Toronto Maple Leafs: Team Andersen Goes Up 1-0 Over Team Matthews

The Toronto Maple Leafs Best of Five series started today, well sort of.

We will still have to wait a couple of weeks to see the Toronto Maple Leafs takes on the Columbus Blue Jackets, but this was a good start.

To increase competition and energy at the beginning of Training Camp, the Leafs created their own Best of Five series in-house.

Auston Matthews and Frederik Andersen were named Team Captains as the two former housemates will battle each other in a five game series.

Team Matthews vs. Team Andersen

I’m not sure if Matthews and Andersen had a huge say on how will be representing each team, but Team Matthews is definitely more skilled.

I mean, they have  Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander AND John Tavares. All four of those guys are the Leafs best offensive weapons.

Team Andersen on the other hand, as you may have guessed, is more defensively structured.

Not only does the team have the better goaltender in Andersen, but they have the top two defenseman in Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin.

They don’t have as much offense, but this line-up gives a real opportunity to Nicholas Robertson to shine in the few scrimmages.

Scrimmages are always a blast, especially when the team hasn’t played in four months, so any opportunity to see Toronto Maple Leafs highlights is a blessing.

The first scrimmage got underway Wednesday morning and it didn’t disappoint.

Heading into this match-up, I’d have to give the edge to the more offensively talent team in Team Matthews and as expected, Mitch Marner got the team started with the first goal of the scrimmage, as seen above.

The scrimmage was a tight battle as both teams were desperate to win Game One.

Teemu Kivihalme and Zach Hyman both scored for Team Matthews but Alex Kerfoot and Frederik Gauthier scored as well to make the game 3-2 heading into the Third Period.

https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1283433580983656448?s=20

With a slight advantage heading into the Third Period, it looked like Team Matthews would get the edge, but Team Andersen showed that they have more offensive fire-power than expected.

Team Andersen’s Calle Rosen scored on a penalty shot, Nicholas Robertson got his first goal of the game and then Nic Petan scored a beauty bar-down to make things interesting.

Zach Hyman scored his second of the game, while Adam Brooks chipped in a goal as well for Team Matthews which meant the game was all square with only seconds remaining.

In clutch moments of a Toronto Maple Leafs game, you’d look to Matthews, Marner, Nylander or Tavares to score the big-goal, but with 17 seconds left, none other than Jake Muzzin of Team Andersen fired a slap-shot on net which squeaked through to give his team a 6-5 lead, which would be the game-winning goal.

https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1283440433092231170?s=20

Although this wasn’t a true professional hockey game, it sure was fun to follow along and see the Leafs in action.

The next four scrimmages will take place on: July 18, July 19, July 22 and July 23, with the media encouraged to submit their vote for the “Phase 3 Scrimmage Most Valuable Player.’

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been this excited for Toronto Maple Leafs action in a long time, so kudos to the Leafs for organizing these scrimmages and supplying some fun for fans, as the Play-In games quickly approach.