#3 – The Afternoon Game
The Next Century Game will be remembered for a few reasons. For starters, the odd start time of 2:00 p.m. EST, the anniversary of the first game played in NHL history, and, of course, the final score.
Heading into this game, the Leafs were struggling to find the back of the net for four straight games with a combined 4 goals and a 1-3 record. It was clear at the time that Toronto was due for some goals and man, did they break out of their slump in a big way.
Tyler Bozak and Mitch Marner each had a four-point game while Leo Komarov scored the Leafs’ first short-handed goal of that season. One of the goals, scored by James van Riemsdyk, was actually the 20,000th goal scored in the history of the Leafs.
The floodgates sprung wide open in the third period when Patrick Marleau and Kasperi Kapanen scored their goals 6-seconds apart. To top it all off, the final score of 8-1(!) helped cement this game as one of the highlights of the season.
As someone who was lucky enough to be in attendance at this game, I have a personal attachment to this game that will remain with me for quite a long time.