Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews Lights It Up

The Toronto Maple Leafs emerged victorious last night defeating the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 in an exciting game that saw superstar Auston Mathews score two goals.

Statistically the Jets may have been the superior team, but it was the Toronto Maple Leafs who came out on top in the end, slipping three goals past perennial Vezina candidate Connor Hellybuck. (NaturalStatTrick)

Along with Matthews two goals, Mitch Marner scored short handed, extending his record breaking home game point streak to twenty, and Mark Giordano added an empty netter.

Goaltender Ilya Samsonov played excellent, stopping 37 of 38 shots faced, good for a sparkling 0.974 SV%, giving him his eleventh win at Scotiabank Arena so far this year, and a 13-4-1 record overall this season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Star Players Shine

The team was led by it’s star players last night, with each of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander recording points. This is encouraging for fans because when you pay half your cap to four forwards, you need those star players to shine.

John Tavares was the only one of the core four forwards held off the score sheet, leaving him stuck in 95th place on the all-time NHL goal scoring list with 411 career goals to date.

Auston Matthews now has seven goals in his last eight games, giving him 22 for the season so far, which is only three behind where he was at this point last year, though he has played more games this year. As we all know, Matthews would go on to finish the year with 60 goals, winning his second consecutive Rocket Richard Trophy, the Ted Lindsay Award, and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s best player.

It is not unreasonable to expect Matthews to go on a heater again this year and finish with over 50 goals, putting him back into the MVP conversation.

The game was marred by a scary incident in the third period when Timothy Liljegren was hit in the head with a puck.  Liljegren remained on the ice for several minutes before managing to return to his feet.  He left the game and did not return.  As the Leafs best defenseman, I hope the injury isn’t serious and that he returns to the ice soon.

With a record of 28-11-7 the Toronto Maple Leafs now have 63 points, putting them in 3rd place overall behind only the Carolina Hurricanes, who are one point ahead of them, and the Boston Bruins, who lead the league with 76 points.

The Leafs next play this Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens, in Montreal, at the Bell Centre Arena.

The Canadiens are doing terrible this year, sitting in 7th from the bottom, and will be in the Bedard sweepstakes for the end of the season,.

Game start is at 7:00.