as in his six games played he’s been pretty shaky with a mark of 0-3-1 and a save percentage of .881.
Players To Watch
Edmonton: The longest tenured Oiler is coming off an OT winner vs Arizona and I expect Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to be buzzing again on the 2nd line tonight. This a kid who’s gone out and been one of the bright spots with this rough start, he is someone that this franchise needs to hold onto long term.
Toronto: He was on the Leafs fourth line vs the Flames but don’t sleep on the play of William Nylander who has 17 points and sits fourth in team scoring; he loves to fire the puck and sits only behind Matthews when it comes to shots on goal (66).
Projected Lines
Edmonton Oilers:
Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jesse Puljujarvi
Patrick Maroon – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Anton Slepyshev
Drake Caggiula – Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Strome
Jujhar Khaira – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian
Darnell Nurse – Adam Larsson
Oscar Klefbom – Matt Benning
Yohann Auvitu – Kris Russell
Laurent Brossoit
Toronto Maple Leafs:
Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
Patrick Marleau – Tyler Bozak – Connor Brown
James Van Riemsdyk – Nazem Kadri – Leo Komarov
Matt Martin – Dominic Moore – William Nylander
Morgan Rielly – Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardner – Nikita Zaitsev
Andreas Borgman – Roman Polak
Frederik Andersen
Prediction
Close games have been the trend with these two teams and I’m not expecting that to change, but an Oilers win? I’m not sure if I’m sold on it tonight they’ll do what they can in front of their interim starter but they’ll fall 3-2 after the shootout.
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