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The Good, Bad & Ugly In Maple Leafs’ 3–2 Win vs. Flyers

Last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3–2. What were the good, bad, and ugly parts of the game?

by
Stan Smith
January 8, 2025

The Toronto Maple Leafs swept a home-and-home series against the Philadelphia Flyers, taking both ends by an identical 3–2 score. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of this game?

The Bad: The Flyers Won the Statistical Numbers

The Maple Leafs probably didn’t deserve to win the game. The Flyers were on the winning side of all the statistical categories. According to Natural Stat Trick, they had 62% of the shots, 63% of the scoring chances, and 67% of the high-danger scoring chances in all situations.

Toronto didn’t register its first shot on net until the 14:23 mark of the first period and only had two total shots compared to ten for the Flyers. Philadelphia didn’t exactly dominate the first period, though—the shot attempts were 24–20 in their favor. The Maple Leafs’ problem was either getting shots to the net or missing the net. Of the 20 shot attempts they had, eight were blocked, and 10 missed the net.

The Maple Leafs gave up the first goal for the second game in a row. A shot by Travis Konecny from the top of the faceoff circle to the left of Joseph Woll at 8:19 of the first period deflected off Ryan Reaves’ stick in front of the net and changed direction enough to fool Woll.

Joseph Woll Maple Leafs return — Joseph Woll Maple Leafs vs the Flyers

After Toronto tied the game at 1–1 early in the second, Konecny got his second goal just past the seven-minute mark of the period. On the play, Connor Timmins was slow at moving the puck after taking a pass from behind the Toronto net from Bobby McMann. That gave Noah Cates time to get on Timmins, steal the puck from him, and get it to Konecny, who was alone in front of the net. Konecny went from his forehand to his backhand and tucked the puck through the five-hole on Woll.

The Good: Tavares Scores 20 Goals Again This Season

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Maple Leafs only had six high-danger scoring chances in the game, but they made the most of them, scoring three goals against the Flyers.

The first goal was by John Tavares at 1:19 of the second period. After taking a pass from Auston Matthews on the power play, Tavares wired a shot from the faceoff dot to the right of Flyers goalie Ivan Fedotov into the top corner of the net on Fedotov’s glove side. That goal was Tavares’ 20th of the season. Tavares has had at least 20 goals in 15 of the 16 seasons he has played in the NHL. The only season he failed to score 20 was the pandemic-shortened 2020–21 season. He came up one goal short that season, scoring 19 goals in 56 games. The goal in this game was also the 476th of Tavares’ career and moved him into a tie with Joe Pavelski for 56th place in all-time goals in the NHL.

Just 41 seconds after Konecny put the Flyers up 2–1, Matthews snapped a one-timer past Fedotov from the slot that beat him on his stick side to tie the game at 2–2. Matthews has had two or more points in all three games since returning from his recent stint on Injured Reserve. He has two goals and seven points in those three games. It was Matthews’ 200th multi-point game, making him the fastest American-born player to reach that plateau. This was Matthews’ 589th game. Pat LaFontaine held the record previously, getting his 200th multi-point game in his 617th game.

Matthew Knies Scored Again

Matthew Knies continued his hot goal-scoring streak when he tipped a point shot by Morgan Rielly past Fedotov 13:21 into the third period. It was Knies’ fifth goal in his last three games, putting him on pace to score 32 goals this season.

Mitch Marner assisted on Tavares’ and Matthews’ goals to record his 20th multi-point game of the season, which ties Leon Draisaitl for the most multi-point games in the league. The assists were Marner’s 43rd and 44th in his 42nd game played. He remains second in the league for assists, eight behind Nathan MacKinnon. Marner is also tied for third place in overall NHL scoring with Mikko Rantanen. Both have 58 points and trail MacKinnon by eight points.

Joseph Woll picked up his fifth win in a row. He has allowed 10 goals in those five wins, but four came in the 6–4 victory over Boston. Woll raised his overall record to 14–6–0 in 20 appearances with a .915 SV% and a 2.46 GAA. Woll is sixth in the league for Save Percentage and ninth for Goals Against Average among goalies with 20 or more appearances.

The win over the Flyers was the Maple Leafs’ fifth in a row, giving them a six-point cushion over the Florida Panthers atop the Atlantic Division standings. With one more game played than Florida, the Maple Leafs also moved into a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with the Washington Capitals. The Caps have two games in hand over Toronto, though.

The Ugly: Two Flyers Collided and Were Shaken Up

The only ugly incident in this game was a scary head-on collision between rookie Matvei Michkov and veteran Scott Laughton as they were turning up-ice in the Flyers’ zone. Both players went down immediately after the crash and were shaken up. They left the game for a while but did return and continued playing.

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

The Maple Leafs pay a visit to the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, where they take on the always-tough Hurricanes on Thursday night before returning home to host the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.