The Maple Leafs look to bounce back from a sloppy effort in San Jose and reclaim the top spot in the Atlantic when they visit the NHL’s best home team (26-3-4), the Los Angeles Kings (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet/CBC).
Game Day Quotes
Kings head coach Jim Hiller on the challenge of matching up against the Leafs‘ star players:
They’re really good players. I don’t know how to expand on that. Individually, they are really skilled, and when you combine that with their hockey sense, it is really hard to slow them down. It is the individual skills, and then it’s the hockey sense. There are five of them out there. It’s tough. They’re good.
Bobby McMann on the challenge presented by the Kings:
They are a solid team at home. They have good depth throughout their forwards. They play hard and play well in the offensive zone, sustaining pressure. We are trying to limit their chances and entry game to try to play in their zone.
McMann on the areas for improvement in the final 10 games:
We can clean up our d-zone a little bit by making sure we are assertive and aggressive in trying to kill plays and get the puck back. When the puck is on our stick, we have a lot of success. We have a lot of skill on this team. It is about trying to make sure we are retrieving pucks and are aggressive in our d-zone.
McMann on Pontus Holmberg re-entering the lineup:
I played with him a little bit on the Marlies. I feel like he continues to grow as a professional. He just gets more confident making plays.
He tries to play the game the right way, which I think a lot of guys respect. It is maybe not always flashy, but sometimes, he can pull out some tricks and plays from his bag.
You never really know if he is going to pull out a highlight-reel goal or if he is just going to play it straight up. He is a good guy to have down the lineup.
McMann on the biggest lesson he’s taken from Craig Berube this season:
The value of playing fast and trying to catch teams before they are ready to set up. That is one of the things that we adjusted earlier in the season — playing fast and up the ice, realizing that a lot of offensive opportunity comes from that.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the team’s focus in the final 10 games:
Overall, it is about defending. When we are defending well, we create a lot of chances going the other way. We just need to get back to that mindset.
We have talked about our power play and where it needs to be, but I feel like our power play has been good.
There are some areas to clean up. That is our main focus. These 10 games are going to be important in the standings. It is tight. We are trying to stay in the moment and focus on what we need to do it. That is building our game still.
Head-to-Head Stats: Maple Leafs (43-25-4) vs. Kings (40-22-9)
In the 2024-25 regular season statistics, Toronto holds the advantage in three out of five offensive categories, but LA holds the advantage in four out of five defensive categories.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies — #34 Auston Matthews — #16 Mitch Marner
#74 Bobby McMann — #91 John Tavares — #88 William Nylander
#24 Scott Laughton — #11 Max Domi — #19 Calle Jarnkrok
#29 Pontus Holmberg — #64 David Kampf — #18 Steven Lorentz
Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe — #8 Chris Tanev
#44 Morgan Rielly — #25 Brandon Carlo
#2 Simon Benoit — #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Goaltenders
Starter: #41 Anthony Stolarz
#60 Joseph Woll
Extras: Nick Robertson, Philippe Myers
Injured (LTIR): Jani Hakanpää, Max Pacioretty
Los Angeles Kings Projected Lines
Forwards
#96 Andrei Kuzmenko — #11 Anze Kopitar — #9 Andre Kempe
#22 Kevin Fiala — #55 Quinton Byfield — #14 Alex Laferrier
#37 Warren Foegele — #24 Phillip Danault — #12 Trevor Moore
Jeff Malott — #79 Samuel Helenius — #61 Trevor Lewis
Defensemen
#44 Mikey Anderson — #8 Drew Doughty
#84 Vladislav Gavrikov — #21 Jordan Spence
#6 Joel Edmundson — #92 Brandt Clarke
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Darcy Kuemper
#31 David Rittich
Injured: Tanner Jeannot, Alex Turcotte
