Leafs beat the Devil in the Dark

Morgan Rielly knew something was wrong the instant Florida’s Aleksander Barkov ricocheted a shot off his left foot on Sunday.

“It definitely didn’t feel good, but you don’t know until you take your skate off,” the Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman said a day after learning he had a fracture.

 “You play through it and deal with the consequences afterwards. Unfortunately, it’s a little more severe than I thought.”

The Leafs, who are already without Jake Muzzin on defence, placed Rielly on injured reserve on Monday. He is expected to miss a minimum of eight weeks during the team’s drive toward the postseason.

“I’m not going to be overly dramatic about it,” Rielly said. “It happens to everyone. It is all part of the journey. I am just going to work hard and try to get back. I want to be healthy and help the team.”

Toronto played its first game without him on Tuesday, and fared just fine. Rasmus Sandin, the prized defensive prospect recalled from the American Hockey League to fill in for Rielly, had two assists as the Maple Leafs took a 3-0 lead in the first period en route to a 7-4 victory.

Auston Matthews scored three more and now has more goals at Scotiabank Arena (27) than the Maple Leafs have played home games (23). He has 34 on the season and trails David Pastrnak of Boston by two for the NHL lead.

Blake Coleman scored three times for New Jersey, which also got a late power-play goal from P.K. Subban.

The triumph ended a three-game losing streak in which Toronto lost by a combined 18-11 scoreline. It is 25-16-6 as it heads into a tough home game on Thursday against the Calgary Flames.

“It is a good opportunity for us as a group here,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said following Monday’s morning skate. “When Muzzin initially went out we played some good hockey and found ways to win games. That has gotten away from us [lately] so it is time to reflect on where need to get better and make up for these types of losses.

“Elite teams don’t get fazed by these situations. We believe we are an elite team and have the ability to take big steps as a group.”

The Maple Leafs currently hold down the third playoff position among teams in the NHL’s Atlantic Division. New Jersey dropped to 17-22-7 after back-to-back victories on the weekend over the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning. The Devils came in at 8-4-2 over their last 14 games but largely looked like a team that has already traded its best player (Taylor Hall), fired its head coach (John Hynes) and dismissed its general manager (Ray Shero).

Toronto fielded a makeshift defence with Travis Dermott and Justin Holl in the first pairing and Tyson Barrie with Martin Marincin in its second. Cody Ceci and Sandin, who was recently named the top defenceman at the 2020 world juniors tournament, manned the third.

The 19-year-old played in six games for Toronto at the start of the season before he was farmed out to the AHL’s Marlies.

He got his first assist of the night less than six minutes into the game when John Tavares tipped in his wrist shot to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead. Centre Frédérik Gauthier whipped a shot by New Jersey goalie Louis Domingue from in front of the net to make it 2-0 with 8:10 remaining in the first, and then Zach Hyman deflected in a knuckler by Sandin on a power play only three seconds before the first intermission.

The goals were the 18th for Tavares, the sixth for Gauthier and the 12th for Hyman. The left winger began the season on injured reserve after undergoing an operation to fix a knee injury that occurred against Boston during the 2019 playoffs.

Toronto entered the night 12-2-1 when leading after the first 20 minutes and quickly expanded the margin. William Nylander netted his 20th goal with 17:48 remaining in the second period and the rout was on. Nylander, who had seven goals in 54 games after holding out at the start of last season, directed a shot from Pierre Engvall past Domingue to increase the lead to 4-0.

After Coleman tucked a shot around Frederik Andersen to trim the advantage to 4-1, Mitch Marner found Matthews with a soft pass to the right of the net and the all-star centre easily beat Domingue to make it 5-1 with 8:29 left in the second.

That led to Domingue’s exit after being scored upon five times on 19 shots.

The hat trick was Matthews’s first since the first game of his NHL career on Oct. 12, 2016, at Ottawa. That night he scored four times.

“I figured I’d get another one [sometime]," Matthews deadpanned.

It was his 19th multi-goal game of the season, which leads the league, and he now has 39 points on home ice.

Marner found humour in Matthews going four seasons between three-goal games.

“We have talked about it a couple of times,” Marner said. “I’m sure it is a big one to get off his shoulders.”

The Maple Leafs were coming off an 8-4 defeat by the Florida Panthers on Sunday. The bigger loss may have been losing Rielly. He was the team’s top-scoring defenceman with 27 points in 46 games and leads all Toronto players in ice time.

Sandin filled in admirably in his absence, though, and the Maple Leafs buried the Devils with a cascade of goals.

“His game matches ours very well,” Marner said of Sandin. "He was top-notch. He made something happen all over the ice.” Rasmus Sandin is truly a keeper, so someone will have to move or be moved because Sandin is here to stay.

Rasmus Sandin

Too much time at the beach

I guess it comes down to one thing :  Too much time at the beach.

"Okay boys , pick up all your sand toys and head for the rink "



The Leafs definitely just had their extra off-day in Florida taken away for next season after this one. Well rested entering a game that was technically their “biggest of the season” to date based on the standings implications, this was a big letdown.

It was an impossible game to analyze in terms of team play and individual performances — it was simply a non-competitive hockey game. It was one of those nights where it felt like every turnover ended up in the back of the net and every gamble at the offensive blue line led to an odd-man rush (and goal) against.

It was about as bad as their loss in Pittsburgh in November that clinched the Mike Babcock firing; not as bad in terms of the team outright quitting on the game and each other after falling in a huge early hole, but it was actually worse in terms of the number of goals they gave up, so we’ll call it a close second. The team managed the puck terribly throughout this game, couldn’t get a big save anywhere, and it was way too easy for a team with a dangerous Panthers top six. The Leafs also got outscored on their own power-play despite three opportunities.

The focus is better spent on how the team responds to games like this than it is dwelling on the game itself, but if there is a big-picture concern, it’s that the team isn’t playing tidy games against decent offenses frequently enough. While the underlying numbers are definitely trending in the right way, in the past couple of months, they’ve given up big numbers to the Rangers (five), the Panthers (eight), the Penguins (six), the Hurricanes (six), the Oilers (six), the Flyers (six and three), and three to the Jets (x2).

The game against the Jets’ offense last Wednesday was actually a low-event game defensively with very little conceded in the way of odd-man chances against, but it remains too rare of an instance that this team has kept things orderly against a decent offense — there have been too many transition chances against, and teams with elite lines especially are just eating it up.

Goaltending was a significant part of the story tonight — Frederik Andersen needed to make the stop on the back-breaking 4-0 to start the second period, and he could’ve come up with the 3-0 late in the first period where he got beat short side by Mike Hoffman. However, the missed assignment (Kasperi Kapanen) on the 1-0 for the one-time finish from the heart of the slot and Aleksander Barkov going untouched by both Jason Spezza and Tyson Barrie (-3 tonight) for a finish from the top of the crease on the 2-0 goal were defensive breakdowns first and foremost. Auston Matthews’ giveaway and Tyson Barrie’s clumsy effort getting back on the shorthanded 5-1 goal just after the team finally got their feet underneath them with a goal at the other end was officially curtains on the game.

Some of this is the percentages naturally correcting on Andersen after his amazing 12-3-1 stretch, but he’s been under .900 in six of his last eight starts, so the Leafs need him to find his way out of this funk. Even with the major improvements in time of possession and scoring chances, this team as constructed is always going to need him to be better than average. The calculation on his starts for this week has now changed; Michael Hutchinson was likely going to get Tuesday’s game vs. New Jersey, but Andersen was pulled after 21 minutes and the team now needs a response, both from the group as a whole and Andersen specifically.

One positive: A special shout-out to Zach Hyman (1g, 2a), who was the Leafs’ best player by several orders of magnitude. Another positive was that once they were down 5-0 they made a valiant attempt at a comeback, but unfortunately the damage had opened old wounds, and the sloppy play continued.


No one was asking for another day at the beach

Leafs hit an Oil Slick

McDavid against Tavares

Connor McDavid's highlight-reel goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night capped a four-point night for the Edmonton Oilers superstar in his team's 6-4 win, which snapped the Maple Leafs' point streak at 10.

McDavid finished with eight shots on goal in the game, including five in the first period, as he posted his first multi-point game since Dec. 21.

"We gave [McDavid] way too much space," Leafs forward told NHL.com. "He's the most dangerous player in the world for a reason, so when you just let him fly through the neutral zone with the speed and skill he has, he's going to make us pay."

The Oilers captain scored his lone goal of the night in the third period, faking out Leafs defenceman
to the inside before turning outside, beating goaltender Michael Hutchison over his glove on a short breakaway.

"It's definitely special," McDavid said of the goal. "I knew [Ryan] Nugent-Hopkins was jumping in so maybe give him a chance to make it an odd-man rush, but then I just tried to make a play, that was it."

McJesus doing his thing

 "That's the nicest goal I've ever seen," Oilers forward added. "That's just Connor; you could tell tonight he was playing with an edge. That might have been the nicest goal I've seen. Just pure skill. We're lucky to have him.
 Honestly, is one of the top defencemen in the league.
He's a great player too that [McDavid] was going against.



To go out and play a game like tonight in Toronto, his hometown, hats off to him."

McDavid extended his NHL points lead with Monday's performance and now has 24 goals and 69 points in 45 games - a two-point lead on teammate Leon Draisaitl and a five-point lead over
. That's all folks.

Canada turns to Gold

 Never in doubt, well that's what I was saying to myself after the game was over, but before the comeback, their was massive doubt.

Singing their hearts out

In a display of grit, determination and unwavering confidence in their squad, the Canadians did not fold, they did not give up — they battled. Trailing 3-1 in the third period, they stormed back by tallying three unanswered goals — including a breathtaking backhander by Akil Thomas as he was falling down with 3:58 remaining in the game — to seal the 4-3 win.



A long-storied rivalry, this one was a no-holds-barred battle from the drop of the puck. Canada had to grind it out as they faced penalty after penalty in the opening frame with its penalty killers blocking shots and clearing the zone. Russia, who back on Dec. 28handed Canadians their worst ever loss in world juniors history with a crushing 6-0 defeat, broke the scoreless affair off a sweet deflection from St. Louis Blues prospect Nikita Alexandrov. Canada's Dylan Cozens tied the game up less than two minutes later, but Russia would go back ahead by two after Grigori Denisenko and Maxim Sorkin scored past Joel Hofer.

 Then came the comeback. And what a glorious comeback it was.

First, Calen Addison took a shot and the Canadians got the lucky break as it deflected off the Russian defender and Connor McMichael's leg to beat Amir Miftakhov. Like Hofer, who stopped 35 of 38 shots, Miftkakhov was stellar in net — stopping 26 of 30 shots — but the bounce that went their way was just what the Canadians needed. Just over two minutes later, captain Barrett Hayton — who many did not expect to play after heft saturday's game with an arm injury after crashing into the boards and was a game-time decision — put his team on his back and with one rifled shot from the right circle tied the game.

Thomas, who had not tallied a goal entering Sunday's game, saved his best for last as he took advantage of a misplay by New Jersey Devils defenseman Danil Misyul in his own end. His goal sent the crowd and the Canadian bench into a tizzy as the comeback was complete. Russia did not muster many chances afterward and the Canadians were IIHF World Junior champions for the 18th time in the nation's history.

The Canadians do have an impressive record when the Czech Republic hosts the tournament. They've medaled every year it has been played there, winning silver in 2002 and now three golds — in 1994 when the tournament was also in Ostrava, 2008 and 2020. With the win over Russia, it marked the fifth time Canada beat the rival in nine games since 1996.

Akil pots the winner

It reminded me of the disappointment in Buffalo in 2011, up 3 goals, the team collpased to a heavily talented Russian squad 5-3.

But not this time. This time was GOLDEN

Oh and the Leafs take on the Oilers tonight.

The Leafs rally round their goalie

 The Leafs rallied around their back up goal tender after defeating the Isles last night, but all the smiles belonged to Michael Hutchinson.


Hutchinson had a 33-save shutout as the Maple Leafs blanked the New York Islanders 3-0 on Saturday to stretch Toronto’s point streak to 10 games.

"It was one of those games where during the anthems I felt really calm and relaxed," said Hutchinson, who got a boost of confidence when he saved a shot by Isles defenceman Scott Mayfield 22 seconds into the opening period. "The game started off and their very first shot was in from the point with quite a bit of traffic and I was able to find the lane right away and make a pretty easy save on my feet."

And the smile was a mile wide.

Pierre Engvall, Auston Matthews and Zach Hyman, into an empty net, scored for the Maple Leafs (24-14-5), who have won nine of their last 10 games.
Starting goalie Frederik Andersen has been the backbone of Toronto’s streak, with a 6-0-1 record and .909 save percentage, but head coach Sheldon Keefe opted to start Hutchinson instead.
It was Hutchinson’s third-straight win following a 4-1 victory over Detroit on Dec. 21 and a 5-4 overtime triumph in New Jersey on Dec. 27, both part of Toronto’s point streak. His personal win streak stands in stark contrast to six losses to start the season with an .876 save percentage.

"It’s kind of resetting and knowing you can’t change anything that happened earlier in the season," said Hutchinson of his recent success. "I’ve been able to come to the rink positive every single day.
"Even when I’m not playing, enjoying the wins, enjoying the successes that other guys are having."


Keefe acknowledged it was a risk starting a backup goalie against as strong of a team like New York, but it was necessary to rest Andersen before the all-star break.
"We created a little extra adversity for our team today going into it, obviously, giving Freddie the day off and putting Hutch in," said Keefe, who informed Hutchinson of his decision on Friday. "That raises the awareness of the team a little bit and creates some extra challenge there in terms of not having Freddie — who has been so great for us — and then Hutch, who is trying to find his way.

"Clearly, he did today."
Semyon Varlamov stopped 20-of-22 shots he faced for the Islanders (25-12-3).


After a scoreless first period, Hutchinson stepped up in the second, facing 16 shots. He made a highlight-reel glove save on Josh Bailey in the ninth minute of the period, dropping into the butterfly but snagging the puck out of the air.
Toronto broke the 0-0 tie at the 13:25 mark of the period when Kasperi Kapanen slid the puck through New York defenceman Noah Dobson’s legs and then backhanded a pass to Engvall, who was skating into the slot and in a perfect position to shoot on Varlamov.
Matthews added to that lead 2:42 later, screening Varlamov as Mitch Marner sent in a long pass that the Maple Leafs centre quickly rotated around to chip over the Islanders’ goalie.
The Islanders continued to press — including a power play with 2:50 left in the second — but Hutchinson held firm.

Hutchinson’s impressive start continued 1:29 into the third period, blocking an Anders Lee wrister, kicking the rebound out with his pad and then smothering it with his glove.
Chants of "Hutchy" and "Let’s go Hutch!" rained down on Hutchinson from the sections directly behind him in the lower bowl of Scotiabank Arena after he made another smart glove save on Dobson with 11:43 left to play.

"Are you frustrated? You are a little because you know you played a solid game," said Islanders head coach Barry Trotz. "If you bury a couple of those chances you’re leaving here with a point or a victory."

Hyman added an empty-net goal with 2:08 left to play. After defenceman Justin Holl dug the puck out of the boards behind Toronto’s goal, he passed to Matthews who sent it over to Marner, who in turn found a streaking Hyman.

Their next opponent is the Edmonton Oilers, on Monday, then a return bout against the Jets next Wednesday.

Of Note: Injured Maple Leafs forwards Andreas Johnsson (leg) and Trevor Moore (shoulder) were both wearing non-contact sweaters but participated in Saturday’s morning skate.

Willie wins in Winnipeg

William Nylander's scoring touch is being appreciated by his Toronto Maple Leafs teammates and head coach.

Nylander had two goals an assist as the Leafs extended their point streak to nine games with a 6-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.

"He's finding open spots, the puck is coming to him and he's not missing," said Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who also scored. "So that's big for our team, it helps us a lot. He's a big part of this team so it's good for everyone."

Nylander has at least one goal in each of his past five games. His five-game point streak includes six goals and five assists.

Kasperi Kapanen had a goal and assist for Toronto and Travis Dermott and Pierre Engvall and also scored for the Leafs (23-14-5), who are 8-0-1 during their point streak. Alexander Kerfoot picked up a pair of assists.
Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele each had a goal and an assist for Winnipeg (22-16-3). Patrik Laine also scored.
"We just made a couple of mistakes that cost us a couple of goals, but other than that I think we had some really good chances, put up a lot of shots so we could easily had a couple more but three wasn't enough tonight," Laine said.

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 12-of-17 shots for the Jets before being replaced by Laurent Brossoit, who made 10 saves on 11 shots in the third period.
The Jets have one win in their last five games (1-3-1) and have lost their past five games at Bell MTS Place (0-4-1).

Frederik Andersen stopped 45 shots for the Leafs, who scored three goals on nine shots in the second period and heard plenty of cheers from Toronto fans in the stands.
The Leafs led 2-0 after the first period, but the teams combined for six goals in the middle frame and Toronto came out of it with the 5-3 lead.

Nylander scored his 18th of the season at 3:24 of the first period.
"His linemates have been good around him and he's been making plays to them and they've been making plays to him," Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Nylander. "He's putting himself in good spots.
"He's feeling it and he's making good on his chances. It's been fun to watch him here."

Jets defenceman Luca Sbisa couldn't control the puck inside Winnipeg's blue line and Kapanen was right there to scoop it up and score on Hellebuyck at the nine-minute mark of the first.
Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice said giveaways played a role the Jets loss.
"I think after two [periods] we're at 12 [giveaways], they're at 11," Maurice said. "Whether you trust that stat or not, we forced them into a bunch, they forced us into a bunch. They made more of what we gave them."
Winnipeg went on the power play early in the second after Leafs forward Jason Spezza was sent off for delay of game.

Connor used the man advantage to record his team-leading 21st goal of the season with a wrist shot on Andersen's stick side at 3:45. Connor has seven goals in his past five games.
Laine tied it 2-2 at 7:44 with a sharp-angled shot from near the goal line. He has four goals and three assists in his past six games.

The Leafs were being outshot 12-0 in the period after Laine notched his 15th goal of the season, but they capitalized on their first two shots of the frame.
Dermott poked in a loose puck in the crease at 9:02 and Engvall scored 35 seconds later to make it 4-2.
Scheifele notched his 19th goal of the season at 12:48 to squeeze the score, but Marner fired a one-timer on the power play and the puck bounced off Hellebuyck's arm into the net to restore Toronto's two-goal lead.
Shots on goal after the second were 37-17 in Winnipeg's favour.
"We were being sloppy and giving them a lot of easy entries into our zone and easy shots, so once they caught up there we kind of knew what we had to do and I think we came out and played well in the third," Nylander said.

 Nylander scored his second goal of the game at 8:45 when he beat Brossoit from the side of the net.

Leafs at the half

The Maple Leafs’ season is halfway done.
Without further ado, let’s hand out some awards!

Best newcomer: Ilya Mikheyev

Almost two weeks after dropping Game 7 to the Bruins last spring, the Leafs plucked a little-known winger from the KHL and signed him to a one-year, entry-level deal.
It looks like arguably their finest strike of the offseason.
Whatever expectations Kyle Dubas and company might have had back then for the Russian — a potential replacement for Patrick Marleau at left wing? — were surely surpassed in the first half of the season.
In 39 games, Mikheyev showed he could do a little bit of everything: score some; chug up and down the ice with surprising speed; put his 6-foot-3, 195-pound frame to work retrieving pucks; disrupt power plays; and be a nuisance to play against, with a certain sticktoitiveness.

Mikheyev dipped a little in November but came on strong after that, even looking like a top-6 winger before an artery and tendons in his right wrist were scarily severed last week in New Jersey. Mikheyev was sitting fourth in the rookie scoring race at the time of the injury and first in even-strength points and shots. He was top-40 league-wide in 5-on-5 points, with the same number as players like Kyle Connor, Brayden Point, and Mark Stone.
His per-60 minute 5-on-5 production wasn’t far off from Mitch Marner.
The 25-year-old found a snug fit on just about every line he joined, particularly with John Tavares. The Leafs’ captain managed more shots, scoring chances and high-danger shot attempts per 60 when he played with Mikheyev than he did with the team’s top left winger, Zach Hyman.
All this amounts to a huge win for the Leafs.
Hitting a home run on a player like Mikheyev — an undrafted free agent — is hugely important to any team, but especially one living in Capmaggedon like the Leafs. They essentially nabbed a top-9 winger, who was on pace for 17 goals and 48 points before the injury, for almost nothing. It’s how they can survive paying all that money to their stars — by finding talent in unusual places (as well as usual places, like the draft) on the cheap.
Where it gets tricky with Mikheyev: He’s a restricted free agent this summer and will cost a lot more than $925,000 on the cap next season. How much more? Well, not having him around now for most, if not all, of the remaining regular season, might just keep the price down — although the team surely would prefer him being around to chase a playoff spot.
Mikheyev was a real darkhorse for this (most prestigious, imaginary) award coming into the year. The Colorado newcomers, Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot, had much stronger odds, and while Barrie has surged offensively since the coaching change, Kerfoot (as we’ll discuss later) is still finding his way.
Neither has had the consistent impact that Mikheyev had before getting hurt.
Jason Spezza and Pierre Engvall, meanwhile, get shout-outs for their contributions in supporting roles.

Most intriguing player: William Nylander

This is why, if you were Dubas last fall, you resist the urge to trade Nylander during the months-long contract squabble. And why, even when a $6.9 million cap hit looks a little pricey at the time, you get it done anyway.
You do it hoping you get something like this.
Nylander has resembled a more tantalizing, consistent version of the player who notched 61 points in each of his first two seasons, as a 20- and 21-year-old. He has real 30-goal potential for the first time this season for one thing, and while there’s a slight shooting percentage bump happening here (15 percent), it’s not so outrageously out of line for someone with a shot like Nylander. As Auston Matthews and other teammates like to crack, he’s hitting the net more these days, too, and firing from more opportune areas.
What also has helped the 23-year-old is locking down a spot on the Leafs’ No. 1 power-play unit.
Nylander didn’t get there until Marner hurt his ankle in mid-November, but Sheldon Keefe made it permanent even after Marner returned. Nylander has played a big part in helping the unit grow more unpredictable and dangerous with that wicked shot, passing ability and vision. He’s fourth on the team with 10 points.
That has been a factor in Nylander landing almost 18 minutes per game, a potential career-high.
Why most intriguing?
Because we’re seeing Nylander scratch even more of the surface than he did before. We have a pretty good idea by now of what Matthews is. Same thing with Marner. But the ceiling doesn’t feel established yet with Nylander.
We’re getting closer to figuring it out this season, and it’s looking well, most intriguing.
Some of that comes down to Nylander making considerable strides with consistency this year. He briefly slowed down in mid-December before heating back up again here recently — not with Matthews, interestingly enough, but Tavares.
Nylander is a top-40 scorer in the league right now (top-30 at even-strength) and on pace for 34 goals and 70 points.

Most surprising performance: Justin Holl

Could even Dubas, the biggest Holl booster around, have imagined that by midseason Holl would be soaking up 20 minutes most nights effectively (53 percent expected goals) in the Leafs’ top-4? Could he have imagined signing Holl to a three-year extension, with a $2 million a year cap hit, on Dec. 31? Just before Holl played his 52nd career NHL game?
Probably not.

What a year it has been for the 27-year-old, an out-of-nowhere half-season that has seen him leap from healthy scratch in 87 percent of the Leafs’ regular-season games last season, passed over for minutes by Nikita Zaitsev and Igor Ozhiganov, to one of the most stable elements of the Leafs’ defence.
Holl wasn’t even in the lineup on opening night.
The guy who forever struggled to earn the trust of former Leafs coach Mike Babcock is now checking top lines, killing penalties and even driving the bus on the rush more often now that Keefe is running the bench.
It’s the most unlikely of stories.
Holl was coming out of the ECHL not all that long ago, just trying to scratch out a spot under Keefe with the Marlies in the fall of 2015. Now, Holl is under contract longer than any defenceman on the roster.

Top defenceman: Morgan Rielly

This was easily the hardest award to give out.
With apologies to Holl, who has surpassed any and all expectations so far, the race came down to Rielly and the now-injured Jake Muzzin.
First instinct was Muzzin. He had been the most sturdy piece of the puzzle on the Leafs’ defence before he broke his foot last week, the wiliest defender, including on the penalty kill. He was boxing with top lines in recent weeks and bests Rielly in underlying defensive categories like shots against, scoring chances against, shot attempts against and expected goals against per 60 minutes through half a season. The Leafs don’t have anyone on the back-end with his combination of subtle defensive brilliance and veteran know-how.

Rielly’s season, on the other hand, feels like a disappointment so far. But I’m wondering if he’s being judged too harshly against last season when he potted a wild 20 goals and 72 points and finished in the Norris Trophy race, as well as some Jake Gardiner-esque decisions, which have occasionally blown up.
Would we look at his season differently if he was scoring individually like he did a year ago? Rielly is firing about the same number of shots on average as last year, but shooting an Arctic-like 2.7 percent. Last season, that number was a sizzling nine percent.
Rielly landed 10 shots on goal last week against the Rangers and didn’t score on any of them. He has gone 29 straight games without a goal.
Still, he remains on pace for about six goals and 50 points — despite falling off the top power-play unit when Keefe took over — or about the production he managed the year before his big breakout. He has mustered 1.10 assists per 60 minutes 5-on-5, about on par with last season’s mark (1.12). He still has more power-play points than Barrie and about double Muzzin’s overall production.
The Leafs aren’t destroying teams like they did when he was on the ice last year. Consider that at 5-on-5 last season, the Leafs outscored foes by 31 goals(!) when Rielly was out there, 99-68.
This year, that number through 41 games: 38-33.
Some of the shooting dropoff is proper regression. Some of it seems tied to Rielly taking a less forceful role in the offence. We haven’t seen nearly as many of the end-to-end rushes that made his season last year pop so forcefully, although he has been coming on a bit that way lately.
Was he limited by injury? Almost certainly. Was the apparent slowdown also because of who he has been partnered with this season? That’s probably an important part of the story, too. Last season, Rielly had the stable genius that is Ron Hainsey at his side. There was no worrying about what knows-where-to-stand Hainsey would do. He was predictable and safe, which made life easier for Rielly to make plays and defend.

Safe or dangerous?

Cody Ceci clearly leans more to the latter, and for a quarter of the season, Rielly lugged Ceci around against top lines, and while it often wasn’t pretty, the Leafs still came out ahead (17-16) on the overall tally, with an expected goals tepidly around 50 percent.
Of late, it has been Barrie at Rielly’s side, a big-time improvement in ability over Ceci but also an unpredictable force who likes to attack the same way that Rielly does.
A perennial Lady Byng candidate before this season, Rielly has taken 11 penalties already this season. Know who has taken more? Muzzin, with 16.
Ultimately, even 75 percent of Rielly tops a solid Muzzin half-season and some unlikely dependability from Holl. Rielly remains the chief of the Toronto breakout, plays more minutes — a career-best of more than 24 per game — than anyone on the team in all situations, and might be viewed differently right now if a few more of his 110 shots had found twine.
He’s one hot streak away from returning to top-10 scoring status among NHL d-men; he’s hovering around the top-20 right now.

Most disappointing performance: Alex Kerfoot

If Rielly not meeting last year’s high bar leaves you wanting more, he might be your guy here. Twenty games ago, this would have been Barrie. And there’s an argument to be made that Kasperi Kapanen, despite being on pace for almost exactly last season’s production, has disappointed a bit so far, especially after the Leafs gave him a three-year contract last summer. Travis Dermott, too, is still finding his way.
But while he has largely slipped under the radar so far, Kerfoot gets the nod as most disappointing through 41 games. He’s yet to give the Leafs a near-facsimile of Nazem Kadri, who he’s replacing this season following a Canada Day swap that landed Kadri in Colorado and Kerfoot and Barrie in Toronto. And that was part of the thinking behind the trade: The Leafs would upgrade their blueline and replace Kadri with a younger, cheaper model in Kerfoot, whom they signed to a four-year deal with an annual $3.5 million cap hit.
It just hasn’t happened yet.
The 25-year-old hasn’t delivered the same punch from lower in the lineup as Kadri might have. His apparent creativity and passing ability haven’t translated yet into much offence for himself or those who surround him (although some of the underlying numbers — scoring chances, expected goals, high-danger shot attempts — look a little stronger). He scored for only the second time in 20 games in the Leafs New Year’s Eve bash in Minnesota and has only one more 5-on-5 assist than Dmytro Timashov all season.
Kerfoot has won under 46 percent of his faceoffs this year, meanwhile, including 41 percent in the defensive zone. It’s not a slam-dunk either that he ends up at centre. Of late, with a rash of injuries up front, the Leafs have moved him to wing where he has found some comfort with Nylander and Tavares. Kerfoot presumably will end up back in the middle once Andreas Johnsson returns from injury, but if not, the Leafs will have a big question mark in the third centre spot (Engvall? Spezza?).
All that said, Kerfoot isn’t all that far off from putting up the same kind of numbers — 17 goals and 42.5 points on average — he did in his first two NHL seasons with the Avalanche. He’s on pace for 15 goals and 32 points. His 5-on-5 production actually exceeds last season (1.6 points per 60 minutes versus 1.4) but still falls well below what Kadri is producing this season for Colorado (2.2) and even last season (1.8) for the Leafs.
Another culprit: the power play, where Kerfoot and the second unit troop are largely forgotten. He had 16 power-play points for the Avalanche last year but only three to this point for the Leafs.
To truly make the offseason trade worthwhile, the Leafs need Kerfoot to ascend a little higher in the second half. It’s worth recalling that this is only his third NHL season. In other words, he’s still figuring things out and has plenty of runway to get far away from this conversation by the time the season comes to an end.

Top forward: Auston Matthews

This one is easy, and that’s sort of surprising.
Heading into the season, one would imagine the race for top Leafs forward at the midway mark to be the most challenging. But because Marner and Tavares were a bit out of sorts to start the season, and because Matthews has been a goal-scoring machine all year, it’s a runaway win for the 22-year-old centre.
He’s already around the corner from hitting 30 goals for the fourth time in as many NHL seasons, now with 27 goals after scoring for the 11th time in 11 games against the Wild on Tuesday night.
Matthews trails only David Pastrnak in the Rocket Richard race and leads the league with 18 5-on-5 markers and seven multi-goal games. The Leafs are 13-2-4 when he scores.
He has added a one-timer to his scoring arsenal this season and believes he has another gear to reach still on the power play; he’s just outside the top-5 league-wide with seven such markers.
He’s shooting pretty wickedly at 18 percent, but that doesn’t feel unsustainable for a shooter like him — and in fact, Matthews shot 18 percent as a sophomore when he popped 34 in 62 games.
He’s on pace to become only the fourth player in Leafs history to score 50 goals, potentially joining Dave Andreychuk, Rick Vaive and Gary Leeman.
If Matthews keeps rolling along like this, either in tandem with Marner or back with Nylander, and the Leafs keep winning games, Matthews will find himself in the Hart Trophy conversation for the first time, joining the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Pastrnak, Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Eichel.
His case gets more convincing by the day.

Most valuable player: Frederik Andersen

This race has tightened up in recent weeks with Matthews continuing to score like crazy and Andersen suddenly struggling, if looking sharp in a win over the Wild.
Andersen gets the slight nod primarily because of how important he is to the Leafs — how wide the gap is, in short, between him and his backup, Michael Hutchinson.


Arguably, the most impactful move Lou Lamoriello made during his three seasons running the Leafs was trading for and then signing Andersen to a five-year deal (which has one year remaining after this one). Andersen’s $5 million cap hit ranks 15th at his position this season. It’s the same clip that Lamoriello’s Islanders are paying Semyon Varlamov this season for part-time work and that the Blackhawks are paying Robin Lehner, also for part-time work.
Consider that the Panthers are giving double that to Sergei Bobrovsky ($10 million), as are the Canadiens to Carey Price ($10.5).
Matthews may end up grabbing this title by the time the year’s done. Fifty goals probably top another dependable .918 save percentage season from Andersen.
But given what Andersen’s nightly dependability, under one of the league’s heaviest workloads, means to the Leafs, maybe not.

 Well, I have been writing this damn blog since 7:30 this mornng, i guess it's time to get some breakfast. And a coffee wouldn't hurt either.

It is a new decade and I predict a Leafs Cup win, just not saying which year.