The Toronto Maple Leafs overcame an injury to their starting goalie in practice before the game, and defeated the Ottawa Senators soundly on Saturday night.
Though the game ended up much closer than it probably should have been, the Toronto Maple Leafs are now 2-1 on the season, could easily be 3-0, and have to be happy with the way they’ve started the season.
Matt Murray, whose salary cap hit no longer matters, is on the I.R and the Leafs suddenly have some cap space, a full roster, and some flexibility.
You’ve got to hand it to GM Kyle Dubas, who held on to Kerfoot, Holl and Muzzin, despite being right up against the salary cap. Turns out maintaining maximum flexibility was a pretty smart move.
The Leafs still need to make moves, but Matt Murray bought they four to six weeks to figure them out. Is it time to trade for Connor Hellebuyck yet, or are the Jets still in contention?
Let’s talk about the game.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Senators
The Leafs started the game by taking 11 shot attempts to Ottawa’s 1. For a team that used to talk constantly about starting on time, then forgetting to, this is a delightful way to begin a game.
Like the fist game against Montreal, the Leafs were pretty much destroying their opposition for two periods, then let them back into the game in the third.
The @MapleLeafs have placed G Matt Murray on long-term injured reserve. He is expected to miss a minimum of four weeks (adductor injury).
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) October 15, 2022
G Erik Källgren has been recalled from the @TorontoMarlies on an emergency basis.
In both games, the score could have / should have been out of reach by the third, but the dumbest thing about hockey (or perhaps what makes it so fun to watch) is that the difficulty of scoring sometimes keeps bad teams in games they are getting beaten soundly in.
I don’t really think the Leafs played as well as they could have last night. Even though it was a good game and they deserved to win, you can see that they have another level and that they aren’t at it yet. For periods of time they dominated and didn’t allow the Senators to have the puck at all, then they’d let them have three or four solid scoring chances in succession.
The Leafs had the puck for most of the game, and had more scoring chances. The problem? Dangerous chances. The Senators had more than the Leafs. Not much upside in dominating most of the game, if you keep letting them run around you and do what they want for brief periods in response.
Also, for the third straight game, Nicholas Aube-Kubal and Zach Aston-Resse and David Kampf have been utterly destroyed. Caved in. Beaten down. Choose your adjectives, as long as they are negative they will be apt. (all stats naturalstattrick.com).
Sure, Kampf did score, but he scored while on the ice with Kerfoot and Jarnkrok.
I am a huge David Kampf fan, and I think the Leafs need to reunite him and Engvall. Together with Jarnkrok they might form an amazing third line. They certainly did last year with Mikheyev.
Also, not for nothing, but Auston Matthews was unreal, and has incredible stats so far this year. The Leafs are 2-1 and haven’t had much more than a tip in from him and Marner. I would expect a hattrick tomorrow against Phoenix to bring him back to the goal per game mark.
Anyways, fun game to watch, the Senators are looking excellent, and I can’t wait until the Leafs get to play them in the playoffs one day. As for the Toronto Maple Leafs, they are off to a great start.