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Connor McDavid comes to town for a Tuesday night showdown with Auston Matthews’ Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre (7:30 p.m. EST, TSN4).

The headlines write themselves when back-to-back first overall picks — particularly two of McDavid and Matthews’ calibre — meet for the first time in an NHL head to head. That’s especially the case when so much debate has centered around where Matthews would’ve gone in the 2015 draft order if he was born a few days earlier.

Game Day Notes

– This will be McDavid’s first time visiting his hometown team, having missed the Leafs-Oilers meeting at the ACC last November, which is better remembered as the Garret Sparks debut shutout game. In Leafs‘ one meeting against McDavid in Edmonton last February, he went off for five points in what remains his most productive individual performance through 57 games in the NHL.

– Nine games into his NHL career, Matthews has accumulated six goals, 10 points and 36 shots on goal. After nine games last season, McDavid had tallied five goals, nine points — so nearly identical early stat lines — and 17 shots on goal. Not that the nine-game sample means much in the big picture, but what stands out the most there is Matthews’ shot production through the first nine games of his career. If he were to average four shots a game over the length of the season and stay healthy throughout, he would land in some heady company near the top of the NHL record books.

– The Oilers come to town this November in much different standing than last November, with a 7-2-0 record (1st in the Western Conference) compared to an 8-14-2 record prior to their last visit to Toronto. McDavid is the current NHL points leader (12) — that could change with big games from William Nylander, Auston Matthews or both tonight — while Cam Talbot is currently the NHL wins leader with seven. Talbot has allowed just five goals on his last 181 shots.

– It’s unlikely the Oilers are suddenly the best team in the Western Conference with the addition of Milan Lucic, Adam Larsson, better goaltending from Cam Talbot and the subtraction of Taylor Hall, but perhaps this is the year they compete in a Pacific Division that’s looking a lot less intimidating than it has in years past. They’ve somewhat been punching above their weight so far according to the underlying stats, as they’re sixth in the league in PDO and 16th in the league in score-adjusted possession.

– Coming off of a 5-1 drubbing in New York, the Maple Leafs have recalled Nikita Soshnikov from the AHL (more on that here). With Soshnikov added, the Leafs will be dressing eight rookies tonight (44% of their total lineup).


Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines

Forwards

Connor Brown – Nazem Kadri – Leo Komarov
van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Mitch Marner
Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – William Nylander
Matt Martin – Ben Smith – Nikita Soshnikov

Defencemen

Morgan Rielly – Nikita Zaitsev
Jake Gardiner – Roman Polak
Martin Marincin – Connor Carrick

Scratched: Seth Griffith, Frank Corrado, Peter Holland
Injured: Matt Hunwick

Goaltenders

Starter: Frederik Andersen (Confirmed)
Backup: Jhonas Enroth


Edmonton Oilers Projected Lines

Forwards

Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Patrick Maroon – Leon Draisaitl – Jesse Puljujarvi
Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Zack Kassian
Anton Lander – Mark Letestu – Tyler Pitlick

Defencemen

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera – Kris Russell
Darnell Nurse – Eric Gryba

Goaltenders

Starter: Cam Talbot (Confirmed)
Backup: Jonas Gustavsson


Morning Skate: Mike Babcock

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