Maple Leafs vs Flames Preview: Matthews Eyes 800 as Cooley Heats Up

Maple Leafs vs Flames: two streaks collide in Calgary

The Maple Leafs vs Flames game at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday, Oct. 26 puts two hot teams on the same sheet of ice. Toronto is 7-4-2 and has won four straight, capped by a 7-2 rout of the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 24. Calgary is 4-6-0 but has won three in a row after opening its season 0-5-0, the latest a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings the same night.

The storylines are easy to find. Auston Matthews is one point away from 800 in his career. William Nylander, who reached 300 goals in Edmonton, plays in the city where he was born. And the Flames have found a goalie: Devin Cooley has stopped 100 of the last 104 shots he has faced.

Here is what to watch, who is likely in net and why this is a trap game for a Leafs team riding high on a short-handed blue line.

How the two teams arrive

Both teams played on Oct. 24 and get one day of rest. The comparison below is through that night.

Toronto's win streak started with a power-play winner by Gavin McKenna against San Jose and has been driven by depth scoring since. The 7-2 game in Edmonton featured seven different scorers, including Troy Stecher, Zack MacEwen and Vinni Lettieri. You can read the full story in our Maple Leafs vs Oilers recap.

Calgary's turnaround is more recent. Under head coach Ryan Huska and captain Mikael Backlund, the Flames scored only eight goals in their first five games. The three-game streak has come with a goaltending change and more production from the forwards.

The Flames' goalie story: Cooley over Wolf

Dustin Wolf is the Flames' franchise goalie on paper. His seven-year, $52.5 million extension kicked in this season. But Wolf started 1-4-0 with an .834 save percentage through his first five appearances, according to Rotowire's game logs from mid-October, and Huska has turned to Cooley.

Cooley has made the most of it. He made 28 saves against Detroit on Oct. 24, his third straight start, improving to 3-2 on the season. Across the three-game win streak he has stopped 100 of 104 shots, a .962 save percentage.

That is the real threat for Toronto. The Leafs scored seven in Edmonton, but six of those came against a Tristan Jarry who stopped 25 of 31. Cooley is a different problem right now: he is seeing the puck. Expect Huska to stay with him, though the Flames had not confirmed a starter at time of writing.

Toronto's crease: Bobrovsky expected to start

Anthony Stolarz made 30 saves in Edmonton and improved to 4-1-0. Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to get the start in Calgary, according to reports after the Oilers game, which keeps the rotation Jim Hiller has used through the first month.

Bobrovsky has been the weaker half of the tandem so far. He is 3-3-2 with an .895 save percentage, and he allowed four goals on 25 shots in the 5-4 win over the New York Rangers on Oct. 22. His best game was a 40-save effort against Vegas on Oct. 8. Monday is a chance to reset against a team that, until this week, struggled to score. We make the case for a different split in our goaltending column.

Matthews' 800th point and Nylander's homecoming

Matthews scored at 5:29 of the second period in Edmonton, finishing a feed from Easton Cowan. That goal left him one point shy of 800 for his career. When he played his 700th game against Columbus on Oct. 20, he was two away; our story on that milestone laid out how quickly he got there. Matthews and Kirill Marchenko have also recorded points in all five of Toronto's road games this season.

Nylander's two goals in Edmonton took him to 300 for his career and past Rick Vaive for sixth on the Leafs' all-time list. He was born in Calgary on May 1, 1996, while his father Michael played for the Flames. His younger brother Alex Nylander signed a one-year, two-way contract with Calgary in September.

Calgary's young pieces are starting to show up

The Flames are in the middle of a reset, and the Detroit win showed what the next version of the team might look like. Zayne Parekh, the right-shot defenceman Calgary drafted ninth overall in 2024, scored. Matvei Gridin, another first-round pick from the same draft, had a goal and an assist. Matt Coronato set up two goals.

That is a different look from the team that scored eight goals in its first five games. A young, fast group playing in front of a hot goalie at home is a dangerous mix for a road team on the second stop of a trip, even one coming off a 7-2 win.

The flip side: Calgary is still a team that went 0-5-0 to open the season, and three wins do not erase that. If the Leafs get an early lead and make the Flames chase, the pressure shifts back to a group that has not had to play from behind much during this streak.

Injuries and the lineup

Toronto's blue line is still the concern. Chris Tanev is week-to-week with an upper-body injury but travelled with the team. Nick Blankenburg and Marshall Rifai are on injured reserve. The six who dressed in Edmonton were Jake McCabe, Darren Raddysh, Morgan Rielly, Stecher, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Dakota Mermis, with Cole McWard, recalled alongside Mermis, out of the lineup.

Up front, John Tavares is week-to-week with a lower-body injury and did not make the trip. The forward group that won in Edmonton included Cowan centring Matthews and Jack Roslovic, Nick Paul with Marchenko and Nylander, and McKenna with Sissons and Lettieri, according to the practice report relayed by Pension Plan Puppets.

For Calgary, Joel Farabee had a goal and two assists against Detroit, Matvei Gridin had a goal and an assist, and Matt Coronato added two assists. Zayne Parekh and Ryan Strome also scored. Track every Leafs injury and cap situation on our contracts page.

Our keys to the game

• Get to the net against Cooley. A hot goalie is beaten by traffic and rebounds. Toronto's perimeter shots in the 4-1 loss to the Islanders on Oct. 17 are what to avoid.
• Protect the six-man blue line. Calgary will forecheck hard. Bobrovsky needs to play the puck early and spare his defence the hits, the way Stolarz did in Edmonton.
• Win the special teams. Toronto's penalty kill had killed 30 straight before Leon Draisaitl ended the run on Oct. 24. Keep the Flames' power play quiet and Toronto's depth should decide it.
• Don't play the scoreboard. Calgary's record says lottery team. Its last three games say otherwise.

Prediction and what's next

This one has trap game written all over it: second game of a road trip, a hot goalie, an opponent whose record undersells its last week. The Leafs should still win it. Toronto's top six, with Matthews, Nylander and Marchenko all producing, is deeper than Calgary's. Our call: Leafs 4-2, with Matthews getting to 800.

After Calgary, Toronto visits the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 28 and the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 31. Our road-trip preview set five of eight points as the bar. A win on Monday gets Toronto to four of four. Follow the Atlantic race on our standings page.