Marner Nets Late Game Winner

 

Photo From TSN

Well, I’m finally back to talk about the Leafs with my first article of the new year after dealing with an absolutely brutal flu. My last article was after the Leafs overtime win in St Louis. A lot has happened in the last week or so while I was down for the count, the Leafs would close out 2022 losing in Arizona but beating the defending Stanley Cup champs in Colorado but then two start the new year Toronto would lose in a shootout to the Blues and then lose to the red hot Seattle Kraken sending the Leaf fanbase into full blown panic mode. However, things seem to be back on track as the Leafs would rebound with wins over Detroit and the struggling Flyers in Philadelphia and last night the Toronto Maple Leafs would be looking for their 3^rd straight win as they hosted the Nashville Predators. Matt Murray who was credited with the win in Philadelphia would once again be in goal for Toronto and for the visiting Preds Juuse Saros would get the start and in his last few starts Saros had managed a save percentage of over 97% so everyone knew it wasn’t going to be an easy night for Toronto. There would be some bad news for the Leafs as Auston Matthews would miss last nights game with an “undisclosed ailment” but its thought to be very minor and defender TJ Brodie would miss at least a week with what is believed to be a rib injury, so in their place would be Connor Timmins and forward Bobby McMann making his NHL debut after being called up from the Toronto Marlies.  

The first period would start and we would see both teams trade breakaways as first Nashville would come in on an odd man rush and Matt Murray would take a page from the Dominik Hasek book of goaltending and make a save with his back to the play keeping the visitors from opening the scoring. A few minutes later Michael Bunting would send William Nylander in on his breakaway and with Nylander looking to end his three game pointless streak Saros would make a great pad save turning Nylander aside.

In all honesty though the Leafs played a great first period as they were the team controlling the play and they would manage a total 15 shots in the first period with many high quality opportunities but Saros would turn the majority of the Leafs attempts aside. Late in the opening period when it looked as if the teams would head to the intermission scoreless John Tavares and the Leafs had other plans. Nashville would attempt an attack on the Leafs but a turnover in the neutral zone would see Timothy Liljegren send William Nylander into the Predators zone, Nylander would center a pass to John Tavares whose backhand shot would beat Saros giving the Leafs the deserved 1-0 lead. This goal would be the 11^th first period goal this season and his 20^th goal of the season, Tavares has now reached the 20-goal mark for the 13^th season in his career putting him in 2^nd for most 20 goal seasons in a career he’s behind Alex Ovechkin who has done it 14 times. The Leafs would then lead this contest 1-0 after twenty minutes of play.

 The second period would see the Leafs run into some trouble, with the Leafs stuck in their own end Justin Holl’s attempted clearance would wind up in the left corner. The Preds would gain control and the puck would eventually make its way to Filip Forsberg and he would show off his great hands when he slid the puck around Murray for his 17^th goal of the season leveling this game at one. After giving up the goal Toronto would hit the reset button and get right back to work searching for the lead but Saros would continue to frustrate the Leafs as he continued to make many great saves. Unfortunately the Leafs were unable to find the back of the net for their second goal and the same can be said for Nashville because Matt Murray was just as good in net for Toronto and he seems to have put the 5-1 loss to Seattle well behind him but the second intermission would arrive with the game still deadlocked at ones.

The final twenty minutes of regulation would see the officials for some reason have trouble seeing the play because halfway through the final period Nashville’s Nino Niederreiter would collide with David Kampf who never had the puck but the worst thing about the hit on Kampf was that it was a blind side hit to the head of Kampf. Now, I understand the game is fast and referees aren’t going to catch every single thing that happens on the ice but you have four men in striped jersey’s on the ice and somehow not one official happened to see the collision so Nino would get away with a dangerous hit avoiding a penalty for his team. Kampf would have to spend some time being evaluated by the concussion specialist but thankfully he would return. This wouldn’t be the only time the referees missed a clear as day penalty because with just over four minutes remaining Morgan Rielly would get a stick in the face. With the play stopped Morgan would look to the official who was standing right beside the puck watching the play, and with blood coming out of the nose of Rielly the referee told him “I didn’t see it”. So, he was watching the play the entire time saw Rielly fall to the ice after a high stick but claimed he didn’t see it. Thankfully for the officials there was a conference and Nashville ended up serving a double minor. I have said it so many times since starting this blog but the NHL needs to add an official upstairs who can stop the play when a serious infraction goes uncalled. So, last night if there was an official upstairs then the blindside hit on Kampf would have surely been called and we would avoid these conferences with the referees because trust me if Morgan Rielly didn’t have blood running from his nose a high sticking penalty would not have been given out. Thankfully the referee furthest from the play awarded the Leafs a double minor and the Leafs would have a massive opportunity to put the game away with a powerplay goal.

Toronto would have a total of five powerplays in this game and the first four would come and go with the Leafs mounting little to no pressure on their opportunity. While watching the game I noticed fans criticizing the team and their play with the man advantage. Those fans are failing to remember one thing. Nashville’s penalty killing his practically the best in the league. The other night Nashville played Ottawa who has the third best powerplay in the NHL and Nashville managed to survive all five Senators powerplays. On the double minor the Leafs would come through on the man advantage when the Leafs needed it the most. The Leafs would have the puck behind the Nashville goal and Tavares would throw a pass out to William Nylander, Saros knowing Willy is a threat to shoot would aggressively try and cut the angle down, but Nylander would instead pass to Mitch Marner and Juuse Saros would be well out of position meaning Marner would score his 16^th goal of the season on what is seemingly an wide open net.   

Mitch Marner has had a record breaking season as we know because earlier he set a new franchise record point streak, well with this powerplay goal he would score a point in his 18^th consecutive home game with a point matching Darryl Sittler who set the record in the 77-78 season. The final minute of regulation would expire, and Toronto would come away with a hard fought 2-1 win. Toronto is now heading onto the road as they now head to Detroit to take on the Red Wings Thursday for the first game of their dads trip.

Before I finish this one up I want to give a stick tap to Shane Wright and Connor Bedard who help lead Canada to winning the 2023 World Junior Championships the programs 20^th title all time and also a stick tap goes to Canada’s U18 Women’s team who finished first in their group thanks to wins over Finland, host Sweden, and their longtime rivals the Americans and they now have two days off to prepare for the Semifinals.

Thanks as always for reading.