All of this has happened before.
Period One
And it will happen again:
Marner's NHL rookie-leading 23rd assist, 16 of those have been primary assists. #tmltalk
— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) January 14, 2017
That’s lovely. He got another one later in the game as well.
It's 2-0 Leafs after one period, 11-11 shots.
— Lance Hornby (@sunhornby) January 14, 2017
Stop telling me Shots on Goal! Look at this graph! Does that look even to you?
Don’t give power play time to the Rangers, guys.
Standouts
Morgan Rielly with the neat pass to Matt Martin.
Zach Hyman being smart with how he moves on the ice.
Nazem Kadri with a couple of slick passes.
The New York Rangers for being tough on the forecheck, the backcheck, the sidecheck and every other check.
Period Two
This is just great work after the Rangers got the Leafs twisted up in their own end.
Zack Hyman had a great shorty breakaway and every time everyone groans and calls him stone hands, I just assume he’ll have a shooting percentage next year of 20 percent.
Kadri skating with Matthews and Nylander here in the 2nd. #tmltalk
— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) January 14, 2017
Komarov was skipping shifts post penalty kill, and Matthews was taking his place in the second half of the game.
Bozak line was getting killed in the Corsi war, while Matthews and Kadri lines, despite the line shuffling that was going on, were beyond excellent. The Leafs held more or less even on score-adjusted Corsi.
Standouts
Frederik Gauthier had likely the best period in the NHL in his best game in the NHL, he still looks like a work in progress, but he was not making me pine for Ben Smith.
The very good penalty kill unit
Chris Kreider
Period Three
Well, the score was 3-1, you know what happened. The Leafs stayed in their own end, escaping to the opposing blue line but not across it often. They dumped it out constantly instead of making clean breakouts, and Andersen worked for it.
And then, they got a power play.
J.T. Miller made sure the Leafs remember that they got a win but did not play a good third period with a late goal.
The score and venue adjusted Corsi in the third was 15-7 for the Rangers.
Standouts
Nylander with either version of the Kadri line. Sometimes you can hear the click where he just is suddenly on.
Connor Carrick for reversing the third period curse, but Mitch Marner for setting it up with a sweet pass.
Conclusion
Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Even when they were doing dumb things, they had more than enough offence to pull it off. Great game, Leafs, now do it again tomorrow!
