Preview: Boston visits Toronto

Boston Bruins @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: NHLN, CBC, SN360, NESN

Opponent’s Site: Stanley Cup of Chowder

The Leafs last game was at home on November 2 against the Philadelphia Flyers, which Toronto won by a score of 5-2. The Leafs have a record of 5-4-2 so far.

The Boston Bruins last played an away game on November 3 against the New York Rangers. The Bruins won by a score of 5-2, and their current league record is 10-1-0.

Them

The Bruins are still without Charlie McAvoy and David Krejčí. McAvoy hasn’t played yet this season, whereas Krejčí has been out for a week. Both were skating this morning with the extras. But unfortunately the injuries haven’t hurt this team at all, they are annoyingly good so far.

Lines

Source: Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic at morning skate

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Jake DeBrusk
Taylor Hall - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic - Charlie Coyle - A.J. Greer
Nick Foligno - Tomas Nosek - Jakub Lauko

Extra: Craig Smith

Hampus Lindholm - Connor Clifton
Matt Grzelcyk - Brandon Carlo
Mike Reilly - Anton Stralman

Extra: Jakub Zboril

Linus Ullmark
Keith Kinkaid

Us

The Leafs need to prove themselves, and the way to do that is to play Pierre Engvall at centre. Wait...

But none of that matters because Timothy Liljegren is back to beef up the defence. No pressure, he starts paired with Morgan Rielly and TJ Brodie moves over to the left again to play with Justin Holl. This pairing has been very good so far, fingers crossed that continues.

Lines

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Alex Kerfoot - John Tavares - William Nylander
Calle Järnkrok - Pierre Engvall - Wayne Simmonds
Zach Aston-Reese - David Kämpf - Denis Malgin

Extras: Nick Robertson, Pontus Holmberg

TJ Brodie - Justin Holl
Morgan Rielly - Timothy Liljegren
Mark Giordano - Rasmus Sandin

Extras: Victor Mete

Ilya Samsonov - confirmed starter
Erik Källgren

The Game

Boston is leading the NHL in several categories, and the Leafs are not. The only place they’ve got similar records is in Goals Saved Above Expected for Ilya Samsonov and Linus Ullmark, as both goalies have had very strong starts.

The DeBrusk, Bergeron, Zacha version of the Bruins top line has been one of the best lines in the NHL and Brad Marchand actually makes them better. This game is going to be a huge test of the Matthews line, because if they can’t take on the powerhouse Bruins line, the game can’t be won. As always the trick with the Bruins is to score against their weaker depth.