Thank goodness. The California road trip is over. The games are at reasonable hours again.

This game is going to be an excellent opportunity for the Maple Leafs. On a 2-6 run over their last 8 games, there is a significant need to right the ship and one way to do that would be to conquer an excellent Blues team.

The Blues have certainly not been struggling, coming into this game with points in 7 of their last 8 games. It will be a great morale boost for the Leafs to defeat an excellent Western Conference team, giving them confidence coming out of this otherwise dismal road trip.

Lines will be updated as soon as they’re available.

The Leafs really need a win here. Obviously it’s not a must win situation, but the longer a losing skid drags on the more of a psychological effect it will have on the players. Everyone here knows they’re capable of more, but doubt can creep in even in the most accomplished of athletes.

The Blues will not be an easy opponent. Any team atop a division is likely to be a challenge. However, the Leafs have the strength in the matchup here. Leafs are sitting at 52.3% and 55.7% in CF% (shot attempts for) and xGF% (shot attempts that give more value to shots closer to the net). The Blues, however, are at 51.3% and 54.0% in the same two categories.

The Blues seem a better team defensively, but the Leafs have also been getting good play defensively in terms of denying shot attempts. The unfortunate thing for the Leafs is that those few shot attempts are going in… often. The Montreal Canadiens are a sieve for allowing goals, and no one is close including the Leafs. But the Leafs are next in line, as the second worst dFenSV% in the League. (dFenSv% is an interesting number – read more about it in this piece by Greg Balloch for In Goal Magazine). Essentially it means the Leafs are allowing more goals than they should be, and we can expect it to improve.

The Blues on the other hand, have been getting more goals than one would expect. On the other hand of dFenSv% is, of course, dFenSh%, and the Blues are scoring more than they should be. So, again, we can expect this to decrease.

Can tonight be the night these teams flip their numbers around? Certainly I hope so.

Tune in tonight at 7pm to see the Leafs vs. the Blues, for Hockey Night in Canada on CBC.