LGD: The Leafs are bad, but the Oilers are worse

Connor McDavid is finally going to be forced to do the one thing he’s been avoiding for his entire life; facing the Toronto Maple Leafs. I feel for the kid, really; he clearly wanted to be here, to the point where his clavicle acted in his best interests to get him out of the last matchup between these two teams.

But now, the gloves are off, and the Leafs need a loss. Tonight, even in Blue and Orange, he is Toronto’s saviour, not Edmonton’s, as the Leafs push for a huge zero points. Let’s get right to it.

If you combined these two teams together, would they make the playoffs? Furthermore, would anybody in the bottom two defensive pairings on the Oilers make the Leafs? Who the hell is Iiro Pakarinen? McDavid is on the second line, has he already busted? Are Jared Cowen and Colin Greening alive?

No wonder these teams are in the basement. As much as it pains me to say, though, the Oilers have a worse roster, weaker coaching staff, and are the Oilers, so they’ll probably come out ahead with the loss tonight.

Jonathan Bernier is in net for the Leafs. He’s had a really tough go at it this season, putting up a much below league average 0.900 save percentage over 23 games, including losses in his last three appearances. With that said, the last time the Leafs faced the Oilers, a guy who played in the ECHL last night picked up a shutout in his first NHL game. This might be the night he needs to get a confidence boost.

Starting in goal for the Oilers is Cam Talbot. Daily Faceoff’s full bio of him is as follows: “Cam Talbot is currently first on the Edmonton Oilers depth chart.” I presume that’s like being the thinnest kid at fat camp. He’s a 0.912 this year, which is also below league average, but probably makes him the best goalie in Oilers history.