Big Plays Lead the Toronto Maple Leafs Over Sheldon Keefe for the 3rd Time

For the third time this season the Toronto Maple Leafs took on their former coach Sheldon Keefe and for the third time they came out victorious.

Despite falling behind three times to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs stars were able to battle back after each goal until they finally took the lead on the final shot of the game in overtime by a score of 4-3.

Heading into the game, news broke that John Tavares would be out week-to-week and with how management gives injury updates you can expect that means he is out for the next half decade. Realistically, you can count on the 20-goal scorer to be out until at after the Four Nations Cup. In response to Tavares being placed on the Injured Reserve (IR), rookie Fraser Minten was recalled, but was held out of the line-up.

The response to the shuffling was Max Domi received an upgrade by being centered between William Nylander and Bobby McMann, while Pontus Holmberg would draw back in the lineup to center Max Pacioretty and Nicholas Robertson.

Big Plays Lead the Toronto Maple Leafs Over Sheldon Keefe for the 3rd Time

The Maple Leafs fell behind early on one of the worst defensive positioning plays the team has made this year. After winning the faceoff, the usually dependable winger Steven Lorentz blew the zone leaving Morgan Rielly to make a low percentage pass that was incomplete. For some odd reason, Philippe Myers decided he was going to join a rush that was not occurring and left former first overall pick and 99-point forward Jack Hughes all alone in front of the net to do what he does best and put the Devils up 1-0. This wouldn't be the last gaff by Myers.

Midway through the third period with Oliver Ekman-Larsson serving his second minor infraction, Berube elected to go with Rielly and Myers on the penalty kill (oof). With the Devils moving the puck around the offensive zone, the unreliable defenseman joined Connor Dewar in pressuring the defense but never got back to his position and instead he watched Nico Hischier bury his second of the game to give the Devils the lead.

The goal was the last ice-time of the game that Myers would see as he was stapled to the bench for the final 11:24 of the game.

While it wasn't his greatest game of the season or even one of his better overall performances, William Nylander showed why he just needs a few seconds to make a difference in a game. The two-time 40-goal scorer finished with a pair of goals, including his sixth game winner of the season which came in the extra period.

The Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies line was the best group of the night as they dominated throughout. All three finished with over 21-minutes of ice-time, with Matthews collecting a pair of goals, including, arguably his biggest and best of the season to tie the game with just over four minutes remaining in the third period.

Marner finished the night with a pair of primary helpers which helped him reach 700-points on his career becoming the fasted player in franchise history to reach that mark in 622 games. His night was highlighted by an incredible pass to send Nylander in on a breakaway for the winner.

Play of the Game

There were plenty of highlight plays throughout the night, whether it was the countless times Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe shutdown the opposition, Marner's pass to Nylander or the unreal shot on the tying goal by Matthews. However, for me the best playf of the night came from Bobby McMann which was a small play on second powerplay just prior to Maple Leafs captain tying the game at two goals a piece.

Marner received a pass and bobbled the puck and found himself under pressure. McMann did something that the powerplay has been missing, he moved to an open spot where Marner could get rid of the puck safely. McMann was able to get the puck immediately to Nylander and two seconds later the puck was in the back of the net. This is something the man advantage has been missing and it was McMann recognizing the trouble prior to the full pressure and gave Marner an outlet.

The Maple Leafs will now take on the suddenly hot Montreal Canadiens and you can expect a couple line-up changes. I would expect Myers to be a healthy scratch and Minten will likely draw into the game.