Wednesday, October 29, 2025 – 7:30 PM EDT
Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
TV: FDSNOH; Radio: 97.1 FM
Toronto Maple Leafs (5-4-1, 11 points, 3rd Atlantic, 8th East)
at
Columbus Blue Jackets (5-4-0, 10 points, 6th Metro, 11th East)
After a Tuesday night that featured every team playing, this is the only NHL game on tonight. Let’s hope the home team can jump on the Leafs and pile on the early goals so they can switch over to the World Series instead.
What to Watch
Marner-less Leafs
For as long as the (formerly) young Maple Leafs core has failed to achieve postseason success, there have been vocal Mitch Marner critics. Finally this past summer the “core four” was broken up and Toronto is still trying to find out who they are without one of their two best players. Thus far William Nylander has picked up the play-making mantle with 12 assists in 9 games, but Toronto has struggled to play good team defense early.
The Leafs power play has been one of the best in the league in recent years, especially when they ran a 5 forward lineup with Marner as their “D”. They have lost their identity without Mitch and are currently one of the worst in the NHL. Please let that continue tonight against our 2nd worst PK.
Jackets Notes
Gudbranson is out again getting his hip evaluated. I personally think he should take all the time in the world to properly get it evaluated and healed up. Elvis will draw in tonight and I would not expect any line changes on the second night of a back to back. Line deployment and TOI will be the interesting part to look for.
The Other Bench
John Tavares is on the precipice of 500 career goals in the NHL, let’s keep him waiting. The Leafs are coming off a hard fought 4-3 victory over one of the worst looking teams in the NHL the Calgary Flames. Anthony Stolarz got the start in net last night, we likely see Cayden Primeau tonight who has surrendered 7 goals in his two starts this season despite earning two wins.
Season Series
10/29/25 TOR @ CBJ
11/20/25 CBJ @ TOR
11/26/25 TOR @ CBJ
Stats
| Toronto | Columbus | |
| 3.5 (2) | GPG | 3.11 (18) |
| 3.6 (27) | GAPG | 3.11 (21) |
| 14.8 (27) | PP% | 19.0 (20) |
| 82.1 (12) | PK% | 63.3 (31!) |
| 48.63 (22) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 53.28 (6) |
| 48.91 (23) | 5v5 Unblocked Shot Attempt % | 53.04 (6) |
| 11.01 (5) | 5v5 Shooting % | 8.26 (25) |
| 88.69 (28) | 5v5 Save % | 93.49 (3) |
| Matthews, Tavares (5) | G Leader | K. Marchenko, D. Voronkov (5) |
| Nylander (12) | A Leader | Zach, The first line, Boone (4) |
| Nylander (15) | P Leader | K. Marchenko, D. Voronkov (9) |
| Benoit (13) | PIM Leader | Boone Jenner (13) |
| 0-2-0 | Home/Road | 1-3-0 |
| 5-4-1 | Last 10 | 5-4-0 |
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
| Dmitri Voronkov | Sean Monahan | Kirill Marchenko |
| Boone Jenner | Adam Fantilli | Kent Johnson |
| Cole Sillinger | Charlie Coyle | Mathieu Olivier |
| Miles Wood | Isac Lundestrom | Yegor Chinakhov |
| Zach Werenski | Denton Mateychuk |
| Ivan Provorov | Damon Severson |
| Dante Fabbro | Jake Christiansen |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
| Jet Greaves |
Toronto Maple Leafs
| Bobby McMann | Auston Matthews | William Nylander |
| Matthew Knies | John Tavares | Matias Maccelli |
| Dakota Joshua | Nicolas Roy | Easton Cowan |
| Steven Lorentz | Max Domi | Nicholas Robertson |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | Brandon Carlo |
| Simon Benoit | Jake McCabe |
| Morgan Reilly | Philippe Myers |
| Cayden Primeau |
| Anthony Stolarz |