The Toronto Maple Leafs will ice three budding superstars Wednesday.
Mark your calendars because October 4 is coming up fast, the first game of the season where the Toronto Maple Leafs will take on the Winnipeg Jets.
How’s that for a potential rivalry in the making, Patrik Laine squaring off against Auston Matthews?
It’ll always come back to the fact that Laine will play second fiddle to Matthews, regardless of that one unmentionable game last season.
I mean, Laine was second overall, didn’t put up 40 goals, didn’t with the Calder Trophy and didn’t push his team to the playoffs.
Matthews did all of that and then some, so I guess Toronto fans are going to have the last laugh in the end.
Sure, Winnipeg fans can still act complacent with their highly touted sophomore, which he is, but he’s no Matthews.
Our superstar is the real deal and he’ll be one of the faces of the NHL for years to come, no doubt about it.
Do you want to know the best part about all of that?
The Leafs have two more budding stars in the making and we haven’t even talked about them yet, so let’s discuss why hockey’s just a kids game in Toronto.
Child’s Play
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Between Matthews, William Nylander and Mitchell Marner, the Leafs are shaping up to be a great team for years to come and that’s just three players of a 23 man roster.
The chemistry between Matthews and Nylander is uncanny, they play off each other very well and know exactly where the other will be at all times.
The offensive scoring chances they create and sometimes finish are sublime and even in their rookie seasons, their defensive play was miles ahead of others around them.
It’s safe to say that many of their scoring chances are created by themselves in their own end, rushing the puck up the ice and into the oppositions end where they’ll either score right away or make some nice plays before introducing the puck to twine.
Onto Marner
On the other side of the coin, you have Marner, an electric person (in general) with the skill and talent others can only dream of.
We all heard it far too often, his size would be the death of him in the NHL, but this guy rarely gets hit because he’s so quick and elusive.
Yes, I’m describing what we know of from last season, but I’m also trying to foreshadow this upcoming season based on their individual performances from preseason play.
Matthews had five goals and seven points, Nylander had four goals and seven points and Marner had one goal and three points.
The best part of this is that ‘MNM’ – as we like to call them – will be affordable if the Leafs play their cards the right way.
These kids own the ice and they’re just getting started.