Toronto Maple Leafs Season Opener Leads to Way-Too-Soon Conclusions

The Toronto Maple Leafs opened their 2023-2024 regular season Wednesday night with an exciting 6-5 shootout victory over their arch-rival Montreal Canadiens visitors.  Although it was only a tiny sliver of what’s to come between now and April, it’s never too soon to confidently declare what this game told us we can expect looking forward.

First of all, Toronto Maple Leafs sniper extraordinaire Auston Matthews netted a hat-trick, proving that he is back to his old Rocket Richard ways, and will once again lead the NHL in goals.  Will Matthews hit sixty goals again?  Is seventy goals in reach this year? Stay tuned.

The game itself may not have been chippy, but the ice surface sure seemed to be.  TJ Brodie basically sat down like a toddler skating for the first time, giving up a breakaway goal to begin the game, and Timothy Liljegren flubbed an easy pass later that lead to another Canadiens tally.

Morgan Rielly blew a tire and slid into the boards awkwardly.  The Leafs better focus on the basics or bad things will happen – worse things than almost losing to an inferior Montreal team despite outshooting them 42-24.

Ilya Samsonov gave up 5 goals on 24 shots for a measly .792 save percentage (stats from NHL.com).  Although none of the goals were really his fault, a few more games like that could put a dent in anyone’s confidence.  Stopping the shots you’re supposed to stop isn’t enough for a team in win-now mode.  Toronto needs their goalies to also stop their share of the opportunities that are supposed to go in.  Calling Mr. Joseph Woll?

Toronto Maple Leafs Need Contributions From Newcomers

Rookies?  What rookies?  Matthews Knies picked up where he left off last season (no, not crumpled on the ice behind the Florida net while his teammates did nothing) and played like a seasoned veteran, generating several good scoring chances.  Fraser Minten showed why he made the opening night roster, continuing to show the quickness and smarts that will make it hard for the Leafs’ brass to send him down after he’s played 9 games.

TJ Brodie is looking old.  Mark Giordano really is old (the sole current NHL-er to have blown out the candles on his 40th birthday cake).  Both players did win their 5v5 minutes, however.

New addition John Klingberg was effective on the power-play, but Montreal had a field day when him and McCabe were on the ice. Ovearll, he had an effective game quarterbacking a powerplay that went 2 for 4, earning a pair of assists.   He’s going to have a good season – trust me!

The new sandpaper in the Leafs lineup had a decidedly mediocre debut.  Ryan Reaves (love that 3 year deal, baby!!!) flexed during the pre-game introductions, lost a fight to Arber Xhekaj, then played a decent 4th liner game.

Max Domi caused considerably less havoc than his dad would have, and Tyler Bertuzzi played a bit like Michael Bunting in the waning days of his Toronto stint, taking a stupid penalty that immediately turned into a Montreal powerplay goal.  Back to Home Depot you go, Mr. Treliving.  The sandpaper you got was that fine finishing stuff, not the rough gritty stuff we wanted.

Captain John Tavares  had three assists, and while his line lost their 5v5 minutes, the underlying numbers were very solid.  Undoubtedly he’ll score another 80 points this season while everyone complains that he’s lost another step and is washed up.

Last but not least (well maybe it is least), the Toronto Maple Leafs revealed their new goal celebration song.  After newcomer Noah Gregor scored Toronto’s first goal of the season, we all strained our ears to hear………..ummm……that sounds kind of familiar……maybe……nope, don’t know it.  My daughter didn’t know.  The Sportsnet panel didn’t know.   But Google knows!  It’s Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” – but it was the Steve Aoki remix (thus, me not immediately recognizing the tune).

In summary, it appears we can look forward to an exciting season from a talented yet flawed Toronto Maple Leafs team, with a goal song that we can all agree to dislike.  Same as it ever was. Maybe we can get the song switched to something by Talking Heads?