Toronto Maple Leafs Win Three in a Row

The Toronto Maple Leaf have won three games in a row.

After dropping five of six earlier this month, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins last night to win their third in a row.   This week also saw them beat the Las Vegas Knights and the Minnesota Wild.

Last night’s game was a huge improvement over their two recent wins.  The Leafs were lucky to get by the Wild (Andersen essentially stole that game) and it’s no great thing to beat an expansion team in extra time.   The game last night, however, saw the Leafs play a pretty good game, despite missing Auston Matthews for the second straight game.  (Matthews will also miss tonight’s rematch).

Best Player

With Matthews out, I thought the Leafs best player last night was Morgan Rielly.  Rielly – who doesn’t have a C, but is for all intents and purposes the captain of the Leafs – has exploded in his fifth season.  Playing like the elite #1 defenseman the Leafs have been searching for, Rielly added an assist last night and now has 14 points in 18 games.   That’s a 63 point pace.

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Rielly is also on the defenseman leaderboard in Corsi-For Percentage (54%) and possession relative to his team (+4%).  He’s having a great year, and last night he led the Leafs to victory, minus their best player, while playing 24 minutes and controlling nearly 60% of the play while on the ice.

If the season ended today, Morgan Rielly would – at the least – be deserving of a Norris Trophy nomination.

Also of note last night:

• James van Riemsdyk had two goals
• Jake Gardiner had a very solid game
• Marner assisted on both the tying and winning goal
• It’s now a streak of five points in four games for Marner
• Andersen was solid for the third game in a row, with 33 saves.
• Leo Komarov led the Leafs in 5v5 icetime.

Up Next 

Up next is another game against the Bruins.  The Toronto Maple Leafs will start Curtis McElhinney, and Auston Matthews will sit again.

After tonight’s game, the Leafs are off until Thursday when they will face the New Jersey Devils at home.

With the win, the Leafs improve to 11-7. They remain the only Eastern Conference team to not have lost a game in overtime or a shootout yet this season.  They are six points back of the Tampa Lighting.  The Lighting have one more win and three less losses, in one less game.

Next: Did You Even Know He Was Playing This Well?

It might seem for now like the Lightning are a superior team, but their insane run of luck can’t last forever, and when it’s all said and done, I’d be willing to be the Leafs are the higher ranking team.