Gold Digger: Blackhawks vs. Maple Leafs

The Chicago Blackhawks are set to continue their four-game homestand as they welcome the Toronto Maple Leafs to the United Center Saturday night.

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ season has mostly been a familiar cocktail of high-octane offense, questionable decision-making in their own zone, and a fan base oscillating nightly between parade planning and existential dread. They hovered in that “they should probably be better than this” section of the standings early on, but recently the Maple Leafs have hit a rough patch, dropping four consecutive games. Their latest setback came on Thursday night in a 4–3 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings: despite battling back from a 2–1 deficit, they couldn’t hold on, allowing the Kings to secure the extra point with a late game-winner in overtime. Toronto fans’ dread and panic is at an all-time high — as you might expect.

Among their forwards, William Nylander is doing the heavy lifting with 25 points (8 G, 17 A) in 15 games, especially when it comes to creating for his linemates. John Tavares leads the team in goals (11), while he and Matthew Knies (5 G, 17 A) are the only other players to hit the 20-point mark. Matthews is still scoring at over a 40-goal pace (he has 8 goals so far), but his overall production (14 points in 17 games) is below a point per game for the first time since his rookie season nine years ago. The rest of the forward group is relatively low-scoring. It’s fortunate for the Leafs that Knies appears to be taking a big step forward this season, especially considering they moved on from Mitch Marner—the player who led the team in points just last year. The player they received in return for Marner, Nicolas Roy, has just one goal and three points, for the record.

The Leafs do have three defensemen contributing like top-nine forwards: Morgan Rielly has 14 points (2 G, 12 A) in 17 games, Oliver Ekman-Larsson has 12 (2 G, 10 A) in 18 games, and Jake McCabe recently hit nine points (2 G, 7 A) in 18 games.

In net, Anthony Stolarz has gotten the bulk of the starts with 13 games played, but he hasn’t fared particularly well; his .884 save percentage ranks 30th among goalies who have played at least eight games this season. However, Joseph Woll just wrapped up a conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies and is set to be the starter against Chicago—he missed the first few weeks of the season due to a family matter. Woll posted a .909 save percentage in 42 games last season.

🚨 Joseph Woll projects to be the Leafs’ starting goalie tonight in Chicago for the first time since Game 7 back in May.

Woll played 42 games last season, winning 27 of them, and posted a 2.73 GAA with a .909 SV%.

Tonight is expected to be his first game of the season after… pic.twitter.com/QrGHeNcgYD

— Leafslatest (@Leafslatest) November 15, 2025

As for the rest of the Leafs’ lineup against the Blackhawks, below is what they ran on Friday. Knies took a maintenance day, so it’s hard to determine the exact lines, but it looks like the Leafs will try Nicholas Robertson (10 points in 17 games) on the top line with Tavares and Nylander. If that’s the case, expect Knies to slot in with Roy or Max Domi.

#Leafs lines during practice Nov. 14/25

Robertson-Tavares-Nylander
Blais-Roy-Cowan
Maccelli-Domi-McMann
Joshua-Lorentz-Jarnkrok
Laughton 🛑
Absent: Knies (maintenance)

Rielly-Myers
Benoit-McCabe
Mermis-OEL
Absent: Carlo (maintenance)

Woll
Hildeby@BodogCA pic.twitter.com/i1E8wFJfat

— David Alter (@dalter) November 14, 2025

The Blackhawks have only two more points than the Leafs, but the vibes are obviously much better in Chicago, where the team is playing “sometimes competent, but almost always fun” hockey this season. Even in their most recent outing — a 4–3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday that snapped their three-game winning streak — Chicago had no real business being in the game, yet they pushed when it mattered and looked like they were actually enjoying themselves. While we’d still like to see more evidence of possession and long-term sustainability, there’s no denying that the Blackhawks have been trending upward and showing real improvement overall.

The Hawks are showing signs of real improvement under the hood, especially from their most important player. That will be important to remember when their insane PDO bender (104.4 at 5v5, 105.1 in all situations) crashes. https://t.co/ZJCyYjEKdV pic.twitter.com/m2ybLcLvON

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) November 14, 2025

Those players include, obviously, Connor Bedard, who is on a nine-game, 19-point streak and looks every bit like a guy who decided year three was a good time to start bullying NHL defenses. The Blackhawks owe a lot to their goalies so far, especially Spencer Knight, who has settled in as a steadying presence in net, giving the Hawks the kind of calm, reliable goaltending that makes everything else feel less combustible. And while the team isn’t exactly dictating play, they’re keeping games more controlled, highly competitive, and trending in the right direction.

The Blackhawks’ lines at morning skate are below:

#Blackhawks morning skate lineup:
Bertuzzi-Bedard-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Greene-Mikheyev
Moore-Donato-Dach
Slaggert-Foligno-Lafferty

Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Rinzel

Knight
Söderblom

Extras: Nazar, Dickinson

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) November 15, 2025

After practice, coach Jeff Blashill made a few roster announcements: Sam Rinzel will be a healthy scratch, Jason Dickinson has been confirmed out, Tyler Bertuzzi is expected to play, and Frank Nazar will be a game-time decision.

Jeff Blashill says that Rinzel will be a healthy scratch tonight, calling it a reset for the defenseman.

Dickinson won’t play, and Nazar is a game-time decision

— Kalen Lumpkins (@kalenalumpkins) November 15, 2025

With Rinzel sitting, this will be the first time the Blackhawks have gone with a 12-forward / 6-defensemen formation since the home opener on Oct. 11, when Artyom Levshunov was a healthy scratch.