Over the last few seasons, Leafs fans have probably spent a good amount of time being angry at P.K. Subban, but this year’s a little different. While they’ll surely want him to stay off the board this evening when the Preds visit Toronto, it’s going to be fun to finally appreciate Subban’s skill without having to see him in a divisional rival’s sweater. 

The Predators were off to a tough start in October, which only added fuel to the debate over this summer’s monstrous trade that brought P.K. to Nashville, but they’ve started to make a climb this month. For the Leafs it’s a difficult game against a team that was viewed as a contender in plenty of pre-season rankings. 

That blue line is atrocious, but let’s shrug and continue believing Babcock is all-knowing.

As mentioned above, Nashville was off to a terrible start and were looking like they could get left behind in the west, but they’ve quickly made up ground as goaltending and their puck possession game (16th in score-adjusted Corsi) rounded into shape, and now they sit just a point away from the wildcard. At minimum they should be in that mix all year.

It looks like the Leafs may get a bit of a break tonight with Nasvhille starting their backup Marek Mazanec, but whether that gives Toronto much of an “edge” is debatable, as there’s not much of a body of work to go on there, and Rinne’s had his own struggles besides this little hot streak. Still, Mazanec has an .806 sv% through two appearances this season.

Freddie gets the call for Toronto.