Gameday Preview: St. Louis Blues vs Toronto Maple Leafs

Time: Saturday, October 20th 2018
Toronto: 6-2-0 for 12 points
St.Louis: 1-3-2 for 4 points
The Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues meet on Saturday for a match of two teams going in totally different directions. The Leafs are coming off only their 2nd loss of the season in a game that if Matt Murray didn’t play so well the outcome could have been different. While the Blues have only amount 1 win so far this year and have not played very well despite probably having one of the better defence cores in the league.
This will be a pivotal game for the Leafs, The Blues will not be underestimated so expect this to be a game from the beginning.
Top Scorers/Goalie Matchup
Auston Matthews – 14 points (10 goals 6 assists) 53% on Face-offs
Morgan Rielly – 13 points (3 goals 10 assists)
John Tavares – 11 points (6 goals 5 assists) 49% on face-offs
Mitch Marner – 11 points (4 goals 7 assists)
Brayden Schenn –6 points (3 goals 3 assists)
David Perron– 5 points (4 goals 1 assist)
Alex Steen– 5 points (2 goals 3 assist)
Vladimir Tarsenko– 5points (2 goals 3 assists)
Ryan O’Rielly – 5 points (5 assists)
Frederik Andersen 4-2-0 2.70GAA .914SV%
Jake Allen 1-2-2 3.91GAA .877SV%
Lineups & Injuries
Toronto Maple Leafs:
Kasperi Kapanen – Auston Matthews – Patrick Marleau
Mitch Marner – John Tavares– Zach Hyman
Pars Lindholm – Nazem Kadri – Connor Brown
Andreas Johnsson – Frederik Gauthier – Josh Leivo

Morgan Rielly – Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner – Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott – Igor Ozhiganov

Frederik Andersen
Garrett Sparks

Scratched: Tyler Ennis, Justin Holl & Martin Marincin

Injuries: Nathan Horton (Back)

Suspension: None

St. Louis Blues:
Jaden Schwartz – Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarsenko
Zachary Sanford – Ryan O’Rielly– David Perron
Patrick Maroon– Tyler Bozak – Alex Steen
Samuel Blais – Ivan Barbashev – Jordan Kyrou

Vince Dunn – Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson – Robert Bortuzzo
Colton Parayko – Jordan Schmaltz

Jake Allen
Chad Johnson

Scratched: None

Injuries: Carl Gunnarsson (Torn ACL), Robby Fabbri (Groin)

Suspension: None

3 Keys to Winning against St. Louis:

1. SHOOT
   a. Jake Allen has been horrible all season, just take shots and see what happens.
2. Cover the points
   a. St. Louis plays a very aggressive puck possession that opens the point men up. They have some big shots from the point.
3. Force the St.bLouis to take penalties.
   a. St. Louis penalty kill sits at an atrocious 78% on the year. Leafs need to take advantage of that

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