The first month of the NHL regular season did not go as well as planned for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The good news is they ended the month of October on a high note with back-to-back wins.
By beating the Detroit Red Wings on October 30th, the Toronto Maple Leafs ended the month with a 4-4-1 record. Not the outcome they were hoping for, but not bad, considering their slow start.
Toronto had a record of 2-4-1 before their win against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 27th. They followed that up with the win against the Red Wings on October 30th. The win against Detroit was Petr Mrazek’s first win as a Maple Leaf.
The team now enters into November, hoping to have a better start than they did in October. They will play 14 games in November with two sets of back-to-back games.
Toronto Maple Leafs November Schedule
Toronto will start the month of November with four home games. The first game of the month will be against the Vegas Golden Knights on November 2nd. Vegas has a very similar record (4-4-0) to Toronto’s, and they are on a three-game win streak. Toronto will be looking to end that winning streak to give themselves a three-game winning streak.
Next up, Toronto will host two divisional rivals. First, they will host the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 4th, and then the Boston Bruins will be in town on November 6th. This will be the first time Toronto has played these two teams since the 2019-20 season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will host the Los Angeles Kings on November 8th before heading to Philadelphia on November 10th to play the Flyers. The team will then have their first set of back-to-back games of the month. On November 12th Toronto will host the Calgary Flames before heading to Buffalo to play the Sabres in a divisional matchup on November 13th.
Toronto will have two days off before hosting the Nashville Predators on November 16th. They will then host the New York Rangers on November 18th and will be looking to win this rematch after losing to the Rangers on October 18th.
Next up is Toronto’s second set of back-to-backs for November. The first matchup is against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Toronto on November 20th. Pittsburgh humiliated Toronto on October 23rd by a score of 7-1, so Toronto will be looking for payback. The Leafs will then travel to New York to play the Islanders on November 21st.
November will come to an end with a three-game road trip through the state of California. The Toronto Maple Leafs will play against the Kings on November 24th, San Jose Sharks on November 26th, and Anaheim Ducks on November 28th.
Toronto needs more offense from Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Out of the big four, only John Tavares and William Nylander are in the top ten for team scoring.
The team also needs to play better defensively. Toronto has given up 29 goals in nine games. The early season small sample size makes this look worse than it is, however since the Leafs did allow 12 goals in two games to San Jose and Pittsburgh. We know the offense will come with this team, so if they can clean things up in their own end, they’ll start winning more games.
November Prediction: 9-4-1