A night after being shutout for the first time this season, the Toronto Maple Leafs shut-out the New York Islanders in just the second game ever at their new arena.
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was their fourth shutout (Vegas, Nashville, Philly, Long Island) of the year, and also in the last three weeks.
Additionally, last night’s 3-0 defeat of the Islanders was the second career win for rookie goalie Joseph Woll, and also his first shutout.
The Leafs have no won 11 of their last 13 games, and if not for a little trouble capitalizing on their offensive chances , they’d likely be perfect in that time.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs the New York Islanders
The Toronto Maple Leafs scored early on a 3-4 shorthanded situation, when Mitch Marner scored one of the nicest goals you’ve seen this season so far.
Marner added another, and Ondrej Kase also scored.
The Leafs switched their lines up in this one, putting Bunting back on the top line (where he previously played great but was not rewarded) and putting Engvall on the fourth line, and Ritchie with Kase and Kampf.
Bunting worked a give-and-go with Marner for a goal, and Ritchie picked up an assist on Kase’s goal, so it was a good start for the new lines. I really like Bunting on the top line because earlier in the year, despite not getting the results, they were crushing it.
The Islanders were missing six or so players with Covid, so the Leafs really didn’t have any trouble here, essentially playing a souped up AHL team. Though the score stayed close thanks to the Islanders’ goalie, the Leafs dominated this game pretty thoroughly.
With 65% puck-possession and a doubling in overall shots, this game could have easily been worse for New York. Woll wasn’t really tested that much, though he did come up with a few good saves when necessary.
The win gives the Leafs a sweet 13-6-1 record, and was the first game in four-game road trip. The Leafs schedule so far has been heavy with home games, and this will help balance that out a little.
The Leafs will leave New York for California and play the Kings, Ducks and Sharks over the next week (including a weird Friday/Sunday schedule that leaves us with nothing to do on Saturday night!). (All stats naturalstattrick.com).
The team is off until Wednesday when they will take on the Kings, who previously beat them to end their first five game win streak of the season.