Pittsburgh Penguins @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:30 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: NHLN, Prime, TVAS, SN-PIT

The Leafs last game was away on November 1 against the Philadelphia Flyers, which Toronto won by a score of 5-2 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 6-5-1 for a 0.542 Points %.

The Pittsburgh Penguins last played away on November 1 against the Winnipeg Jets. The Penguins lost by a score of 5-2 in regulation, and their current league record is 8-3-2 for a 0.692 Points %.

Them

I was more than a little surprised to see Filip Hallander's name pop up as the top-line wing. He isn't always playing in that position, but he does have more than half his minutes with Sidney Crosby.

Originally drafted by the Penguins in the second round, he is 25 now, peak performance age, and he's providing the young legs on the Crosby line. In 2020, Hallander was part of the take for the truly remarkable Kasperi Kapanen trade. At the time I thought there was a good chance that Hallander could someday match Kapanen and it was essentially a double return for the Leafs.

In 2023, Hallander went back to the Penguins is the "so sharp he cut himself" trade Dubas made for Jared McCann prior to the expansion draft.

What to make of the Penguins who briefly led the NHL in points and are still high up the standings? The season has barely started and hockey is like that is the most obvious answer. But in labelling the team bad last year, what got missed was that they were really just fairly mediocre and had some of the worst goaltending in the league.

You're going to get tired of hearing it, and I'm already tired of saying it because it isn't new just because it's the popular media narrative this fall – the NHL is very tight with a very large cadre of teams tight around average. So large that the difference in ranking order can be insignificant between 10th and 20th once the season gets going. So you will see teams in that middle or close to it that seem exceptionally good or bad because of factors outside their basic level of play: goaltending, power play and the big background radiation of hockey so ubiquitous it is as unseen as oxygen, randomness.

The Penguins are one of those teams now, and they were last year. They didn't make the kinds of moves in the summer teams do when they think they are improving in the short term, but the idea they are tanking sounded like an attempt to manifest a Crosby trade.

Lines

Last Game (2025-11-01) via Daily Faceoff and subject to change

Filip Hallander - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha - Evgeni Malkin - Philip Tomasino
Tommy Novak - Ben Kindel - Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari

Parker Wotherspoon - Erik Karlsson
Owen Pickering - Kris Letang
Ryan Shea - Harrison Brunicke

Tristan Jarry - likely starter
Arturs Silovs

Us

William Nylander skated this morning on the Tavares line, and that knocked Bobby McMann down to the extras line that included Steven Lorentz and Scott Laughton. Nylander confirmed he's playing tonight, and Craig Berube said McMann is not sitting out, so something is changing.

Dakota Mermis has been recalled, and he skated as the extra defender. You might notice that all adds up 24 players participating, and the reason that can happen is that Scott Laughton is still on IR. In order for him to return, something has to happen to the excess of forwards, and it seems very unlikely now that Easton Cowan going to the AHL is the top solution to that problem in anyone's mind.

Lines

Morning skate lines are likely to change by gametime

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Nicholas Robertson
Easton Cowan - John Tavares - William Nylander
Dakota Joshua - Nicolas Roy - Matias Maccelli
Sammy Blais - Max Domi - Calle Järnkrok

Morgan Rielly - Brandon Carlo
Simon Benoit - Jake McCabe
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Philippe Myers

Anthony Stolarz - starter
Cayden Primeau

The Game

This game really does need to build off the win over the Flyers. The Leafs are out of a playoff spot right now, but the Eastern Conference is absurdly tight. Both third-place teams and the two holding the wild card spots have 14 points, and all eight teams below them have 13 or 14. The Leafs are, in other words six points out of top spot in the conference and also tied for last.

It's a 16-team race right now, and you can't wait around too long to start finding your game.

Game Coverage