The Toronto Maple Leafs crushed the New Jersey Devils last night.
Frederick Andersen was nearly perfect and the Toronto Maple Leafs received a solid effort from nearly every player as they dominated the Devils in the first game of a back-to-back.
Despite missing William Nylander and Auston Matthews, the Leafs gave a glimpse of just how dominant they can be this year.
It’s scary to think they’ll be adding two elite players + whatever they can exchange a few prospects and draft picks for later in the year.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Devils
Despite finishing with a terrible possession rating, Mitch Marner and John Tavares put on a clinic in the first period. I think you could just say that in periods two and three they had nothing left to prove and were just killing time. But in the first period, they looked like the most dangerous duo in the world – which they might be.
Nazem Kadri continued his recent hot streak, scoring a goal and adding an assist.
Morgan Rielly scored a crazy, hilarious goal that should never have gone in, and he also added an assist. Rielly has 20 points now and is 8th in the scoring race. He has six goals, which is just one off his career high, and he is on pace for 103 points. Obviously he won’t be scoring a 100 points, but it’s been fun to watch so far.
Connor Brown and Tyler Ennis both scored, and Par Lindholm had two points. Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen both had breakaways in what was truly a great overall team effort.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Ron Hainsey. Hainsey not only had two points, but they were both incredibly nice assists. He made two extremely sweet passes that both led to goals.
Has there been anything more surprising this NHL season than the Connor Brown, Par LIndholm, Ron Hainsey tick-tick-toe goal from last night? It was one of the nicest goals this year and it was set up by three people you would never expect to be in on such a goal.
Up Next
The Leafs will take on the Bruins tonight and try to keep the good times going. They have won three in a row and will try to make it four tonight in front of Garrett Sparks who gets his first start in a million years.
(Seriously, the Leafs really need to limit how much they overuse Andersen).
The Bruins are always a pain, but they are also the worst, so hopefully the Leafs crush them.
stats from naturalstattrick.com