Toronto Maple Leafs: Taking All of Hollywood By Storm

Can we just replace the Hollywood sign with a big Toronto Maple Leafs logo?

The power play returned with a vengeance and Morgan Rielly continued to improve his standing for the Norris Trophy as the Toronto Maple Leafs smacked around the Los Angeles Kings 5-1. A nice way to bounce back from the loss to the Boston Bruins and an excellent way to begin the California road trip.

The Maple Leafs were clicking all night long and used their speed and passing to breeze by an older Kings roster. The Leafs outshot and outplayed the Kings from the opening faceoff, leading to Peter Budaj giving up four goals and being pulled in the second period.

While last night may have seen John Tavares put up three points, the real story continues to be the Leafs’ resident Norris Trophy hopeful.

The Leafs Take Tinseltown! Starring Morgan Rielly!

The Maple Leafs now have three skaters with 20-plus points, and their leading scorer is a 24-year old defenseman. Rielly looked excellent last night not just on the score sheet, where he had two points, but all over the ice. He led all Leafs defensemen with a 13.7% relative Corsi, had a hit and a blocked shot, registered three shots, and still did this while playing under 20 minutes.

Rielly has been a revelation this season. At this point last year (18 games), Rielly had 14 points and was averaging 21:07 minutes a night. This year in 18 games he has 23 points and is averaging 22:15 minutes a night. Rielly has taken his role as the Leafs’ number one defenseman and run with it, resulting in a season that could announce him as one of the league’s premier d-men.

Power Play 2: Power Play Harder

I guess the Maple Leafs got tired of me complaining about their struggling power play because last night it lit up the Los Angeles night like a Christmas tree. Three goals on six power-play opportunities gloriously given to the Leafs by an undisciplined Kings squad. The PP looked like it did before Matthews went down, deadly. The passing was phenomenal, especially on the first goal by Nazem Kadri, and the Leafs looked like they had a spring in their step they will need to get through this road trip.

Elsewhere in Toronto Maple Leafs Land

As of this writing (November 14th), we are now 17 days away from the deadline for the Maple Leafs to sign RFA William Nylander. Another rumour surrounding Nylander has reared its ugly head, this time involving Brandon Montour.

Tavares had his fifth multi-point game of the season while extending his point streak to six games dating back to the 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.

Rielly is now six points away from reaching 200 points in his career. Andreas Johnsson scored his second goal in three games, and Kadri now has seven goals after not scoring in the first nine games of the season.

Frederik Andersen stopped 22 of 23 and is now 10-5-0 for his fourth straight win. He leads the NHL in wins while his .934 SV% and 2.02 GAA are sixth and fifth among all goalies, respectively.

At 12-6-0, the Toronto Maple Leafs are only a game better than they were at this point last year (11-7-0), but that game appears to be enough as the Leafs are now only one point back of the Tampa Bay Lightning after that team lost to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

Next up, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going shark hunting as they head to the SAP Center to take on Erik Karlsson and the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.