Marner Makes History and Toronto Maple Leafs Overcome Bad Start

The Toronto Maple Leafs were able to bounce back from a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Seattle Kraken and overcome a shaky first period to secure a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings last night.

Managing just one shot 5-on-5 the entire first period, while posting a paltry 30% Corsi and 25% Expected Goals, the Toronto Maple Leafs were lucky to escape down only one goal after 20 minutes.

They can thank the fine play of goaltender Ilya Samsonov for that, who made a few key saves early, and played a good game overall, after a rash of shaky starts recently that saw the netminder post a 4.12 GAA and .850 SV% his last four games.

Ultiamtely, the Leafs overcame a bad start and picked up two points.

Toronto Maple Leafs Continue To Reach New Milestones

Potential Hart trophy candidate Mitch Marner became the second fastest player in franchise history to reach 500 points on a beautiful goal from the corner in the second period. As a huge fan of Marner, it was exciting to see yet another franchise player reach a new personal milestone, including a 17 game home point streak, second longest in team history.

But the milestones don’t end there.

In a story that is bound to keep recurring the remainder of his career, John Tavares also scored twice, bringing the Leafs Captain to a total of 409 career goals, securing the 98th spot all for himself in the top 100 NHL goal scorers list of all time.

In fact, with 18 goals in 40 games played so far this season, if Tavares continues to score at his present rate for the remainder of the year he will finish with 37 goals on the season and 446 career goals, shooting him all the way up to 65th overall.

Refs Continue To Make Questionable Calls

I thought the first call was completely bogus, and the far ref was the one that made it, not the ref right in front of the play who had clear sight of the action. The refs were able to quickly rectify their mistake by calling a makeup penalty almost immediately against Detroit, however, giving the teams an opportunity to practice their 4-on-4 skills.

Later in the game fans witnessed another strange call when the ageless Mark Giordano was sent to the penalty box for holding. It was the right call, as there was definitely a Leafs player dragging down a Red Wings player, except it was Kampf doing the actual holding. Even the announcers knew it was the wrong guy sitting in the box and were surprised when it was Giordano who made his way to the sin bin.

The call on Matthews while the Leafs had a power-play was the worst of them all.

With the victory last night, the Leafs now have 56 points on the season, putting them second in the Atlantic and fourth overall.

At their current pace, they would finish the season with 113 points, one less than last year’s record of 115, making the last three seasons the best in franchise history.

The Toronto Maple Leafs continue to do amazing things under coach Sheldon Keefe, and if last night’s victory was any indication, fans can expect the team to steamroll their way there way through the rest of the season, hopefully winning a first round series victory too in the process.