Avalanche vs Maple Leafs: Prediction, Team News and a Toronto Rebuild

Result: Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 Colorado Avalanche

William Nylander had five points in the hardest building in the league. He scored twice and set up three more, and Toronto won while being outshot 33-23. Nick Blankenburg opened inside four minutes, Nathan MacKinnon scored twice to put Colorado ahead, and the Leafs took four of the last five. Auston Matthews finished with two goals and two assists, the last into an empty net after Mackenzie Blackwood was pulled. Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves on 33 for Toronto; Anthony Stolarz dressed and did not play.

Our pick: Colorado. Wrong, and not narrowly. We wrote that Colorado should win and should win comfortably, on a 43-point gap last season and sixteen goals in three games. Toronto won by three on the road. The over at a total of 6 or lower was right, with nine goals. The one thing we had correct was the narrow point: Toronto had been in every game it had played, and it was in this one from the opening shift.

The preview as published before the game follows.

Colorado has scored twenty-three goals in four games and sits top of our power rankings. Toronto finished 28th last season, lost its third-best scorer to Columbus in the summer and is 2-2-1.

Avalanche vs Maple Leafs is the gap between the best team in the league and a club rebuilding in public. The reason to watch it anyway is that Toronto took the last meeting in Denver.

How to watch

Sportsnet has it in Canada. Regional coverage can differ from the national listing, and our how to watch the NHL in Canada page has the full picture.

Avalanche vs Maple Leafs odds

No Canadian price was up on 8 October. Boards land on our NHL odds page as they post. Projected starters are on our NHL starting goalies page.

Colorado is scoring at a rate nobody can live with

Eight against Los Angeles, six against St Louis, seven in Calgary on Thursday. That is twenty-one goals in three of the four games. The only blemish is a 3-2 defeat in Winnipeg.

Nathan MacKinnon has five points in three games. By his own standard that is quiet. Last season he scored 53 goals and 127 points at plus 57. Martin Necas reached 100 points and Cale Makar 79 from the blue line.

Artturi Lehkonen has three goals already. Parker Kelly and Jaden Schwartz have four points apiece. That depth is the part of Colorado people overlook. Makar has three from two assists and a goal.

Mackenzie Blackwood has started all three games at a .895 save percentage. Scott Wedgewood, who went 31-6-6 at 2.02 last season, has not played a regular-season game yet.

How they compare

Forty-three points separated these two last season, and Colorado scored 95 more goals than Toronto did.

Toronto is a different team from the one that finished 28th

Matthew Knies is a Blue Jacket. Sixty-six points last season, third on the roster, and he has four points in two games for Columbus. Matias Maccelli, another 39 points, is an Islander.

The names that came back are younger. Kirill Marchenko arrived from Columbus and has three points in four games. Sergei Bobrovsky is the new backup. And Gavin McKenna, first overall in June, scored his first NHL goal on Tuesday, having set up John Tavares for his first NHL assist nine minutes earlier.

That game is the one to look at. Toronto trailed Nashville 3-0 in the second period and won 5-4 in overtime. Auston Matthews took the winner, having assisted on the three before it.

William Nylander leads the scoring on six points. Toronto led 3-0 in Vegas on Thursday and lost it in a shootout, with Sergei Bobrovsky making 40 saves on 43 in defeat.

One win each last season

Toronto won 4-3 in overtime in Denver in January, then lost 4-1 at home two weeks later. Both games were played by a Toronto side that still had Knies in it.

Team news

Max Domi and Dakota Joshua both moved to long-term injured reserve on Wednesday. That is two forwards gone from a group already thinner than last season’s. League-wide availability is on our NHL injury report.

Players to watch

Nathan MacKinnon. A hundred and twenty-seven points last season. The best player on the ice in most buildings he visits.

Gavin McKenna. First overall, 18 years old. Both of his first two NHL points arrived inside ten minutes of the same comeback.

Cale Makar. Seventy-nine points from defence last season. Toronto has no answer for puck movement like that.

William Nylander. Six points in four games. The one Leaf whose production did not dip when the roster changed around him.

Score prediction

Toronto Maple Leafs 2-5 Colorado Avalanche. Colorado is averaging more than five goals a game. Toronto is carrying two forwards on long-term injured reserve. The Leafs have been in every game they have played. This is the hardest building in the league right now.

Avalanche vs Maple Leafs prediction

Colorado should win this and should win it comfortably. It finished 43 points higher last season and has scored sixteen in three games. MacKinnon and Makar face a Toronto defence that conceded 299 goals last year.

Toronto’s case is narrow but real. It beat Colorado in Denver last season. It came from 3-0 down to win in overtime on Tuesday. Stolarz has been good in both his starts.

Both clubs play on Thursday, Toronto in Vegas and Colorado in Calgary. The form lines will have moved by puck drop.

Our lean: Colorado, and the over if the total sits at 6 or lower. Colorado has cleared six goals in two of its three games and Toronto has conceded eleven in four. Where both sit against the other 30 is on our NHL power rankings.

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