Slugging from behind the entire evening, and balanced on the usual mid-season fan revolt, the Toronto Maple Leafs won their first game in more than a week on Thursday. William Nylander scored the overtime goal that put away the New Jersey Devils, led by former Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe.
Devils coach Sheldon Keefe was back at Scotiabank Arena as a visitor for the first time since being fired by the Maple Leafs in the spring. Nylander added an assist, Auston Matthews also had two goals and Joseph Woll stopped 21 shots. Mitch Marner and Jake ...
The Maple Leafs captain is scoring all the time again, but is he back to peak Matthews? Also, what's behind Rielly's struggles?
The Devils have only lost twice this season when leading after two periods (21-0-2). And both of those losses are to the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime, including a 4-3 setback at Scotiebank Arena Thursday night.
The hot streak comes at at perfect time for Matthews and the United States. The center, who grew up in Arizona, will join Team United States for the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston from Feb. 12-20 and begin play against Team Finland at Bell Centre on Feb. 13 (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).
The Toronto Maple Leafs honored former head coach Sheldon Keefe during their game against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
William Nylander scored his second goal of the game at 1:10 of overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs battled back from 2-1 and 3-2 deficits in the third period to down the New Jersey Devils 4-3 on Thursday.
It was only three games, this most recent losing skid for the Maple Leafs. And William Nylander made certain the slump wouldn't make it to four.
Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews wasn't particularly happy with what he thought was the lack of excitement from the fans.
Morgan Rielly is used to contributing with the puck on his stick. The Maple Leafs defenceman had a career-high 68 points a couple of years back and chipped in another 58 last season as part of a well-oiled attack.
Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews didn't see the home crowd reaction he would have liked when teammate Ryan Reaves fought Mathieu Olivier on Wednesday night.
For the last several seasons, the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs have been the best Canadian teams in the NHL. The Oilers have had more playoff success out of the two, but have failed to reach their ultimate goal,