Terrible news ahead of tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers (9-7-1) will face the Toronto Maple Leafs (10-6-2) this Saturday at Scotiabank Arena in an anticipated matchup.
Both teams are in weird spots early in the season and looking to gain momentum since they have been struggling at times.
The Oilers are on a three-game winning streak including two overtime victories. Despite a shaky start, the Oilers have started to find their form and will begin a three-game road trip with this matchup in Toronto against the Leafs.
Connor McDavid has historically been really good against Toronto by scoring 35 points in 23 games versus the Leafs.
Edmonton has on their side struggled on the power play this season and are ranked 24th in the league with a 15.9% scoring rate with one man up which is surprising with the offensive talent in the team.
The Maple Leafs have some injuries, and the most notable is Auston Matthews who has an upper-body injury.
In his absence, Mitch Marner has stepped up by moving to sixth on the franchise's all-time points list with 661 points and they will need him again for sure tonight if they want to win this game.
Mitch Marner is also just one goal away from hitting the 200-goal milestone and the Leafs have improved their power play recently by converting 9 out of 21 opportunities in their last six games, which puts them 14th in the NHL at 20.3%. This kind of PP stats could help Marner reach his milestone tonight.
Here's the projected lineup for our Maple Leafs :
Forwards
Bobby McMann -John Tavares- Mitch Marner
Matthew Knies - Max Domi - William Nylander
Alex Steeves - David Kampf - Pontus Holmberg
Connor Dewar - Steven Lorentz - Ryan Reaves
Defence
Morgan Rielly - Jani Hakanpaa
Jake McCabe - Chris Tanev
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Conor Timmins
Goal
Anthony Stolarz
Joseph Woll
Toronto is slightly favored in this game even with Auston Matthews' absence.
With their recent power play success and strong home performance, the Leafs are predicted to win 4-2 because of the leverage of their depth and by capitalizing on the power play.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 16 | 245 ANSWERS Terrible news ahead of tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers Do you think the Toronto Maple Leafs will beat the Edmonton Oilers without Auston Matthews? | ||
| Yes | 229 | 93.5 % |
| No | 16 | 6.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
