Toronto Maple Leafs @ Columbus Blue Jackets
07:00 PM at Nationwide Arena
Watch on: SN, CBJNHL, CBJHN

The Leafs last game was at home on October 19 against the San Jose Sharks, which Toronto won by a score of 3-1 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 4-4-2 for a 0.500 Points %.

The Columbus Blue Jackets last played away on October 18 against the Minnesota Wild. The Blue Jackets lost by a score of 2-1 in regulation, and their current league record is 3-4-0 for a 0.429 Points %.

Them

The Blue Jackets spent the summer putting on a soap opera about player contracts, the team, their chances of winning, and the list of players that wanted out.

Two of the escapees, Elvis Merzlikins and Kirill Marchenko, ended up in Toronto. While Merzlikins immediately decamped to Switzerland to recover from surgery, Marchenko got busy playing with a better centre than he had been before.

Meanwhile, Adam Fantilli, Marchenko's former linemate, spent training camp negotiating his big contract. The initial results for him and the team – now that Matt Knies is his winger – have been disappointing.

It's only October, and they've already kicked off the "how many times can the coach call you out" conversation. So other than that stuff, what's going on? Well, they're below average at everything for a start. Particularly offence and the power play.

As you know, or you should, the Leafs have been struggling at five-on-five. The Blue Jackets are right there with them, not Flyers level bad, but in the dregs of the league nonetheless. The difference is the Leafs are capable of good enough offence, and Columbus has not managed that much yet. They also have scored well under expected so far.

I expected the big trade to expose Fantilli more, because he was benefitting from Marchenko's superior skill to that of Knies. That seems to be happening, and Charlie Coyle might be the best centre on the team so far. Knies has been himself, and been a bit extra lucky on shooting, but he's not an offence creator.

The Columbus media line I saw is that without Ivan Provorov, they can't be judged as a team, and sure, that's likely an issue, but he's not going to fix their offence.

Lines

Mark Scheig via Daily Faceoff

Matthew Knies - Adam Fantilli - Kent Johnson
Dmitri Voronkov - Sean Monahan - Valeri Nichushkin
Cole Sillinger - Charlie Coyle - Mathieu Olivier
Ryan Lomberg - Luca Del Bel Belluz - Conor Garland

Zach Werenski - Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen - Denton Mateychuk
Emil Andrae - Erik Gudbranson

Jet Greaves - starter
Cam Talbot

Us

Yet again, the Leafs face an opponent they should be able to play effectively, even with their reduced roster options.

Toronto's offence is way too tepid for who they have on the roster, and that has to be the area they need not to lose sight of while they try to develop some defensive systems that are at least okay. Their power play is legitimately very good, the PK is still a big question mark obscured by good/luck goaltending, but it has at least looked better lately and the shot stats say the last two games with lots of PK time were two of their best so far. The power play has trended a bit in the right direction too, so both of those things are encouraging.

Lines

Last Game (2026-10-19) via Daily Faceoff

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

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

Anthony Stolarz - starter
Artur Akhtyamov

The Game

Wouldn't a game where the passes connected and the tactics were smart and effective be nice? I'd like that. Let's try it.

Game Coverage