Toronto Maple Leafs Soundly Defeat Red-Hot Panthers

The Toronto Maple Leafs took on the red-hot Florida Panthers last night in Crazytown and came away with the victory.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had been playing fairly awful for the last couple weeks, it was nice to not only get the win, but to also deserve it.

The Panthers didn’t have karma on their side ,as Eric and Mark Staal disgraced themselves and their family before the game by trying to make a simple gesture of inclusivity all about themselves, and their message of hate and intolerance.  It was gross and shameful, and it’s probably the first time I regretted the Leafs not dressing an enforcer.

Regardless, the Leafs then cruised to an easy victory.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Florida Panthers

The Leafs received two goals from Auston Matthews, a goal and an assist from Mitch Marner (who is now eight point away from his first one-hundred point season with eleven games to go).

They also received a three-point night from Captain John Tavares, while William Nylander set a career high with his 36th goal of the season.

When Marner scores his 30th (he has 28) the Toronto Maple Leafs will have 4 x 30 goal scorers, which has happened 104 times before, including once when Buffalo had 6.  The Leafs themselves have done this three other times, but not since 1989.  (nhl.com).

We would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the excellent game Matt Murray had last night.  A game  that included a save so amazing it blew my mind.  In fact, it was one of the most impressive two save combos you’ll ever see, as Murray was full-on break-dancing in the net.

Unfortunately, replay once again ruined an awesome moment by proving that the puck was in fact in the. net.  Seriously, they shouldn’t have counted the goal, despite getting the call right, because it would perhaps have been the best save in the history of the NHL.

The Leafs also got their first 5-3 of the season (every other team has at least three, a lot of teams have at least ten, and one team has 16, according to twitter).  A bigger indictment of the NHL’s referees I could not imagine.

Oh and hey, Alex Kerfoot scored his 8th of the year, and first in a long, long, long, long time.

Overall, it was a great bounce-back game for the Toronto Maple Leafs after their debacle on Long Island (where they really didn’t even play that badly).