The Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans breathed a collective sigh of relief on Sunday afternoon as Auston Matthews took to the ice to play the Calgary Flames.
The Flames were rested and at home, while the Toronto Maple Leafs were not, and it showed. This wasn’t the Leafs best game, but they got it done, thanks mostly to the goaltending heroics of Jack Campbell.
The game also featured some controversy because noted dirty player Matt Tkachuk appeared to intentionally dive onto Campbell, who was later shown to favor his leg and seemed to be hurt near the end of the game.
In his return, Matthews scored, though hilariously, after so many early season robberies at the hands of Canadian Division goalies, it was a fluke that went in off his leg. Matthews, perhaps not fully recovered, had one of his least impressive games. Not that it mattered, though, since the Leafs won and the goal meant he has now scored against every team in the league at least once.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Calgary Flames
The win puts the Leafs atop the Canadian Division, though in a tie with Montreal who have a couple extra loser points to prop them up. Overall, the Leafs are tied for first in the NHL, but since teams play different amounts of games, the best indication of success right now is points percentage. In this category, the Leafs rank fourth among teams that have played at least six games.
Overall, you’ve got appreciate the strong start the team has had to the season. They’ve had only one really, really great game (the one vs the Jets) and other than that, they’ve had injuries, some questionable goaltending and a lack of production at 5v5 from their top line, and yet they’re sitting here with a solid 5-2 record. (All stats naturalstattrick.com).
When everything starts to click, this team should do some real damage. This is reasonable to assume because it’s essentially guaranteed that both the 5v5 scoring and the goaltending will improve from here. Still, there are two sides to every coin and it must be acknowledged that the team could easily be sitting here with a losing record. Three of their five wins were by one goal, and I’m pretty sure they got empty netters in both other games.
One goal games are essentially a coin-flip, and the Leafs have been lucky thus far with the results. The fact that they probably deserved to score more goals in at least three of those games means we shouldn’t be too worried (see above) but facts are facts.
In other good news, the Toronto Maple Leafs have opened with a nice lead on the two teams from their division who have also played seven games. The Leafs have a four point lead on the Oilers and a six point lead on the Canucks who are off to a truly brutal start.
The Leafs and Flames will play again on Tuesday.