Good Road Game, Rookie Debut, the Toronto Maple Leafs Unimpressive Start

The Toronto Maple Leafs are 1-1 after an OK to decent road-win against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

The Toronto Maple Leafs didn't exactly play a great game, but they scored three times in succession in the first period, and the Devils couldn't come back.

In one sense, this was a good road game on the second half of a back-to-back. The Leafs got a lead, then they held on to it, and ultimately they won the game. The also took way too many penalties, made some incredibly dumb plays, and were probably lucky to escape with a win.

Not as concerning as than their lack of a third-line centre or their incredibly short-sighted treatment of Timothy Liljegren, but still problematic: the team has not looked offensively dangerous at all over the first two games, and they have gotten pretty much nothing from their stars.

They also took four minors against Montreal and five against New Jersey, which is pretty bad. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Good Road Game, Rookie Debut, the Toronto Maple Leafs Unimpressive Start

Dennis Hildeby, the guy with the world's most annoying nickname, made his NHL debut and was solid, if not outright excellent. He helped kill off a bunch of penalties, and made a couple great saves. I didn't love the goals he let in, but he was good enough to get the win, and at least the team didn't start Anthony Stolarz in a back-to-back situation.

Overall, the Leafs first two games have left me unimpressed. They toyed with the Montreal Canadiens, but the Canadiens suck. The Devils are actually a top team, and the Leafs probably deserved to lose to them but Jacob Markstrom let them build up a lead which they did not give up.

One of the reason that the Devils probably should have won that game was because the Leafs best line was Robertson, Pacioretty and Holmberg, which shouldn't even be possible. The Matthews line was invisible at best and the Tavares, Domi, Nylander was absolute garbage. New Jersey feasted whenever they were on the ice.

It's good that the Leafs won, but there is no excuse for Max Pacioretty or Nick Robertson being the team's best player for a period, let alone a full game. I give some leeway due to it being a back-to-back, and due to them actually winning, but they shouldn't have.

Poor Timothy Liljegren. It must have been such an insult to watch Connor Timmins and Simon Benoit attempt to play hockey while he had to watch, unable to dress. The Leafs are hopefully just playing some mind games here because scratching or trading Liljegren away from what is, at the absolute best, the 16th best blue-line in hockey is epically dumb.

At the end of the night, the Leafs are lucky to win a game where Auston Matthews has zero 5v5 shots and didn't even really look interested.

After two games, the power-play looks horrible, the coach doesn't appear to have a clue as to what lineup to dress, and the team is taking way too many penalties. But I really like Steve Lorentz. A 1-1 record while inexplicably scratching your third-best defenseman isn't bad, but the coach, more than anyone, needs to be better.