I hope everyone kept their Christmas trees up, because the Toronto Maple Leafs just left a late present under the tree.
With the Christmas break over, the Toronto Maple Leafs played their first game in five nights and it looks like they didn’t let all that food get in the way.
Mitch Marner had a three-point night, John Tavares had another two goal performance, and Garret Sparks picked up his sixth win of the season as the Leafs continued their winning ways with a 4-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
This was the Toronto Maple Leafs fifth consecutive win, their third five-game winning streak of the season, and pushes them to 26-10-2, now only six points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning (With a game in hand) for first place in the Atlantic Division.
All around this was another great team effort, just like the games against New York and Detroit, just with better play on the backend to help out Sparks.
Shut That Cannon Up!
There are plenty of in-arena traditions around the NHL that occur after the home team scores a goal, whether it’s the Hurricanes playing Ric Flair’s “Woo” over and over, TD Garden playing that demonic ‘Zombie Nation’, or the Coyotes playing a howl before jumping into ‘Howlin For You’ by The Black Keys.
But easily the most infuriating tradition belongs to the Blue Jackets, who play a screeching lyric from an ACDC song before letting off a cannon blast inside Nationwide Arena. It’s loud, it’s over-the-top, and it’s annoying. So thank God we only had to listen to it twice on Friday night.
Garret Sparks stopped 27 of 29 shots, providing solid play in the crease while the Maple Leafs made mince-meat out of Sergei Bobrovsky in the other net. Sparks may not be playing like the cheat code he was when he was with the Toronto Marlies last year, but his 6-1-1 record and .910 SV% are solid numbers for a backup in the NHL.
Tavares and Marner: The Great Dynamic Duo!
If there’s one pairing that should have the rest of the NHL terrified to play every night, it’s the duo of Mitch Marner and John Tavares.
The two stars continued to showcase their chemistry, with Marner picking up assists on both of Tavares’ goals. Tavares now has 26 goals and 18 assists while Marner is sitting on 40 assists and 13 goals.
It can’t be understated how well these two have meshed together since the preseason. Of Marner’s 40 assists, 16 of them have been on goals by Tavares, his most to any player on the Leafs by a wide margin (His second most have been 5 assists to Morgan Rielly). Tavares is banging in some of the easiest goals of his career, and with Marner on his line he may end up topping his previous career high in goals (38) this season.
When the Leafs get Marner signed, him and Tavares are going to tear the league up for the foreseeable future.
Up Next: Tavares Sees a Ghost
But all of the positives from this victory will need to be processed quickly, because there is a Saturday night game to be played in just a few hours. In front of the nation on Hockey Night in Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs welcome Tavares’ former team, the New York Islanders, to Scotiabank Arena.
Coming with the Islanders are former Leafs Matt Martin and Leo Komarov and GM Lou Lamoriello, who were all with the Leafs Organization just last season. It’s going to be a familiar and in some cases bitter matchup, and one we surly can’t miss.