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The Good, Bad & Ugly in Maple Leafs’ 6-3 Win Over Canes

Last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6–3. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game?

by
Stan Smith
February 23, 2025

The Toronto Maple Leafs played their first game following the 4 Nations Faceoff Tournament, which saw Team Canada defeat Team USA 3-2 in the final to win the event. The Maple Leafs scored four goals in the first period, then survived a late-game surge by the Hurricanes. A couple of empty-net goals resulted in a 6-3 win for the Maple Leafs. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game?

The Good: The Maple Leafs First Period

Of course, the first period was the best part of this game for the Maple Leafs. Toronto scored four goals on 11 shots to take a 4-0 lead into the dressing room. What was a refreshing change was who scored the goals.

One thing the Maple Leafs have lacked this season is scoring from their depth players. That was not the case in this game. Alex Steeves scored the first NHL goal of his career. Pontus Holmberg scored his fifth goal of the season and first in 18 games. David Kampf scored his fifth goal of the season and his second in 18 games. Steeves also assisted on Kampf’s goal. With Holmberg assisting, John Tavares potted the fourth goal in the first period.

Alex Steeves

As he was going to the rink, Steeves was hoping at some point in the game that someone would get him the puck somewhere around the faceoff dot to the left of the opposing goalie. Many of Steeves’ AHL-leading 29 goals have come via one-timers from that very spot.

Steeves got that wish on his first shift of the game as Tavares fed him a perfect pass to that exact spot. Steeves blasted a one-timer past Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov before Kochetkov could get across the crease to stop it. Then, on Steeves’ next shift, he got the puck in the corner behind the Carolina net, worked it back to the points, and made a nifty pass to Steven Lorentz in the slot. Instead of shooting, Lorentz fed a cross-crease pass over to Kampf, who had a wide-open net to slide the puck.

Two shifts. A goal and an assist for Steeves. I wondered at that point if Steeves might be having his Bobby McMann moment. Just over a year ago, McMann was inserted into the lineup as a last-minute replacement for an injured Tavares in a game against the St. Louis Blues. McMann’s hat trick in that game earned a regular spot in the Maple Leafs’ lineup. He hasn’t looked back.

While those were the only two points Steeves would get in the game, it was still impactful for him. He handled his defensive responsibilities well and gave the fourth line an offensive presence. Not only did Steeves finish the game with a plus-two in plus/minus in 9:04 of work, but at 5-on-5, Steeves had the Maple Leafs’ second-best Scoring Chances For at 57.1% and the third-best Expected Goals For at 59.7%.

Pontus Holmberg

Seeing Holmberg starting alongside Tavares and William Nylander on the second line was a bit of a surprise. But Holmberg made the most of it and had his best game of the season. He scored two goals and added an assist to finish the night with three points. Holmberg put up three points in a game for the second time in his career. He had three assists in a 7-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks on December 13th, 2022.

Also Good: Matthews and Nylander Make Good Plays

While the Hurricanes pulling their goalie led to two Carolina goals, it also led to two Maple Leafs goals. After Slavin pulled the Hurricanes to within a goal, a faceoff win in the Toronto zone by Tavares, a nice pass out of the zone by Chris Tanev to Auston Matthews, and a strong power-forward-like move by Matthews to shake off two Carolina checkers and backhand the puck into the empty net pretty much sealed the win for Toronto.

Not one to give up, Hurricane coach Rod Brind’Amour pulled Kochetkov again. This time, William Nylander took advantage of a bobbled puck by Ghostisbehere at the Toronto blue line, skated the puck up the ice, and fed it to Holmberg. Holmberg deposited the puck into the empty net to make the final score 6-3 Toronto.

Matthews’ goal ended one of the longest goal-scoring droughts of his career (six games) and put him in a tie with Darryl Sittler for second in all-time Maple Leafs goals with 389. Matthews needs 31 more goals to franchise leader Mats Sundin. Nylander’s pass to Holmberg was an extremely unselfish play, considering Nylander is second in goal-scoring in the NHL with 33 goals.

The Bad: Stolarz Has Bad Luck on Two Goals

I thought about putting this next bit in my “Ugly” section, but because it involved some bad luck, I downgraded it to just “Bad.” The Maple Leafs appeared to be coasting to an easy win, with the only question being whether Anthony Stolarz would get a shutout in his second game since returning from his injury. Then, with just over 7 ½ minutes remaining in the third period, Shayne Gostisbehere banged home a pass from Sebastian Aho from behind the Toronto net to spoil Stolarz’s shutout and make the score 4-1 Toronto. Two and a half minutes later, the score was 4-3 Toronto, as Andrei Svechnikov and Jaccob Slavin scored goals 20 seconds apart, with Kochetkov pulled for an extra attacker.

The bad luck came on the second and third Hurricanes’ goals. Jake McCabe tried to block Svechnikov’s shot but got enough of the puck to make it slightly change direction and fool Stolarz. Slavin’s goal came after a shot from Brent Burns hit Jordan Staal in front of the Toronto goal. The puck bounced up in the air and came down right on Slavin’s stick before anyone else, especially Stolarz, knew where it was. Slavin banged the puck into the open net.

The Ugly: Max Domi Takes a Cross-Check

What I decided on for the “Ugly” part happened early in the third period. Max Domi took a cross-check to the head from Svechnikov just inside the Carolina blue line. There was no call on the play, and it certainly looked intentional. Domi was shaken but able to stay in the game. It will be interesting to see if any supplementary discipline is delivered to Svechnikov.

Max Domi Maple Leafs finally scored a goal — Max Domi of the Toronto Maple Leafs

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

The Maple Leafs fly to Chicago for a game tonight. Neither team has an advantage rest-wise, as both teams played last night and will have had to travel to the Windy City. The Blackhawks lost 5-1 to the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Saturday night. Game time tonight is 7:00 EST.

If Toronto can win that game, the Maple Leafs will leapfrog the Florida Panthers back into first place in the Atlantic Division. The Panthers lost 2-1 to the Seattle Kraken and don’t play again until Tuesday. The Maple Leafs will use one of the two games they have in hand over Florida tonight.