Two of the original six teams at the start of the NHL will face each other as their rivalry continues in the 2023-24 NHL season when the Chicago Blackhawks travel to Toronto, Ontario to face the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Monday night at 7:00 PM ET.

The Chicago Blackhawks enter this game with a record of 1-2 following a loss on the road against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday by a score of 2-3. Tyler Johnson accounted for the two goals for the Blackhawks in their loss against the Maple Leafs. Connor Bedard, Corey Perry, Taylor Raddysh, and Seth Jones recorded an assist apiece in the loss. Chicago is averaging 3.33 goals per game this season with a 0% power play success rate while allowing an average of 3.67 goals per game with a 100% penalty-kill percentage. Petr Mrazek had a solid performance as the starting goalie for the Blackhawks against the Canadiens with 33 saves off of 36 shots on goal with a .917 save percentage while allowing 3 goals. Mrazek will be the starting goalie for the Chicago Blackhawks again when they travel to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night and has a record of 1-1 with a .935 save percentage while allowing an average of 2.54 goals per game this season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs enter this game with a record of 2-0 following a 7-4 win at home against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Toronto scored seven goals with Auston Matthews recording a hat trick and becoming the 5^th player in NHL history to start the season with two hat tricks. William Nylander accounted for two goals while Calle Jarnkrok and Tyler Bertuzzi accounted for a goal apiece in the win. Mitchell Marner, John Tavares, and Morgan Rielly had two assists apiece while Max Domi, Calle Jarnkrok, William Nylander, T.J. Brodie, and John Klingberg recorded an assist against the Wild. Toronto is averaging 6.5 goals per game this season with a 57.1 power play success rate while allowing an average of 4.5 goals per game and has an 80% penalty-kill percentage. Ilya Samsonov struggled as the starting goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Minnesota Wild with 28 saves on 32 shots on goal with a .875 save percentage while allowing four goals. Samsonov is now 2-0 on the year with a .839 save percentage and is allowing an average of 4.43 goals per game. Joseph Woll will be the starting goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs when they host the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday after finishing last year with a record of 6-1 with a .932 save percentage while allowing an average of 2.16 goals per game.

BookMaker has the Toronto Maple Leafs listed as -335 money line favorites at home against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. Toronto has won six of the last ten and two of the last three games in the series. The Maple Leafs have won by an average margin of .67 goals per game over the last three games in the series while both teams have averaged 4 goals per game in the last ten meetings.

Despite the contrast of talent between the two teams, this has been a tightly contested series with both teams averaging 4 goals per game over the last ten and the Maple Leafs only winning by an average margin of .67 goals per game over the last three contests. I look for this to be another tightly contested matchup given the trend in the series which is why I will be taking the puck line for the Chicago Blackhawks at +1.5 when they travel to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday.