The Toronto Maple Leafs turned their game completely around and dominated the New Jersey Devils to the tune of a 7-1 victory. They scored four goals in the first period and didn’t allow a single Devils’ goal until the score was out of reach at 6-0. Then, the Maple Leafs added a final goal – just for good measure.
It was the kind of win that happens every once in a while but probably not as often as head coach Sheldon Keefe would like it to. In this edition of Maple Leafs’ takeaways, I’ll look at my three takeaways from the game.
Related: Three Maple Leafs’ Takeaways from 6-4 Win Over the Devils
Takeaway One: The Entire Team Responds to the Coach’s Challenge
I don’t know for certain, but I can imagine that there were two storylines emerging from the Maple Leafs’ coaches decision to start Jack Campbell. He had been unceremoniously pulled from the net after giving up three goals in nine shots to this same New Jersey Devils’ team the night before.
The first storyline was likely to see how Campbell would play after he was pulled. Would he be shaky? Would he turn his game around? The second storyline was likely to see how well the team would play defense in front of Campbell.
I can’t know, but I can only imagine that Maple Leafs’ head coach Sheldon Keefe challenged his team – loudly and pointedly. He likely told his players, either this morning or after last night’s game, to treat their goalie, with more respect. After all, he’s the guy who repeatedly stood on his head early in the season to help them win games they might not have deserved to have been in. He deserved more than they gave him last night.
Whatever the plot to the storyline, the ending was like a children’s fairy tale where they all lived happily ever after. Well, at least until after the All-Star break. Obviously, the Maple Leafs are a better team this season than the Devils; however, this was a dominant game and the Maple Leafs won handily. It wasn’t that way two nights ago.
Takeaway Two: Mitch Marner’s On Fire, Suddenly Hits Point-a-Game Average on the Season
In my three years covering the Maple Leafs, I can’t remember Mitch Marner playing better than he has during his last seven games. Since he came off the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol for the game on January 15, he’s played seven games and he’s scored 16 points in those games. In those seven games, he’s scored a goal each of those games and two last night. He’s also added eight assists in those games as well.
Even more prolific, in his last two games against the Devils, he’s scored seven points – four last night and three the night before. That extends his point-scoring streak to six games. He’s now up to 12 goals and 33 points in 32 games for the 2021-22 regular season.
Like the proverbial chicken man, Marner was everywhere in this game. In the first period, he had an assist on Auston Matthews’ 29th goal of the season. Then he scored his own first-period goal. He then had an assist on Michael Bunting’s goal. Finally, he capped it all off with another unassisted goal of his own again in the third period.
Takeaway Three: Auston Matthews Seems Determined to Win the Rocket Richard Trophy
After his hat trick last night, Auston Matthews didn’t stop. He scored his 29th of the season last night, which tied him for third in the NHL with Alex Ovechkin (who didn’t score a goal tonight). On top of that, Matthews has four games in hand over Ovechkin. However, the NHL’s current goal-scoring leader is the surprising – to me anyway – New York Rangers’ Chris Kreider. He scored two goals tonight and has 33 on the season – two ahead of the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl.
In an aside, it’s interesting to me that Kreider’s been so successful putting the puck in the net this season. He’s been a regular NHL scorer over the seasons – potting 20 goals seven times, but he’s never scored as many as 30 goals in any regular NHL season and he’s only just finished 47 games with 35 more games to go. He looks to hit 50 goals this season easily.
In this game, Matthews was in on the first two goals of the game to lead the charge to help the Maple Leafs put the game away early. He’s been cruising through the ice either getting his teammates the puck or receiving it from them. And, he’s shooting lights out from everywhere. His goals have been scored from a variety of different places on the ice.
This season, Matthews is slightly ahead of his career shooting percentage – on the season he’s shooting at a 16.8 percent success rate. Over his career, he’s shot at a 16.3 percent success rate. He has 51 points in only 39 games. He could carry the team’s offense; but, fortunately, he has lots of help.
Related: Insider Confirms Maple Leafs’ Interest in Josh Manson from Ducks
gfinale
February 2, 2022 at 7:28 am
Here’s my takeaway. Most of the team was extremely lazy, disengaged and couldn’t be bothered Monday night as evidenced by what they can do on Tuesday night. Every person who bought tickets for Monday and everyone who watched should demand refunds and payments for their wasted time watching such garbage. Keefe came out after Monday’s game and basically said it was disgusting how they had left their goalie out to dry after that goalie had stood on his head for them tons of times over the past year. Keefe shouldn’t need to say that to get this team of so-called professional NHLers to put out a proper amount of effort.
Old Prof
February 2, 2022 at 1:58 pm
Interesting, that’s what I wrote today in my THW post –
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