Pre-Game Talk: Kings vs Leafs - 8pm, Oct. 31/23 - TSN

[Squiffy]

Woll expected to start. Liljegren practiced and expected to play. Go Leafs Go.

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[ACC1224]

Not a fan of the 8pm start but we'll push through.
Expecting a bit of a letdown after the road trip.

Anyone know how the Kings are playing so far this season?

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Not a fan of the 8pm start but we'll push through.
Expecting a bit of a letdown after the road trip.

Anyone know how the Kings are playing so far this season?

Highest scoring team In the league

 

[Squiffy]

Not a fan of the 8pm start but we'll push through.
Expecting a bit of a letdown after the road trip.

Anyone know how the Kings are playing so far this season?

Wouldn't normally be a fan but hopefully the trick or treating is mostly done by then on the bright side. You going to this one?

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Expecting the big boys to have a big night, tonight

You have either Cam Talbot or Phoenix Copley in net for LA.

 

[Evilhomer]

Expecting the big boys to have a big night, tonight

You have either Cam Talbot or Phoenix Copley in net for LA.

LA has been really poor defensively and their goalies are not good No reason to think Toronto's offense won't have a good showing in this one. Also will be another good test for Woll.

 

[ACC1224]

Highest scoring team In the league

Never would have guessed that. A run and gun night would be entertaining.

Wouldn't normally be a fan but hopefully the trick or treating is mostly done by then on the bright side. You going to this one?

Not a chance.

 

[rocketman588]

Massive 5 game stretch here. I think will be a good measurement of how good we actually are

 

[Judas Tavares]

Don't love the prospects of this one. Moore and Grundstrom on the scoresheet? Probably. I will say, if you can get through this week going 2-1 and being 7-3-1, that would be pretty fantastic. Even if you take a dump and end up 5-5-1, not ideal but not a death sentence. Hoping for the best though.

 

[Squiffy]

Tonigh'ts sure to be Leaf killer is local lad and noted turncoat TB fan Quinton Byfield. Get your prop bets in for the hatty.

Kings winger Quinton Byfield is getting set to play his first NHL game in his hometown.

"I wasn't able to come the last two times here because of injuries, sicknesses, so a lot of people have been reaching out saying they're coming to the game," said the 21-year-old from Newmarket, Ont. "I'd probably say I know close to 50 people [coming], maybe more, so it's a big one."

Byfield was a Tampa Bay Lightning fan when he was a kid, because he admired Martin St. Louis. He recalls attending a few Leafs-Lightning games while growing up. Now, it's his turn to take the ice in Toronto.

Mark Masters: Nonchalant William Nylander downplays shot at Toronto Maple Leafs history | TSN

 

[ACC1224]

Massive 5 game stretch here. I think will be a good measurement of how good we actually are

7 games between now and next Saturday. 4 games next week before heading to Sweden.

 

[rocketman588]

7 games between now and next Saturday. 4 games next week before heading to Sweden.

A packed schedule against good teams also.

5 of the next 6 will be against teams that are going to be close to the playoffs at the very least. Then we play the pens in the type of game that we traditionally lose (revenge/games the fan base gets up for)

 

[Aashir Mallik]

Thankfully liljegren is not injured, our bottom pairing would’ve been very very bad if he was. Would’ve had to run Rielly-Brodie close to 30 minutes

Woll in net excited for that.

I think this is usually the time Marner wakes up, so expecting a huge game from him

 

[ACC1224]

Thankfully liljegren is not injured, our bottom pairing would’ve been very very bad if he was. Would’ve had to run Rielly-Brodie close to 30 minutes

Woll in net excited for that.

I think this is usually the time Marner wakes up, so expecting a huge game from him

Yep, me as well.

 

[Metroid]

8pm works tonight!
Trick o treating with the kids and friends and their kids and traveller mugs... Come back and hoooockey time

 

[ponder]

Not a fan of the 8pm start but we'll push through.
Expecting a bit of a letdown after the road trip.

Anyone know how the Kings are playing so far this season?

TLDR - very good team, playing very well, except goaltending

They're killing it in pretty much every 5v5 advanced stat, for example:
- 2nd best in CF% (and 3rd best in CF against)
- 2nd best in HDCF% (and best in the league in HDC against)
- 3rd best in xGF% (and 4th best in xGF against)

Their offence has been great. They're averaging 4.4 goals/game, and the scoring is quite balanced among lines (they're more of a deep team than a star driven team). Kopitar/PLD/Danault/Lizotte is one of the strongest centre rotations in the league - obviously the top 3 centres are all big, strong 2-way guys, but don't sleep on Lizotte either, he's a little buzzsaw who drives the play way more than most 4Cs.

Defensively, they've been getting lit up, allowing 3.8 goals/game. However, I think it's much more goaltending than team D - as noted they're crushing it in defensive advanced stats, but their goalies IMO suck. Talbot has been "meh" (6 games, .905 sv%), Copley has been absolutely horrendous, even worse than Sammy (3 games, .788 sv%).

Very good special teams as well, above average PP and PK. Even with the weak goaltending, their PKers don't allow much, hard to gain zone entry, and they pressure intelligently off the cycle (e.g. on you when they can be, but back off and take away the high danger areas when it's not safe to pressure). Reasonably physical team, though less physical than some of the past Kings teams. I'd say the team they're most similar to in the east is Carolina, no superstars but a very good puck possession team, strong depth throughout the lineup, loaded with quality 2-way players that are strong on the puck.

Overall, they're quite a strong team, other than goaltending. 4-2-2 with a +5 goal differential, despite sieves in net. IMO the 2nd best team in the Pacific, after Vegas. Should be a good game! We won't dominate the puck in this one, nobody does against LA really, but hopefully we can keep possession/control decently even, and win on a combo of better goaltending and higher skill finishers. Unfortunately we're likely facing Talbot, not Copley, but Woll is still better than Talbot IMO.

 

[ACC1224]

TLDR - very good team, playing very well, except goaltending

They're killing it in pretty much every 5v5 advanced stat, for example:
- 2nd best in CF% (and 3rd best in CF against)
- 2nd best in HDCF% (and best in the league in HDC against)
- 3rd best in xGF% (and 4th best in xGF against)

Their offence has been great, as the advanced stats would suggest. They're averaging 4.4 goals/game, and the scoring is quite balanced among lines (they're more of a deep team than a star driven team). Kopitar/PLD/Danault/Lizotte is one of the strongest centre rotations in the league.

Defensively, they've been getting lit up, allowing 3.8 goals/game. However, I think it's much more goaltending than team D - as noted they're crushing it in defensive advanced stats, but their goalies IMO suck. Talbot has been "meh" (6 games, .905 sv%), Copley has been absolutely horrendous, even worse than Sammy (3 games, .788 sv%).

Very good special teams as well, above average PP and PK, even with the weak goaltending, their PKers don't allow much. Reasonably physical team, though less physical than some of the past Kings teams. I'd say the team they're most similar to in the east is Carolina, no superstars but a very good puck possession team, strong depth throughout the lineup, loaded with quality 2-way players that are strong on the puck.

Overall, they're quite a strong team, other than goaltending. 4-2-2 with a +5 goal differential, despite sieves in net. IMO the 2nd best team in the Pacific, after Vegas. Should be a good game! I think we shouldn't expect to dominate/control the game, but hopefully the overall flow of the game is reasonably even, and we win on goaltending. Unfortunately we're likely facing Talbot, not Copley, but Woll is still better IMO.

Should be a good test.

 

[ponder]

Should be a good test.

Agreed - I'd say of the teams we've played so far, it's between them and Dallas for the strongest opponent, in terms of how well the team has played so far this year. Tampa and Florida have strong rosters, but have been struggling more so far than Dallas/LA, who have been firing on all cylinders (except goaltending, for LA).

We pulled out a quality win against Dallas, hoping for the same tonight We're a very strong team ourselves when we get good goaltending, which Woll has been providing very consistently so far.

 

[123offtheglass]

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