Tonight the Leafs will take on the Kings in Los Angeles, one of the dreaded California road trip stops. As always, the Sharks and Ducks will follow later this week.

This year, it’s not the quality of the kings I dread, only the 10:30pm ET start time. LA sits at the bottom of the Pacific Division, with only a 5-10-1 record. Conversely, the Leafs are off to a good start, at 10-5-2. Paper-wise they’re the better team, but we all know that games aren’t played on paper (except tic tac toe and MASH).

The Leafs are coming off of an ego-bruising 5-1 defeat on the road in Boston, so the game against a weaker, slower Kings squad that lacks goaltending will be a welcome sight. Both Jonathan Quick and Jack Campbell are injured for LA, so they are down to their 3rd and 4th string goalies, Peter Budaj and Cal Petersen.

Leafs Lines

The Leafs should be trotting out their usual lineup, unless Babcock has designs to make a statement after the dismal game in Boston. Those usual lines are below, but will be updated as necessary after morning skate:

LW	C	RW	FORWARDS
ZACH HYMAN RATING: 71.9#83 LW	JOHN TAVARES RATING: 80.9#15 C	MITCH MARNER RATING: 77.6#18 RW	FL1 RATING RATING: 76.77#21 FL1
PATRICK MARLEAU RATING: 74.3#44 LW	NAZEM KADRI RATING: 77.1#36 C	KASPERI KAPANEN RATING: 73.5#52 RW	FL2 RATING RATING: 74.92#10 FL2
ANDREAS JOHNSSON RATING: 72.8#65 LW	PAR LINDHOLM RATING: 72.6#98 C	CONNOR BROWN RATING: 70.5#110 RW	FL3 RATING RATING: 72.20#18 FL3
TYLER ENNIS RATING: 70.5#101 LW	FREDERIK GAUTHIER RATING: 70.2#154 C	JOSH LEIVO RATING: 72.8#66 RW	FL4 RATING RATING: 71.19#13 FL4

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS	DEFENSE
MORGAN RIELLY RATING: 79.0#6 LD	RON HAINSEY RATING: 72.8#40 RD	DL1 RATING RATING: 76.27 #9 DL1
JAKE GARDINER RATING: 76.6#16 LD	NIKITA ZAITSEV RATING: 70.7#87 RD	DL2 RATING RATING: 73.75#15 DL2
TRAVIS DERMOTT RATING: 73.7#39 LD	IGOR OZHIGANOV RATING: 72.3#51 RD	DL3 RATING RATING: 72.97#4 DL3

GOALIES
FREDERIK ANDERSEN RATING: 75.7#15 G1	GARRET SPARKS RATING: 69.9#49 G2

Kings Lines

The Kings are without the goalies mentioned above, but otherwise are sporting a healthy skater group that has largely disappointed this season. Besides a strong second line, everything else has been mediocre. It can’t be left unstated that they’re currently playing Dion Phaneuf on their top pairing, an obvious sign that things are not going very well.

LW	C	RW	Forwards
ALEX IAFALLO Rating: 71.9#124 LW	ANZE KOPITAR Rating: 80.0#20 C	DUSTIN BROWN Rating: 78.5#13 RW	FL1 Rating Rating: 76.81#20 FL1
ILYA KOVALCHUK Rating: 75.6#31 LW	JEFF CARTER Rating: 78.0#30 C	TYLER TOFFOLI Rating: 74.5#36 RW	FL2 Rating Rating: 76.02#6 FL2
TANNER PEARSON Rating: 72.4#73 LW	ADRIAN KEMPE Rating: 69.9#167 C	MATT LUFF Rating: 73.2#55 RW	FL3 Rating Rating: 71.85#20 FL3
KYLE CLIFFORD Rating: 70.1#112 LW	NATE THOMPSON Rating: 67.6#190 C	TREVOR LEWIS Rating: 71.2#141 RW	FL4 Rating Rating: 69.63#26 FL4

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS	Defense
DION PHANEUF Rating: 70.5#103 LD	DREW DOUGHTY Rating: 80.3#9 RD	DL1 Rating Rating: 75.37#12 DL1
JAKE MUZZIN Rating: 76.1#19 LD	ALEC MARTINEZ Rating: 74.0#35 RD	DL2 Rating Rating: 75.02#10 DL2
DEREK FORBORT Rating: 72.3#65 LD	OSCAR FANTENBERG Rating: 72.4#49 RD	DL3 Rating Rating: 72.35#12 DL3

GOALIES
PETER BUDAJ Rating: 67.3#59 G2

Final Thoughts

No game is an easy game and there’s no reason to expect the Leafs will roll over the Kings, despite their struggles thus far. There’s still a fair bit of talent in this group, and if that second line has a night where they can’t be contained, as the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line had on Saturday, the Leafs will be in trouble.

Here are my keys to the game for Toronto to get a W in this game:

Shoot early and often
- The goaltending will be a weak spot, so take advantage of it as much as possible.
Contain Carter
- That 2nd line is really good, but it’s not untouchable. Control them, and you control this game.
Star power
- The stars were missing from the lineup on Monday, putting in a pretty terrible showing, so they need to be shining tonight as they try to capitalize against a team they should beat.

Hope you enjoyed this pregame report, and be sure to tune in tonight at 10:30 PM ET for the game, on Sportsnet Ontario. GO LEAFS GO!

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