Toronto Maple Leafs: The Joe Thornton Renaissance Tour Well Underway

The Toronto Maple Leafs destroyed the Ottawa Senators on Saturday Night.

This was the game the Toronto Maple Leafs have been waiting for.  After a couple of spotty performances to start the season – performances which were a) not that bad and b) completely reasonable given the lack of a pre-season or any exhibition games – the Leafs showed a very nice glimpse of what they can do when everything is clicking.

Power play? Scored once and looked great.

Penalty Killing? 5 for 5. A perfect night.

Goaltending? Way, way better than games one and two.

5v5? Pure, unadulterated, uninterrupted dominance.   The final score for this game was a gift to the Senators who should have considered themselves lucky to lose by a touchdown.

Toronto Maple Leafs Were Extremely Good Tonight

The Leafs had the puck for over 70% of the night, which is crazy.  They had 65% of the shots and 68% of the scoring chances.  In total, they more than doubled the Senators in total shots.

Had it not been for the excellent play of Matt Murray, the Senators would have been utterly destroyed.  In fact, Murray was the main reason the Leafs lost on Friday – had he not made several excellent saves prior to the Senators three-goal second period explosion, the Leafs would have already put the game away.

Last night, no such miracle was possible, even though Murray did his best, and the score came out even at 5v5, despite the best efforts of the Leafs.  Still, keep playing like this and the wins will be rolling in.

The only down side to last night’s game was the Nick Robertson injury.  The upside was that the Leafs won, and Matthews scored while Marner had a three point night.  The guy to talk about though is Joe Thornton. (all stat naturalstattrick.com).

Thornton has been one of the Leafs best players in every game so far, he’s been, frankly, amazing.  I don’t know that at age 41 this can last, but Thornton is skating on the Leafs top line and putting up ELITE numbers so far.

Thornton scored his first as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he added an assist.  The NHL Legend now has two points in three games, but that doesn’t even come close to telling the story.  For the first two games, the Leafs big line was robbed blind by Carey Price and Matt Murray, but the other stats can fill you in:

Thornton has a 68% puck possession rating, as well as a nearly 60% expected goals percentage.  The Leafs top line is destroying the opposition at will, and Thornton has been a big part of it.  Can the renaissance last? Who knows but so far it’s been awesome to watch.

The 2-1 Leafs take on the Jets on Monday. As for Joe, all we can say is WOW.  You couldn’t have asked for a stronger start to his career, and he looks like someone ten years younger.