Minten, Knies, Marner, Woll and Grebenkin: Toronto Maple Leafs Dominate

We just witnessed the most important Toronto Maple Leafs game of the season, maybe the decade.

Later, we will look back to this game as the time when everything changed. There were a lot of things to talk about from last night's game, but to sum it up briefly: The Toronto Maple Leafs Contender status just went from quasi to legit.

Before last night, we had an injury riddled team with no identity and a lot of questions. Now we know what this team has been missing, and how it can win.

I don't think there's any exaggeration in stating that the last night's game was a massive turning point for the Leafs.

Minten, Knies, Marner, Woll and Grebenkin: Toronto Maple Leafs Dominate

First of all, they're 6-1 without Auston Matthews, the NHL's indisputable second-best player. Adding a healthy Auston Matthews to this lineup is going to be insane.

Second of all, Mitch Marner has been playing like he wants to win the Hart Trophy. He has multi-point games in six of the last seven Leafs game, coinciding with Matthews injury. He is scoring at a 130 point pace since November started. Marner was held pointless in five of his first eight games this season, so his scoring pace is actually much better than his (great either way) 26 points in 20 games suggest.

Third of all, the goalies!! Joseph Woll with the shutout, to go along with Anthony Stolarz already playing like a future Vezina winner.

Fourth thing: The kids. Nikita Grebenkin took a shot, smashed a guy, got the puck back and then set up William Nylander for a what would be a goal 99% of the time. He's my new favorite player. I love him.

Fifth thing; The bottom six. Fraser Minten and Grebenkin were revelations. Loretnz was a shot-blocking monster. Lorentz/Dewar/Steeves is the best 4th line the Leafs have had since Spezza retired. The third line of Robertson-Minten-Grenenkin didn't play much together because Knies got hurt and screwed up the lines, but even Robertson was dangerous. There's so much to like about these six guys.

Sixth thing: Matthews is injured but he's the best player in franchise history. John Tavares is playing like an elite 1C himself, while both Nylander and Marner are playing at an MVP level.

Only negatives are that the OEL/Rielly pairing really shows how badly this team needs a number-one defender, and that OEL is a very bad top-four option. And of course it likely isn't a good thing that Berube has to be forced to dress his best lineup (sans Matthews, obviously). The Knies injury is bad, and it means this victory came with a high cost, but still, the positive outweight the negatives by a mile in this game.

End of the day: the Leafs beat one of the best teams in the NHL and they were the best team in the game and fully deserved the victory. This is a moral victory, and it's inspiring. But more than anything, it shows that the Leafs have all the ingredients needed to win a Stanley Cup.

With apologies to Kampf, Reaves and Domi, the Leafs need to look at this game as their model going forward, and that includes sticking with the kids when the older, slower, less dynamic and drastically more expensive players are ready to come back. Not for nothing, but those guys represent enough cap space to trade for someone who can get OEL playing on the bottom pairing.