Los Angeles Kings @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: SNO, FDSNW

The Leafs last game was away on November 11 against the Boston Bruins, which Toronto lost by a score of 5-3 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 8-8-1 for a 0.500 Points %.

The Los Angeles Kings last played away on November 11 against the Montréal Canadiens. The Kings won by a score of 5-1 in regulation, and their current league record is 8-5-4 for a 0.588 Points %.

Them

The only thing I know about LA is that Corey Perry has been scoring at an unsustainable rate, that nonetheless is being treated as sustainable. It was ever thus. For all forwards with 100 minutes in All-Situations, Perry's shooting % is 16th at 28%.

The Kings this year, despite a not great points pace, are doing well at five-on-five. They're top 10 in Corsi, but drop down to average in Expected Goals. This is mostly driven by their fairly tepid offence, and they do have a fairly mixed bag of forward talent. Most teams do these days.

Their power play and their PK is below average in quality of shooting and results, and their overall goaltending is good enough to help them rise above the middle ranks in the NHL.

They have the basic game to do better than they are with some value added from special teams, but so far, they're just not good enough at anything to improve that points record much.

In a league trending towards parity, they don't look like they will be a winner in their division, but it's too early to know that for sure. Their loser points are helping them out a lot right now.

Lines

Last Game (2025-11-11) via Daily Faceoff and subject to change

Joel Armia - Anze Kopitar - Adrian Kempe
Kevin Fiala - Quinton Byfield - Alex Laferriere
Andrei Kuzmenko - Phillip Danault - Trevor Moore
Warren Foegele - Alex Turcotte - Corey Perry

Mikey Anderson - Drew Doughty
Joel Edmundson - Brandt Clarke
Brian Dumoulin - Cody Ceci

Darcy Kuemper - likely starter
Anton Forsberg

Us

Scott Laughton was put on IR retroactive to November 8 when he was hurt again. That move was necessary for roster room, as there isn't a cap space crunch at this time. The roster room was necessary to recall Artur Akhtyamov from the AHL.

The goalie situation is as follows:

Anthony Stolarz left the last game after the first period and did not return to the bench. The team later announced he had an upper body injury. He is day-to-day and not on IR.

Dennis Hildeby played parts of two of the last three games and started the one in between.

Joe Woll has played half of one game and all of a second in the AHL. He can remain with the Marlies through their Friday game, and there can be an extension to his conditioning stint added if the Leafs request it. With Akhtyamov on the Leafs, the Marlies only have two goalies in Woll and Vyacheslav Peksa.

Auston Matthews also left the last game with a lower body injury following a hit near the boards. The trouble appeared to come when he landed hard on his knee. However, in a lesson about not jumping to conclusions:

The Leafs are now playing with no extra forward, and there seemed to be some expectation (an assumption or a backup plan that wasn't needed) that Easton Cowan would be recalled today since he did not play yesterday in the AHL. He was not.

If Stolarz is ready to come back for the next game, then we should expect a forward will be recalled, and that most likely with be Cowan. It's rare for a team to play a road game with no extras unless they are forced into that by cap space issues, but it is clear the Leafs did not want to put either Stolarz or Matthews on IR and have them out for a full week for sure.

The lines this morning load up line one and rely on a second and third line that have had some time together. The Domi-centred line with McMann and Robertson were not very good last season, but at least they know each other, which is a rare commodity on the Leafs this season. Robertson has to bring his new man approach to this line tonight in a big way.

Lines

Morning Skate

Matthew Knies - John Tavares - William Nylander
Bobby McMann - Max Domi - Nicholas Robertson
Dakota Joshua - Nicolas Roy - Matias Maccelli
Sammy Blais - Steven Lorentz - Calle Järnkrok

Morgan Rielly - Brandon Carlo
Simon Benoit - Jake McCabe
Dakota Mermis - Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Dennis Hildeby - starter
Arthur Akhtyamov

The Game

This is a mild goalie crisis. Desperation time is when AA starts a game. But the Leafs need to set aside whatever is bugging them and play in front of Hildeby in a way that supports him. He's been okay – not outstanding, not a big problem – but he's a rookie! They need to act like they know that.

Quiz time: Which Leafs player is second on that list of forwards by shooting % mentioned above. No looking it up. This might be tricky, since there are three Leafs in the top 50. Not that that should give you any cause for concern at all.

Go Leafs go.

Game Coverage