Leafs Beat Capitals/Rest Peacefully Mike Bossy

 

Photo From CP24

Well, that Leaf team was more like the one we are used to watching. Last night the Leafs were hosting the Washington Capitals. Toronto was looking to get back into the win column after a brutal effort Tuesday night against Buffalo while Washington heading into this matchup had won the five previous road games and had also been on a four-game win streak heading into this game.

Your starting goalies for the game would be Jack Campbell who was rested Tuesday night and for Washington Ilya Samsonov. The storyline the media and those on the broadcast was the matchup between Auston Matthews and Alex Ovechkin. Alex is currently sitting on 46 goals this season with just four goals needed for his eighth 50 goal season and of course there’s Auston Matthews who is chasing the Leafs and his first ever season scoring 60 goals. From the opening faceoff the Toronto Maple Leafs were the dominant team they literally out played the visiting Capitals in every aspect of the game. Michael Bunting who last night was celebrating a milestone night playing in his 100^th career game was looking to snap a 19-game streak without a goal, and just four and a half minutes into the game he would do just that. Auston Matthews would win the puck along the boards and send a pass between his skates to Mitch Marner. Now Marner this season has shot the puck more then usual, and teams are now having to respect that Mitch could take a shot on goal instead of passing off, so Samsonov was squaring for a Marner shot but instead Mitch would send a pass over to a wide open Michael Bunting who would send a shot passed the blocker of Samsonov for his 21^st goal of the season giving Toronto the early 1-0 lead. Marner and Matthews would both collect assists leaving Marner nine points away from 100 but Auston Matthews would join Sittler and Gilmour in the 100-point club as his secondary assist would give Matthews the century mark in points and honestly with the season Matthews is having, I think he is a lock for this years Hart Trophy as well as the Rocket Richard Trophy.

With the Leafs leading they would continue pressing for offense but midway through the first Washington would head to the powerplay as Kerfoot would serve a hooking minor. As we’ve seen though Toronto when a man down is very dangerous and their penalty kill who leads the league with 13 goals collected a few chances, but Samsonov would shut the door, and Toronto would end up killing the penalty off and their lead would remain intact. The Leafs would double their lead as Pierre Engvall would send Nylander on a breakaway with a great stretch pass and Willy would wire a slap shot into the back of the net for his 29^th goal of the season. Nylander after the Buffalo game received a fair amount of criticism and honestly it was deserved but last night, he had a great game from start to finish.

With a little under five minutes left in the opening period there would be a little controversy, Washington’s Tom Wilson would collide with Jack Campbell resulting in a goalie interference call. The Leafs and their fans understandably were upset over this feeling a minor penalty wasn’t enough because Wilson does have a reputation of crossing the line, but in my opinion a two-minute minor was enough. When I watched the replay and I have done this a few times you see Wilson get in front of Jake Muzzin you then see Muzzin lean on Wilson directing him towards the Leaf net. Was Muzzin the sole factor for Wilson going into the net? No Wilson is doing his fair share of it but also, you’ll see Jack Campbell put himself in a vulnerable position as he tries to knock the puck away. Doing this causes the collision between Wilson and Campbell. I’m sure fans will read this and think I am absolutely insane, hey I’ve been called worse since starting this blog but, in my opinion, I felt Wilson wasn’t intentionally trying to take Campbell out and I think a minor penalty was enough. I know fans will think Wilson is a jerk and a gutless player for some of the things he has done but I want to remind Leaf fans that we got to watch guys like Tie Domi and Darcy Tucker. We loved when Domi would fight a guy and then wave his hands like he had the championship belt but ignore the fact that Domi also cost the Leafs a chance at the cup by elbowing Niedermeyer for no reason waking a sleeping Devils team up in the process. We loved when Tucker tried to fight the entire Ottawa bench or when he threw a low bridge hit against the Islanders in the playoffs taking Mike Peca out of the post season. If the role was reversed however and Tucker did those things against a team, we were cheering for we would absolutely despise him. A prime example of this is Brad Marchand in Boston Leaf fans hate him, but they would love if he was on their team. Tom Wilson is no different yes you can’t stand him now but if was a free agent and Kyle Dubas signed him those same fans would be happy, he’s in a Leaf jersey.

With all of that out of the way Jack Campbell would be fine after the collision and would finish the period and the Leafs would lead by two after the first 20 minutes of action. Period two would be a wild one to say the least. The excitement wouldn’t begin untill halfway through the period though. It would start off with the Leafs unable to clear the zone and John Carlson would come in on goal for Washington, he would catch Muzzin flat footed and end sliding the puck into the Leaf net and with his 15^th goal of the season the Leaf lead would shrink to 2-1. There were a handful of Capitals fans in attendance and as they had sat back down in their seats hoping their team was on the verge of completing the comeback those hopes were completely erased because just sixteen seconds later the Leafs would answer with a goal of their own. The Leafs would enter the zone and John Tavares would drop a pass back to Morgan Rielly who would see his shot turned aside but a big rebound would come to Ilya Lyubushkin who would hammer a slap shot passed Samsonov for his 1^st goal of the season and first as Maple Leaf and the Leafs would now own a 3-1 lead.

Toronto after this would have the Capitals completely under siege with wave after wave of attack. Before Washington could reset from the Lyubushkin goal they would be forced to defend again. William Nylander would take the puck around the net before centering a pass to Rielly who would see his shot once again stopped. A mad scramble would ensue and with Rielly and Tavares digging for the lose puck it would end up sitting on the blocker side of Samsonov and William Nylander would jam in the lose puck for his second of the even and 30^th of the season, with the Leafs now leading 4-1 Washington would make a goalie change and in relief it would be backup goalie Vitek Vanecek. The flood gates would open for the Leafs and the Leafs would welcome Vanecek to the game by peppering him with shots, he made some much-needed saves at first, but it wouldn’t take long for the Leafs to solve him. Four minutes after the Nylander goal Ilya Mikheyev would get in on the scoring fun. Mikheyev would send the puck to Tavares who from behind the net would center a pass to Matthews, his shot would be stopped but the rebound would be chipped in by Mikheyev for his 15^th of the season and the Leafs would now lead 5-1. Matthews after collecting his second assist of the game now has 101 points, with just eight games left in the regular season I think it is highly possible that Matthews matches Doug Gilmour’s point total of 111 from the 93-94 season.

Just minutes later Michael Bunting would collect his second goal of the game and 22^nd of the season as Engvall would steal the puck from Washington’s Trevor Van Riemsdyk and Pierre and Bunting would counterattack with a 2 on 1 rush that would be finished off by Bunting who sent the puck into the roof of the net after a receiving a great pass from Pierre Engvall. With the game well in hand Leaf fans would voice their disproval as public enemy number one Tom Wilson would score his 24^th goal of the season but the Leafs would keep a comfortable lead as the score would be 6-2 after forty minutes.

The final period in this game would see the Leafs cruise to victory but not before scoring their 7^th goal of the game. John Tavares would begin the Leaf attack before sending the puck ahead to Lyubushkin. The man known as the Russian Bear would see Mikheyev skating down the wing, Lyubushkin would send a cross ice pass to Mikheyev who at full speed would beat the Capitals backup with a backhand shot for his second goal of the game and 17^th goal of the season. With Toronto’s advantage now at 5 goals and three Leafs on hat trick watch the team would instead focus on shutting down the game and picking up a valuable two points. Midway through the third Nick Dowd would score his 9^th goal of the season but it wouldn’t matter as Toronto would skate away with the well deserved 7-3 win.

I didn’t mention this earlier but last night Jake Muzzin returned to the lineup meaning Justin Holl would be sitting out, unfortunately as I was writing this the Leafs announced that Muzzin had suffered a setback and will be sitting out this weekends games against Ottawa Saturday and the Islanders on Sunday meaning Holl likely slots back in as Rasmus Sandin is still working his way back from the knee injury he suffered last month.

 

It's unfortunate that I must end this article on a difficult note, but it was announced that New York Islanders legend Mike Bossy had passed away at the age of 65 after a difficult battle with lung cancer. For those who aren’t aware Bossy who was a member of the Islanders dynasty that saw them win four consecutive cups was looked upon as one of the greatest pure goal scorers in the history of the game. His career lasting only ten seasons all with the Islanders ended due to injuries to his knees and back nine of the ten seasons saw Mike score at least 50 goals, his final season in 86-87 saw him score 38 goals in 63 games played. Mike would retire after this season he would be inducted into the hockey hall of fame in 1991 and on March 3^rd, 1992, he would have his number 22 retired by the Islanders.

I understand cancer can be caused by many things but usually lung cancer is caused by smoking so anyone who reads this if you happen to smoke, I know its challenging but please stop there really isn’t any other way to say it.

 

Thanks as always for reading and of course Rest Peacefully Mike Bossy.

Photo From NHL