Looking to end their two-game losing slide, the Maple Leafs host a Minnesota Wild team that is without Kirill Kaprizov but is the league’s best road team this season with an 18-5-3 record away from home (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet).
In the first meeting of the two-game season series in Minnesota on November 3rd, the Leafs lost a low-event game by a score of 2-1 in overtime while getting outshot in all three periods at even strength (33.72% xGF, 36.7% CF). It was a back-to-back situation for Toronto — and it was the game before Matthews left the lineup for nine games due to injury — but in the Auston Matthews vs. Joel Eriksson-Ek matchup, the Wild owned 92% of the shot attempts (12-1) and 100% of the shots on goal (5-0) at five-on-five.
The Leafs will need a much better result at the top of their lineup tonight, especially with Craig Berube’s enhanced freedom to shift Matthews away from the Wild’s shutdown center with the benefit of the last change at home. It’s especially important knowing the Leafs‘ forward depth is depleted due to injury and Berube is continuing to load up the Matthews-Marner duo with the team’s best available left winger (Bobby McMann).
Toronto’s top line scored early in Ottawa but also conceded one in the third period and was largely kept quiet by the Shane Pinto line in the 2-1 loss to the Senators on Saturday night. Matthews recorded just one shot on goal in over 22 minutes of ice time. There needs to be a response game tonight, especially with how the Leafs‘ lineup is currently configured with the injuries to John Tavares and Matthew Knies.
The Wild typically start fast on the road, opening the scoring in 16 of 26 games and outscoring the opposition 25-16 in the first period away from home. The Leafs, who have been outscored 23-21 in the first period on home ice, will need to be ready to go from puck drop with no energy-related excuses on offer after three days’ rest.
Game Day Quotes
Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes on the challenge presented by the Leafs:
They bring quite a few challenges.
They’re a good team with a lot of talent and play with strong structure. They have their top players who are always going to be dangerous to defend, and you have to be aware of those guys, but the team in general is strong, competitive, and plays with structure.
Anytime time you get that combined with some of the high-end talent, it is a challenge.
Hynes on the threat posed by William Nylander:
He is so dangerous. He’s a really competitive player, and add on top of that the skill and vision, and he is a guy who can hurt you in so many different ways. He has great poise with the puck and can make plays — plays where you think you have things locked up and he makes a great play.
He is a shooting threat. He is a passing threat. Even when we played in Minnesota, he was just as dangerous. He is playing really well this year. He will be a challenge, among others, on the team.
Hynes on the challenge of matching up against Chris Tanev:
He is a difficult guy to play against. He defends hard. He has good size. He is physical. He blocks shots. He is a guy who is usually matched up against top guys.
As much as you are aware of some of the offensive things the team does, a guy like Tanev is going to be tough to play against in his own right.
Hynes on coping with the loss of Kirill Kaprizov to injury:
We have had a lot of injuries all year to multiple guys. The good thing for us is that we know who we are as a team and what we are as a team regardless of who is in the lineup. That is the way we need to continue to approach it as we go down the stretch.
Kirill is a superstar player with elite skill and sense, but he is a team guy. He plays to our team identity. The thing you miss with a guy like him are the plays he sees that other guys don’t see with the high level of talent and skill that he has.
You miss that type of chance generation — the pure talent of the player — but from a team perspective, we want to continue to play to the identity that we feel will give us the best chance to win on both sides of the puck.
Hynes on his team’s strength on the road this season:
The mindset we play with has been strong. We have a close-knit group. We clearly understand the identity we need to play with. On the road, we have been very committed to that.
We’ve been ready to start games. I think we make good decisions to set our game up and give ourselves the best chance to win.
William Nylander on the team’s dip offensively in the last two losses:
They have been quieter in terms of scoring goals, but I think we have been creating a lot and having a lot of offensive-zone possession. It’s all good.
Nylander on the tone Chris Tanev sets for the team defensively:
In some games, he doesn’t say much, but in some games, he’ll be pissed off coming into the locker room after a period, telling us to wake up defensively. I think that’s good.
Bobby McMann on Tanev’s voice in the room:
He is maybe not so much a rah-rah type, but he is always seeing the game from the defensive side of it — what the forwards can do better, and where we can be. He is definitely vocal in bringing those sorts of things up, and strategically, how we can get pucks into the zone easier.
Nylander on whether bets have started with his other teammates in the Four Nations tournament:
No, not yet, but I was telling Matty that we might drop the gloves.
McMann on playing with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner:
They see everything. They always know what is happening. Coming back to the bench, there are little things here or there. “Call for the puck there,” or, “Try to open up there,” or, “Trust that we’ll get the puck.”
That is the biggest thing I’ve learned: I don’t need to always go and support them all the time. They are exceptional players and can make plays in tight spaces. It is about finding the open ice, I think.
McMann on the keys to generating more offense after a dip in the past two games:
We talked about getting to the interior more. Hopefully, it ends up drawing more penalties, too. The more you are a threat, the more likely someone is going to take a penalty on you, or you’ll get a chance there. That’s the most important thing: get to the front of the net and get to the middle of the ice.
McMann on the challenge presented by the Wild:
They’ve had a lot of success throughout the season. They play a well-structured game in all three zones. It is about being patient, sticking to our game, and trusting that we’ll put pucks behind them, go to work, and compete. Hopefully, we can wear them down to the point where we come out on top at the end.
Craig Berube on the keys to taking advantage of a Wild team that is near the bottom of the league on the PK:
Shoot the puck. Find rebounds. Looking at it over the last day or so and this morning, we have to attack, shoot pucks, and get into the paint area. That is how you take advantage of it — that includes five-on-five, too.
Head-to-Head Stats: Maple Leafs (30-18-2) vs. Wild (29-17-4)
In the 2024-25 regular season statistics, Toronto holds the advantage in five out of five offensive categories and three out of five defensive categories.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#74 Bobby McMann — #34 Auston Matthews — #16 Mitch Marner
#11 Max Domi — #29 Pontus Holmberg — #88 William Nylander
#67 Max Pacioretty — #39 Fraser Minten — #89 Nick Robertson
#18 Steven Lorentz — #64 David Kampf — #75 Ryan Reaves
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly — #22 Jake McCabe
#95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson — #8 Chris Tanev
#2 Simon Benoit — #51 Philippe Myers
Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#30 Matt Murray
Extras: Nikita Grebenkin, Conor Timmins
Injured (IR): Matthew Knies, Connor Dewar, John Tavares
Injured (LTIR): Anthony Stolarz, Calle Jarnkrok, Jani Hakanpää
Minnesota Wild Projected Lines
Forwards
#12 Matt Boldy — #14 Joel Eriksson Ek — #36 Mats Zuccarello
#17 Marcus Foligno — #23 Marco Rossi — #38 Ryan Hartman
#28 Liam Ohgren — #89 Frederick Gaudreau — #13 Yakov Trenin
#28 Devin Shore — #22 Marat Khusnutdinov — #94 Jakub Lauko
Defensemen
#4 Jon Merrill — #46 Jared Spurgeon
#5 Jacob Middleton — #7 Brock Faber
#47 Declan Chisholm — #24 Zach Bogosian
Goaltenders
Starter: #32 Filip Gustavsson
#29 Marc-Andre Fleury
Injured: Kirill Kaprizov, Jonas Brodin, Marcus Johansson
