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Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Maple Leafs vs. Devils

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. New Jersey Devils — Game #19 Projected Lines, Preview & TV Info

Nov 8, 2026

The urgency is rising as the Maple Leafs, without Morgan Rielly and Chris Tanev tonight, need to get their homestand pointed in the right direction against the surging New Jersey Devils (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).

Game Day Quotes

Jim Hiller on the challenge against the Devils:

Really, since the trade (for Hellebuyck), it seems like it’s brought a lot of confidence to their whole team, not just their goaltending position. They’re probably playing as well as anybody in the league right now; it will be a challenge.

Hiller on Oliver Ekman-Larsson stepping into the top four amid the injuries:

I thought he had his best game of the season last game. He’s shown us already. He’s done it many times in his career. When he’s called upon, he’s stepped up. I thought he started that process yesterday.

Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe on Auston Matthews’ strong start and growth as captain:

I really haven’t followed it very much, to be honest. I’m aware of it, which is great to see. I’ve got so much respect for Auston, the person he is, and the player that he is. It was pretty remarkable to be behind the bench when he was pushing for 70 goals. That season was just incredible.

At the same time, he played really solid defensive hockey. That was, to me, a big thing at the time, where he was showing the maturation to be the next guy to lead his team as the captain and all those sorts of things. It seems he’s back on his way. We’ll try to do our best to manage that here today, but happy for him that way.

Obviously, there are many new faces here. Too many to know. Just preparing for the game today, there are a lot of names and numbers that I’m not overly used to seeing in blue and white. But the guys who are familiar, it’s good to see them off to good starts. I know they’re committed to getting this thing moving the right way.

Keefe on being part of the Hall of Fame Game in Toronto:

It’s special. It’s a sign that I’m getting older because there are so many of the names that I’m used to seeing. You’re coaching with or against, playing with or against — these names are popping up every year.

It’s special to be a part of. It’s not something I think the New Jersey Devils are accustomed to being a part of all the time, so it’ll be a good thing for our guys. We’ve got a lot of guys here from Ontario as well. It’ll be pretty great to be a witness to.

Keefe on opting to start Connor Hellebuyck against the Leafs in the second half of the back-to-back:

In terms of us trying to build him up and get him going, the one thing he hadn’t done was play two games in three days, sort of in that game day, off day, game day rhythm, which he so often gets into and he will as we get going.

It was the only time we had two games in three days with no travel. It was a good chance to do that. Then, as we come into today, had he played yesterday instead, it would have been three games in five days. We weren’t ready for that, or I don’t feel he’s ready for that. Just give him the extra day of rest, and that’s how it falls into place.

We played a division rival yesterday, and it would have been nice to have him there. But we’re still in the phase of getting him acclimated and getting him up and running.

2026–27 regular season

Maple Leafs vs. Devils: By the Numbers

Swipe the table to compare teams.

Category	Maple Leafs	Devils
Games played	18	17
Record	8–8–2[21st]	12–5–0[7th]
Points percentage	.500[21st]	.706[7th]
Goals for	64[T-4th]	62[9th]
Goals against	60[T-23rd]	51[T-9th]
Goals for / game	3.56[10th]	3.65[7th]
Goals against / game	3.33[20th]	3.00[T-7th]
Home record	4–5–1[T-24th]	8–2–0[T-5th]
Away record	4–3–1[T-12th]	4–3–0[11th]
5v5 shot attempts %	47.2%[26th]	57.7%[2nd]
5v5 goals for %	47.6%[20th]	53.9%[T-10th]
5v5 PDO	99.8[17th]	98.8[23rd]
Power play	28.6%[6th]	18.5%[24th]
Penalty kill	86.9%[4th]	67.6%[29th]
Head-to-head (2025–26)	1–1–1	2–1–0
Leading scorers · Goals–Assists–Points
Scorer #1	Auston Matthews11–16–27	Jack Hughes9–14–23
Scorer #2	William Nylander11–11–22	Jesper Bratt3–13–16
Scorer #3	Jack Roslovic8–10–18	Arseny Gritsyuk8–5–13
Scorer #4	Kirill Marchenko6–8–14	Nico Hischier7–4–11
Scorer #5	Easton Cowan6–8–14	Luke Hughes6–5–11

Toronto vs. New Jersey - November 8

Maple Leafs Projected Lines

Select a player name to view their card (must be on active NHL roster).

Forwards

Line	Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
1	53Easton Cowan	34Auston Matthews	20Nick Paul
2	92Gavin McKenna	91John Tavares	88William Nylander
3	81Dakota Joshua	15Colton Sissons	71Vinni Lettieri
4	24Brandon Duhaime	73Teddy Blueger	19Zack MacEwen

Defense

Pair	Left Defense	Right Defense
1	22Jake McCabe	43Darren Raddysh
2	95Oliver Ekman-Larsson	28Troy Stecher
3	36Dakota Mermis	82Cole McWard

Goaltenders

41Anthony Stolarz	Starter
72Sergei Bobrovsky	Backup

Injuries Or Other Absences

Player	Status
96Jack Roslovic	Day-to-day injury
44Morgan Rielly	TBD
8Chris Tanev	Maintenance
3Nick Blankenburg	Week-to-week injury
86Kirill Marchenko	Week-to-week injury
83Marshall Rifai	Week-to-week injury
11Max Domi	Long-term Injury
18Miles Wood	IR

Toronto vs. New Jersey Devils - November 8

Devils Projected Lines

Forwards

Line	Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
1	81Arseny GritsyukGritsyuk	86Jack HughesHughes	63Jesper BrattBratt
2	28Timo MeierMeier	13Nico HischierHischier	77Luke EvangelistaEvangelista
3	39Anthony ManthaMantha	17Evan RodriguesRodrigues	70Jesper BoqvistBoqvist
4	93Amadeus LombardiLombardi	12Cody GlassGlass	16Connor BrownBrown

Defense

Pair	Left Defense	Right Defense
1	43Luke HughesHughes	22Brett PescePesce
2	71Jonas SiegenthalerSiegenthaler	7Dougie HamiltonHamilton
3	47Declan ChisholmChisholm	8Johnathan KovacevicKovacevic

Goaltenders

37Connor HellebuyckHellebuyck	Starter
34Jake AllenAllen	Backup

The urgency is rising as the Maple Leafs, without Morgan Rielly and Chris Tanev tonight, need to get their homestand pointed in the right direction against the surging New Jersey Devils (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).

Game Day Quotes

Maple Leafs vs. Devils: By the Numbers

Maple Leafs Projected Lines

Forwards

Defense

Goaltenders

Injuries Or Other Absences

Devils Projected Lines

Forwards

Defense

Goaltenders

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