New York Islanders @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: SN, MSGSN

The Leafs last game was at home on October 15 against the Buffalo Sabres, which Toronto lost by a score of 5-4 in overtime. The Leafs have a record of 3-3-2 for a 0.500 Points %.

The New York Islanders last played away on October 15 against the Ottawa Senators. The Islanders lost by a score of 2-1 in a shootout, and their current league record is 3-3-1 for a 0.500 Points %.

Them

Here we are again playing a team with a nearly identical record so far this season. Both teams lost their last game at the coinflip stage, and would like a win.

The interesting thing about the Islanders is the success of Matias Maccelli (who I am thrilled for, I liked him a lot). He's essentially their Jack Roslovic, who is doing great for the Leafs, so it's good things all around.

The Islanders should be scary good on defence with their savant Matthew Schaefer leading the way. But they've been allowing a lot of shots against so far. Both goalies have been good, and the newly surgically repaired Varlamov has fantastic results in only two games played.

In general, the Islanders are an average team at five-on-five and like the first time the Leafs played them, they are without Mat Barzal which hinders their game a great deal.

Lines

Last Game (2026-10-15) via Daily Faceoff and they make make some minor changes today

Matias Maccelli - Bo Horvat - Kyle Palmieri
Brayden Schenn - Calum Ritchie - Victor Eklund
Ondrej Palat - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Anthony Duclair
Emil Heineman - Casey Cizikas - Simon Holmstrom

Logan Stanley - Matthew Schaefer
Adam Pelech - Ryan Pulock
Matthew Kessel - Tony DeAngelo

Ilya Sorokin - likely starter
Semyon Varlamov

Us

The Leafs announced today that John Tavares is out week-to-week, and per multiple reports the team has defined that as any period up to six weeks. No more complaining that the designation is too vague. It seems it means not as much as two months.

For today's action Gavin McKenna is up on the first power-play unit, as he was when Tavares missed a game to be with the new baby.

Lines

Mark Masters via Daily Faceoff

William Nylander - Auston Matthews - Jack Roslovic
Easton Cowan - Nick Paul - Kirill Marchenko
Gavin McKenna - Colton Sissons - Bo Groulx
Brandon Duhaime - Teddy Blueger - Zack MacEwen

Jake McCabe - Darren Raddysh
Morgan Rielly - Troy Stecher
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Nick Blankenburg

Sergei Bobrovsky - starter
Anthony Stolarz

The Game

I have realized, rather belatedly, that playing an NHL season is actually a Rouguelite. "Lite" because you don't actually die. And that's why it's like life, and like life, it grinds people down sometimes, and lifts them up other times.

You go out, you do your run, you fight the enemy, you win or you don't, and a couple of days (or hours) later, you do it again. Maybe you get stronger, learn something, grow more confident, or less. But also, you have to face the fact that how you fare is also due to the randomness of the universe that doesn't care how confident you are.

The last run, the Leafs did a couple of things that were not very effective, and the bad guys won. This is a feature of the game, not a bug, not something you can ever avoid, and sure it's useful to consider responsibility (not blame) and examine how you could have done better. Burning the tape is the wrong choice usually. But everyone has to be like a goalie now, and forget that, and play this run tonight as what it is – a brand new attempt to beat the enemy and stick it to the universe and its indifference.

Stick it to them all, guys.

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