The Good, Bad, & the Ugly In Maple Leafs 4-2 Win Over Arizona

By Stan Smith

After seeing their seven-game winning streak end on Tuesday night when they lost 7-3 to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, the Maple Leafs got back in the win column with a 4-2 home victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of that game?

The Good

William Nylander

William Nylander was involved in three of the Maple Leafs’ four goals in the game. He assisted on both Tyler Bertuzzi’s and Auston Matthews’ goals in the second period. He also scored an empty netter to seal the deal with a minute left in the game. Nylander becomes the first Toronto player to hit 80 points this season and the fastest player to 82 points since Doug Gilmour in the 1992-93 season.

Nylander has played 59 games this season. It took Gilmour 56 games to reach that mark. In looking back at Gilmour’s season, he had a six-assist night on February 13, 1993, against the Minnesota North Stars to give him 84 points in his 56th game. Gilmour went on to score a franchise-record 127 points that season.

Nylander is on pace to score 114 points this season. If he did, it would place him third in the most points for a single season in franchise history after Gilmour’s 127 and Darryl Sittler’s 117-point season in 1977-78. Nylander sits tied for fifth place in NHL scoring with Artemi Parnarin of the New York Rangers.

With more than 20 games remaining, Nylander has already set a personal milestone for assists in a season. The two helpers he picked up in this game give him 50 on the season. It is the first time Nylander has hit the 50-assist mark in his career.

Mitch Marner

Speaking of 50 assists, Mitch Marner became the first Maple Leafs player to hit that mark this season earlier in the game when he made what has become a patented move for him. He broke in on a partial breakaway on Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram. However, instead of shooting, he dropped the puck right onto the stick of Matthew Knies. That move gave Knies a tap-in for his eleventh goal of the season.

It’s the fifth time Marner has hit the 50-assist mark in his career. The only player to have more 50-assist seasons for the Maple Leafs was Sittler, who had six. Marner would have tied that record this season if not for the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season when he had 47 assists in 55 games.

For the last half of the game, Marner played the majority of his shifts on defence. The Maple Leafs lost Mark Giordano early in this game (more about that later). Then Jake McCabe seemed to injure himself. McCabe stayed in the game and led everyone in ice time with 24:57. However, he did miss a couple of shifts. Both of those incidents most likely played a role in Marner dropping back.

Tyler Bertuzzi

Tyler Bertuzzi scored in his third straight game when he tipped a William Lagesson point shot past Ingram in the second period. After taking 51 games to score his first six goals this season, Bertuzzi now has six goals in his last seven games and five goals in his last three games.

Auston Matthews

After failing to score in his past two games, Matthews potted his league-leading 53rd goal of the season in the second period. He’s on a 74-goal pace for the season. He’s also on pace to score 109 points, which would be a personal best.

Joseph Woll

Perhaps the best news of this game was that Joseph Woll played his first NHL game since December 7th of last year. That was 84 days ago. Woll didn’t seem to miss a beat, stopping 30 of 32 shots (a 0.938 Save Percentage). He was key to the Maple Leafs weathering a strong push by Arizona in the last 25 minutes of the game. Woll raised his season record to 9-5-1 with a 2.75 GAA and a save percentage of .918.

As well as Ilya Samsonov has played of late and as miraculous as Samsonov’s comeback has been, the Maple Leafs look a lot stronger between the pipes with a healthy Woll back.

Sheldon Keefe

With all the flack he seems to get from fans and the constant negative talk he gets on social media, Sheldon Keefe became the fastest coach in Toronto Maple Leafs history to win 200 games. It’s a record that isn’t even close. Keefe recorded his 200th win in his 326th game behind the bench. That’s 57 games faster than the previous record holder, Pat Quinn, who took 383 games to record his 200th win.

Ryan Reaves

I feel a need to mention Ryan Reaves here. After being a healthy scratch for the latter half of December and all but one game in January, Reaves has dressed for ten of the twelve games the Maple Leafs played in February. Keefe praised him after this game for his play in that period.

Reaves did what Reaves does best in this game. Late in the first period with the score 1-0 Toronto, Reaves rubbed out Coyotes’ defenseman Juuso Valimaki along the boards behind the Arizona goal. On the ensuing faceoff, he was challenged by tough guy Liam O’Brien to a fight. Reaves dropped the gloves and then quickly dropped O’Brien.

It is the second time O’Brien has challenged Reaves to a fight and both times Reaves has come out on top both literally and metaphorically speaking. During the first intermission, they showed the reaction of Matthews, Tavares, and Marner on the bench to the fight. It demonstrated the appreciation they have for what Reaves does.

The Bad

With the Maple Leafs cruising along leading 3-0 in the second period, they were awarded what would be the game’s only power play. What looked like an opportunity to add to their lead changed the contest’s outlook. A turnover by Marner and a lost race to the puck by Morgan Rielly sent former Maple Leaf Alex Kerfoot in alone on a breakaway. Kerfoot beat Woll glove-side to put the Coyotes on the board 3-1.

That goal changed the tone of the game completely. In the first 34 ½ minutes of the game, Toronto had been solid defensively limiting Arizona to just 14 shots on net to that point while directing 20 of their own at the Coyotes’ goal. The shorthanded goal by Kerfoot put the Maple Leafs on their heels and gave the Coyotes momentum they would carry for the rest of the second period and the first 19 minutes of the third. From that point on the Coyotes outshot Toronto 18 to 6. According to Naturalstattrick.com, the Scoring Chances in the third period were 11-2 Coyotes and the High-Danger Scoring Chances in the third were 6-0 Arizona.

The Ugly

It seems the Maple Leafs are always dealing with something on defence. They already had the newly acquired John Klingberg on LTIR, Conor Timmins on IR, and Timothy Liljegren out day-to-day. They then lost Mark Giordano midway through the first period when he fell into the boards head-first behind the Coyotes’ net after getting an excellent scoring chance. He stayed down, was helped off the ice, and did not return. Keefe stated after the game the extent of Giordano’s injury was not yet known. However, he did specifically say it was a head injury which usually means a concussion. We will have to wait and see.

Help Is On The Way

Not long after the Arizona game ended, the Maple Leafs announced they had re-acquired righthanded defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin from the Anaheim Ducks. Interestingly enough, the Carolina Hurricanes were involved in the deal. It is reported that Toronto sent a 2025 third-round pick to Anaheim and a 2024 six-round pick to Carolina. In return, the Ducks retained half of the remaining year of Lyubushkin’s $2.75 million salary, and the Hurricanes retained half of Lyubushkin’s remaining salary. That left the Maple Leafs with a cap hit of just $687,500 for Lyubushkin.

Toronto also gets the rights to unsigned prospect Kirill Slepets from the Hurricane. The 5-foot-10 and 165-pound 24-year-old Slepets was a fifth-round pick by Carolina in the 2019 Entry Draft. The left winger is a Russian native presently playing in the KHL. He has eight goals and 19 points in 53 games this season.

What’s Next?

The Maple Leafs take on the red-hot New York Rangers on Saturday night. The Rangers had a ten-game winning streak end last Sunday when they lost 4-2 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Then the Rangers defeated the Blue Jackets 4-1 on Wednesday night to give them eleven wins in their last twelve games. The Maple Leafs and the Rangers have split their first two meetings this season. Toronto won 7-3 in New York and the Rangers beat the Maple Leafs 5-2 in Toronto.

Next week could be a huge week for the Maple Leafs. They play three games in four nights including two against the Boston Bruins. They take on the Bruins at home on Monday night. The team then hosts the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night before travelling to Boston on Thursday night.

Toronto trails the Bruins by eight points in the Atlantic Division and has two games in hand over Boston. The Atlantic Division could look vastly different if the Maple Leafs could knock off the Bruins twice this week.

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