Fansided

Toronto Maple Leafs Take Full Advantage of Easy Schedule

By James Tanner |
TORONTO, ON - APRIL 17: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates his 1st of two goals against the Boston Bruins in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on April 17, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Bruins defeated the Maple Leafs 6-4. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - APRIL 17: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates his 1st of two goals against the Boston Bruins in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on April 17, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Bruins defeated the Maple Leafs 6-4. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)

The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to a beauty 2-0 start.

The thing is though, given the easiest possible opening schedule, it would have been a disaster if the Toronto Maple Leafs weren’t 2-0.

The Leafs absolutely throttled the Senators, and while they weren’t exactly dominant against the Blue Jackets 5v5, their power-play was just too much for the Jackets to handle.

The Leafs failed to control play at 5v5, allowing just over half the shot-attempts, while the Blue Jackets had more scoring chances and shots.

Luckily, Freddie Andersen (inexplicably starting the game) was fantastic, and the Leafs have so much talent they don’t need to dominate to win.

I mean, did you see that _____ wrist shot? I’m still in awe.

Toronto Maple Leafs  Opening 2 Games

I have no interest in writing game re-caps, so after two games here are some thoughts:

Auston Matthews is incredible.  In game one, he had two goals, shot a laser off Anderson’s shoulder that I can’t believe was saved, hit a cross-bar, and almost scored into an empty net.  It could have been a six goal performance, and he followed it up last night with another goal and another couple grade A chances.

The insane thing is I didn’t think he even played that good last night, which makes me think he’s got another level, which should terrify other teams.

Cody Ceci has been a nice surprise.  55% CF after two games, and other than the opening seconds of the Ottawa game, I thought he’s been good.

I loved Sandin in limited minutes Wednesday, but he was kind of bad last night – at least, I only noticed him when he was screwing up.  Clearly he’s a rookie, and this will happen.  No worries though, he’s gonna be a good one.

The Spezza Experiment really paid off last night.  The line of Spezza, Gauthier and Petan was barely played, but when they did, they had the puck the whole time.  I really liked Petan’s game and I think this line was much, much better than the Timashov-Shore one from Wednesday.

I still don’t see why you play your starting goalie on Friday against a bad team instead of at home on Saturday when your team will be tired against a much better opponent.  I know Babcock always does this, but man is it dumb and nonsensical. (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

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I have to say, I hate being wrong, but I hope I am wrong about Cody Ceci.  What a great game the guy had last night.  I don’t want to get too crazy, but he might just be the best partner Morgan Rielly has ever had at the NHL level.  I can’t wait to see how this goes.

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