The Good, Bad, & Ugly in Maple Leafs 4-3 Win Over the Flames

By Stan Smith

The Toronto Maple Leafs ended their four-game losing skid with a hard-fought nail-biting 4-3 win in Calgary on Thursday night.

The Good

Auston Matthews

The title of this post could have read “Auston Matthews’ 4-3 Win In Calgary.” He was instrumental in all four Toronto goals, scoring his fourth hat trick of the season and assisting on the other goal.

When a team is down, this is exactly what you need from your best player: to have him put the team on his back and carry them to victory. It is one of the reasons Matthews has won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player and will probably win it again at some point in his career.

It was two games ago that we were talking about Mitch Marner being the fastest player in Maple Leafs’ history to score 600 points. Then we acknowledged that the record would not last long as Matthews was just ten points away with 26 fewer games played than Marner’s 548. In the two games since Matthews has scored four goals and added two assists to move to within just four points of the 600-point plateau. It’s amazing when you think Marner broke a 40-year-old record and he will have it for about a week before it is broken again.

Matthews now has 37 goals in 42 games played and has 23 goals in his last 21 games. He is four goals up on Florida’s Sam Reinhart in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy. Matthews is on pace to become the first 70-goal scorer in the NHL in 30 years.

Martin Jones

While Martin Jones was the least busy of the two goalies on Thursday night and his numbers for the game weren’t great, 23 saves on 26 shots for a 0.885 Save Percentage and a Goals-Against-Average of just over three, he made some big saves in key moments of the game. He also raised his record to 9-5-1 on the season. Jones is now seventh in the NHL for Save Percentage (0.920%) and Goals Against Average (2.40) amongst goalies with 15 or more starts. Not bad for a goalie who cleared waivers and started the season in the AHL.

William Nylander

After going pointless in his last four games, William Nylander picked up two primary assists in this game to raise his point total to 59 points in 43 games. Despite his recent drought, Nylander is still just two points out of fourth place in NHL scoring this season with one or two games in hand over the players just above him in the standings. Nylander is on pace to score 112 points, 25 points higher than his previous best season.

John Bean and Sam Kim

The hockey gods taketh and they giveth. Late in the second period, the Flames had their third goal waved off by the referee when it was originally ruled that Andrew Mangiapane kicked the puck into the Toronto net. After a video review, that ruling was overturned when it was determined Timothy Liljegren’s stick made contact with the puck before it completely crossed the goal line.

In the third period, it appeared that the Flames had tied the game at four. Connor Zary knocked in his own rebound after taking a shot and circling behind the net. At first, there did not appear to be anything illegal about the goal. But, it was obvious on the bench that someone in the video room picked up something.

After a bit of a delay, head coach Sheldon Keefe was forced to call a time-out. The video team figured something out. It turned out the video team of John Bean and Sam Kim caught a potential hand pass by Blake Coleman after Tyler Bertuzzi tried to clear the puck out of the Toronto zone. What tied things up so long was determining whether or not the puck made contact with John Tavares’ stick after it came off of Coleman’s glove. In the end, it was ruled it did not hit Tavares, and the goal was disallowed.

That was a huge break for the Maple Leafs. It could have spelled disaster for them if the call had gone the other way.

Gritty Team Performance

The Maple Leafs reversed the recent script in this game. Instead of building a lead and then losing it, Toronto started slow in this game, going down 2-0. They then scored four straight goals to go up 4-2. After giving up a goal late in the second period, they played a strong third period. They outshot the Flames 9-5 and out-chancing them 11-2.

Following the Oilers’ game, both Keefe and Marner tried to make it seem like everything was just peachy-keen. However, the team had multiple blown leads and a losing streak. You could see by the way the players acted on the ice and on the bench that not blowing another lead and having the losing streak extend to five games was crucial to the players. Saying they dug down deep to pull this one out while being a cliche, was indeed the case.

The Bad

As I said, the Maple Leafs reversed the script in this game. Whereas they came out gangbusters in the previous four games, the Flames dominated the first period in this game. Toronto were out-chanced 11-4 and outscored 2-0 in the first period. The first Calgary goal was on a nice deflection by Yegor Sharangovich of a Rasmus Andersson shot. The second goal was off of a whiffed one-timer by Nazem Kadri that was going about six feet wide of the net. However, it bounced off of Mark Giordano’s skate and between Jones’ legs into the net. That goal was pure bad luck for the Maple Leafs.

Calgary’s third goal was also more bad luck. The puck just barely made contact with Liljegren’s stick before crossing the line. Otherwise, it would have been ruled no goal.

The Ugly

Late in the first period, Flames forward Martin Pospisil comes roaring back into the Calgary zone and skates at Matthews. He was attempting to stop Matthews from making a play with the puck. As Pospisil approaches Matthews, Matthews fires the puck at the net from a sharp angle to the right of Flames’ goalie Dan Vadar. Pospisil turns to deliver a hip-check to Matthews which Matthews avoids by turning away from Pospisil. He makes contact with Matthews’ skate and falls hard into the boards backward making contact with his head and shoulders. Pospisil stays down in obvious pain and is attended to by the Calgary trainer. He eventually skates off the ice while being supported by two teammates and goes right to the locker room. Flames’ head coach Ryan Huska did not have an update on Pospisil’s health following the game.

What’s Next?

The Maple Leafs head further West to take on the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night and then cross the border to take on the Seattle Kraken on Sunday. The Canucks have won six of their last seven games and as of Friday morning are in first place overall in the NHL with 64 points. Seattle are three points out of a playoff spot and have lost their last three games in a row after winning their previous nine games. The Kraken will be well rested and ready on Sunday having played their previous game on Thursday.

Keefe indicated that Ilya Samsonov will get one of the starts this weekend. I would guess it would be in Seattle on Sunday.

With the win over Calgary on Thursday night the Maple Leafs moved back into third place in the Atlantic Division one point ahead of the Detroit Red Wings and the Tampa Bay Lightning. I have to think a split this weekend would be a suitable outcome.

Old Prof Hockey

Random Thoughts About The NHL from an Old Prof