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LGD: Corsi Hockey League

By Ryan Fancey

Nov 8, 2016, 13:01 ESTUpdated:

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We’re nearly a full month into the season and the Leafs are currently tied for a playoff spot on the heels of a three-game winning streak and absolute rampage by Mitch Marner over the last week. Truly an amazing time to be alive.

Tonight they get things going against the darlings of the Corsi Hockey League over the last half-decade, but it’s a Kings team that hasn’t seen their strong possession game translate to much offence. For a Toronto team that’s producing plenty of their own, this really can’t be seen as the same underdog scenario it’s been in the past.

THE LEAFS

LW	C	RW
Zach Hyman	Auston Matthews	William Nylander
James van Riemsdyk	Tyler Bozak	Mitchell Marner
Leo Komarov	Nazem Kadri	Connor Brown
Matt Martin	Ben Smith	Nikita Soshnikov

Defensive Pairings
Morgan Rielly	Nikita Zaitsev
Jake Gardiner	Roman Polak
Martin Marincin	Connor Carrick

No lineup changes for the Leafs, they’re going to with what’s worked during this mini-streak.

THE KINGS

LW	C	RW
Tanner Pearson	Anze Kopitar	Teddy Purcell
Dwight King	Jeff Carter	Tyler Toffoli
Dustin Brown	Nic Dowd	Devin Setoguchi
Kyle Clifford	Nick Shore	Trevor Lewis

Defensive Pairings
Derek Forbort	Drew Doughty
Jake Muzzin	Alec Martinez
Kevin Gravel	Matt Greene

Los Angeles really doesn’t look all that scary with a top six that’s sort of lacking talent, especially with Gaborik out due to injury. I think they’re still a solid team, but there’s nothing to suggest they should be able to take boots to the Leafs on the road.

STARTING GOALIES

Andersen will go for the Leafs, looking to get that .902 save-percentage to keep climbing. Daily Faceoff lists Peter Budaj as likely for the Kings.

WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR

As mentioned above, Marner is on the warpath these last few games and it’s resulted in him climbing to tied at third for the team lead in points with 10, just two back of Nylander and a single point behind Matthews.
The Kings are again the top possession team in the league so far this season, clipping along at 55.9% score-adjusted Corsi For. They did get off to a rocky start in the standings, but they’ve reeled off a couple wins and now sit in a wildcard spot in the west despite being a bottom-ten team in terms of goal production.
Auston Matthews ripped off another 5 shots on Saturday but again couldn’t get one to go in. Hopefully he can get a break or two, or four, tonight.

Game goes at 7:30pm at the Air Canada Centre, and will be aired locally on TSN4.