Pittsburgh Penguins @ Toronto Maple Leafs
04:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: TNT, truTV, HBO MAX, SNO

Note: no one is having a morning skate with this start time, so all lines are from the prior game. This post will be the GDT as well. Watch for actual lines in warmup.

The Leafs last game was away on December 21 against the Dallas Stars, which Toronto lost by a score of 5-1 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 15-15-5 for a 0.500 Points %.

The Pittsburgh Penguins last played at home on December 21 against the Montréal Canadiens. The Penguins won by a score of 4-3 in a shootout, and their current league record is 15-11-9 for a 0.557 Points %.

Them

The last time the Leafs played the Penguins they beat them in a blow out that we all hoped would sort them out a little. That lasted for a couple of wins against tough opposition, and then the malaise came back.

But the Penguins, who were way up at the top of the Eastern Conference early on, have also fallen down to where we all expected them to be. But in the east, that means three points out of a playoff spot.

They are champions of mediocrity with 50% in both Corsi and Expected Goals. They are high-mediocre in offence and low-mediocre in defence.

And just to rub some salt in the Leafs' wounds, their power play is really good.

Evgeni Malkin is on IR, and the Penguins got rid of Tristan Jarry just before he broke again. We might see Stuart Skinner today.

Lines

Last Game (2025-12-21) via Daily Faceoff

Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Justin Brazeau - Tommy Novak - Anthony Mantha
Rutger McGroarty - Ben Kindel - Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar - Kevin Hayes - Noel Acciari

Parker Wotherspoon - Erik Karlsson
Brett Kulak - Kris Letang
Ryan Shea - Jack St. Ivany

Stuart Skinner - presumed starter
Arturs Silovs

Us

As mentioned in comments the other night, before the weekend games, the power play units were changed. The Leafs had a practice in Nashville before they went to Dallas and did not work on the power play at all at that practice.

When asked why they hadn't practiced the new formations before the Dallas game, Craig Berube just said, "I didn't want to." Now, take a deep breath and try to set aside the imaginary Berube ogre that lives in your heads. This was odd. He does not engage with the media like that very often, and he's not inclined to just make systemic changes and not bother to practice them.

Two possibilities: he didn't want Dallas to know what they were going to do in advance or he didn't have buy-in from Marc Savard on this plan. Okay, three possibilities because maybe it was Savard's plan not his. Regardless, and I want to emphasize this because you can't say anything on the internet without it becoming truthy, this is speculation.

But maybe this firing was also about an actual disagreement about the actual aspect of coaching that Savard was in charge of, and not whatever meta-story reason will get attached to it.

I doubt Easton Cowan sits again, so the lines below will change.

Lines

Last Game (2025-12-21) via Daily Faceoff

There is no information yet on today's lines.

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Max Domi
Matias Maccelli - John Tavares - William Nylander
Nicholas Robertson - Nicolas Roy - Bobby McMann
Dakota Joshua - Scott Laughton - Steven Lorentz

Morgan Rielly - Philippe Myers
Jake McCabe - Troy Stecher
Simon Benoit - Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Joe Woll - presumed starter
Dennis Hildeby

The Game

Same advice as last time: don't take penalties, but this team is beatable at five-on-five with discipline and perseverance.

Oh, and last game before the break? If you thought the refs wanted Sunday's game moved along fast with no unnecessary stoppages for any obvious infractions, wait for this one.

Game Coverage