Toronto Maple Leafs @ Chicago Blackhawks
07:00 PM at United Center
Watch on: SN, CBC, CHSN

The Leafs last game was at home on November 13 against the Los Angeles Kings, which Toronto lost by a score of 4-3 in overtime. The Leafs have a record of 8-8-2 for a 0.500 Points %.

The Chicago Blackhawks last played at home on November 12 against the New Jersey Devils. The Blackhawks lost by a score of 4-3 in overtime, and their current league record is 8-5-4 for a 0.588 Points %.

Them

The Western Conference is a foreign country to a team in the east this season. The points spread of first to last in the east is 11, and only the Buffalo Sabres are below .500. In the west, the spread is 17 and there are four teams below .500. None of them are Chicago.

Chicago is eighth in the conference at this point, and are fifth in their division. They aren't suddenly a great team, but they aren't trying hard to be as bad as possible, and they are starting to be discerning about who plays on the team.

Chicago struggles at five-on-five with poor (just not Leafs poor) Corsi and Expected Goals percentages and they rate very poorly at Expected Goals Against.

Their standings place is interesting, as is the fact they have the second best goal-differential in the west with +11. They have outscored a very low quality power play by a large amount, their five-on-five GF% is third best in the NHL, and their all-situations Save % is tops.

They aren't completely a paper tiger, but the play of Spencer Knight is a major reason for where they are in the standings. Arvid Söderblom has also been very good in only five games played. They have the best tandem in the NHL so far.

And so far is key. They aren't likely to keep rolling along outscoring opponents while getting outshot this much. If the power play was better and not just lucky, and the team had more scoring talent, they could be taken more seriously. But they just don't yet have the talent to really capitalize on a hot goalie season.

They sure aren't easy to score on though. They have the lowest goals against in the NHL.

Lines

From morning skate.

Tyler Bertuzzi - Connor Bedard - Andre Burakovsky
Teuvo Teravainen - Ryan Greene - Ilya Mikheyev
Oliver Moore - Ryan Donato - Colton Dach
Landon Slaggert - Nick Foligno - Sam Lafferty

Alex Vlasic - Louis Crevier
Wyatt Kaiser - Artyom Levshunov
Matt Grzelcyk - Connor Murphy

Spencer Knight - likely starter
Arvid Söderblom

Us

I don't know anything about this team right now. I don't know what to expect, or even who is actually playing on which line. Matt Knies and Brandon Carlo were absent from practice yesterday for maintenance, so the practice forward lines were reimagined.

Easton Cowan has been recalled, and looks to be playing with Nic Roy and someone. Maybe not Sammy Blais as in the lines below.

Unless something unusual happens before 7 pm, this game should be Joe Woll's debut in net.

Lines

David Alter via Daily Faceoff with Matt Knies needing to slot in there somewhere.

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

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

Joe Woll - likely starter
Dennis Hildeby

The Game

Print off the speech from before Hildeby's last start and read it aloud.

I'm not wholly pessimistic. I think there have been a few glimmers of dechaosification since the reported big video session and brutally honest meeting on Monday. But it sure isn't a consistent change.

If malaise is infective, and I think it is, then the recovery can be as well.

Get well soon, Leafs!

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