Leafs (7-5-2) vs Kraken (7-4-1) | 7:00 p.m.

One: Get beyond Jared McCann – No doubt about it: Losing Jared McCann for 10 weeks to a lower body injury really hurts. The Kraken on Tuesday had the No. 7 ranked offense in the league, averaging 3.58 goals per game. But without McCann, the team scored just once in a 5-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild. McCann is the Kraken’s all-time leading scorer and only 40-goal man ever for a reason. He’s very good at putting the puck in the net. He’d scored three goals and added five assists in the season’s first 11 games.

Now, he’s likely gone until some point in the New Year.

“It’s a blow to us for sure,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said when the team resumed practicing this week. “Obviously, his ability to put the puck in the back of the net. His shot on the power play and certainly he’s just a veteran presence out there that’s able to – in my opinion, he makes plays under pressure. And you’ve got the element of poise in him you know we’re going to miss.”

The Kraken have eight players with at least three goals this season, including McCann. That’s tied for the second most in the NHL behind the nine for the New York Rangers and Vancouver. 

To keep that going, the Kraken need to find cohesion among their top two forward lines. During Tuesday’s practice, they went with trios of Bobby McMann, Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle as well as newcomer Jani Nyman, Chandler Stephenson and Matty Samoskevich. 

The rest of the lines remained unchanged.

Two: Seize the opportunity – This is obviously a huge chance for AHL callup Nyman to leave an impression while he takes McCann’s spot for now. There’s also the chance Nyman accompanies the team to his native Finland in two weeks for the two Kraken games there against Carolina.

If that isn’t motivation, it’s tough to tell what would be. With McCann out long-term, Nyman, who played 28 games with the Kraken a season ago after making the team out of training camp, could have an extended runway to make his case provided he shows marked improvement over a year ago.

He’s gotten off to a stellar start with Coachella Valley, scoring nine goals in the first nine games. But Nyman has always been able to score in the AHL, doing it 21 times in only 39 games last season and 28 times in 58 games the year before.

Making it translate to the NHL level – where he has seven goals in 40 career Kraken games – will require more. Lambert mentioned that Nyman needs to keep his legs moving to create enough space where he’ll enjoy scoring chances similar to what he sees in AHL play.

“He’s moving his feet, he’s going to the net and he’s using his shot,” Lambert said. “I think last season, it was a good learning year for him. And we just need to see his shot, for sure. He’s got to find a way, as all young players do, of getting that shot off and adjusting and adapting to the speed of the game at this level. So, he’s had a great start to the season down there in Coachella Valley and now we have to translate it up here to the NHL.”

 For his part, Nyman, a second round pick from 2022, said he spent the off-season doing plenty of dryland speed and leg strength work back in Finland. 

“Of course I need to skate a little bit faster,” Nyman said. “Battle more, battle better. But I think it’s coming. I’m ready to play, so I’m excited.”

Three: Know Your Foe – The Maple Leafs are coming off a loss in Calgary to a resurgent Flames team the Kraken will face twice in a row after this one. They have a new general manager in John Chayka and new coach in Jim Hillier who have their team tied for second place in the Atlantic Division after Toronto missed the playoffs last season under Craig Berube.

Hillier has already come under fire in the intense Toronto media after he benched rookie Gavin McKenna for 32 minutes during an overtime loss to Buffalo. Speaking of McKenna, 18, the No. 1 overall draft pick this past summer, he has three goals and five assists in 14 regular season games.

Speaking of Leafs’ newcomers, goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is also catching heat for a mundane 3-4-2 record, 3.09 goals against average and .897 save percentage after coming over in free agency from the Florida Panthers. 

Toronto is just ahead of the Kraken offensively at No. 6 in the NHL and scoring 3.71 goals per game. They are led by captain Auston Matthews, who has nine goals – fourth most in the league – and 11 assists for a team-leading 20 points. William Nylander also has nine goals and 19 points overall, while Kirill Marchenko – recently acquired via trade for Matthew Knies – has six goals and eight assists for 14 points.

Defensively, they tried to beef up by bringing in Darren Raddysh via trade from Tampa Bay to step into a top pairing role alongside Morgan Rielly. It remains a work in progress as they are only 18^thoverall in goals allowed at 3.21 per contest. 

Projected lines (not official):

McMann-Beniers-Eberle

Nyman-Stephenson-Samoskevich 

Kakko-Catton-Wright

Meyers-Gaudreau-Winterton

Dunn-Larsson 

Evans-Montour

Mahura-Ottavainen  

Grubauer