Kadri Finally Gets First Goal Of The Season In 4-2 Leaf's Victory

Nazem Kadri (above) scored his first goal of the season last night

Despite a little bit of a scare in the third period last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs ended their two game losing skid, defeating the Winnipeg Jets 4-2.

Toronto went ahead 3-0 with a goal in the first period and two in the second period.

Nazem Kadri scored Toronto's third goal.  This is significant because it was Kadri's first goal of season.

Winnipeg made a comeback in the third period with goals by Nikolaj Ehlers and a power play goal by Mark Schiefele.

Kasperi Kapanen and John Tavares were the other goal scorers for Toronto.

Winnipeg's Blake Wheeler had two assists last night.  His teammate, Connor Hellebuyck stopped 35 shots.

Toronto's goalie, Frederik Andersen, stopped 38 shots last night.

Toronto continues the home-and-home series on Saturday night.

Preview: Leafs Verses Jets

Tonight 7 p.m. EDT.

In tonight's matchup, both teams are even.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, however, are on a two game losing streak.

The Leafs are going to try to get back to their winning ways tonight against the Winnipeg Jets.

Hopefully for the Leafs, the three days off have given the team some extra energy for tonight's game.

Injuries:

Toronto

Travis Dermott - day to day - Illness.

Preview: Penguins Verses Leafs

Tonight 7 p.m. EDT.

As you all know, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the hottest team in the National Hockey League now.

Four players are in the top 10 in the league in scoring.

First line centre, Auston Matthews, is ahead of the pack in points and goals.

Toronto is now 6-1 after defeating the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, however, lost to the Vancouver Canucks that same night.  Their record is 2-1-2.

The Penguins are going to face a hot power play unit tonight.

Toronto's power play percentage is 47.4.  Pittsburgh's is 23.1.

The good news for the Pens. is that their penalty kill percentage is 92.3.

Leafs Frustrate Ovechkin And Capitals

(Above) Toronto frustrated Alex Ovechkin and his teammates last night

I don't think the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Washington Capitals, were prepared for this year's version of the Toronto Maple Leafs last night.

After Chandler Stephenson put Washington ahead 1-0 18 seconds into the first period, Alex Ovechkin and company didn't look too worried.

The Leafs, of course, did play mediocre in the first period. 

In the second period, though, Toronto seemed to have found the spark.

The Leaf's momentum continued into the third period.

Toronto scored two goals in the third to win 4-2.

When Auston Matthews scored Toronto's fourth goal at 18:21, the anger on the Capital's captain's face was obvious.

After the final whistle was blown, I think I saw Ovechkin bang his stick on the ice out of frustration.

To me, Washington ought of get use to the fact that the team isn't going to steam roll over Toronto this year.

The Maple Leafs are a different team.  A competitive team.

Leaf's goalie, Frederik Andersen, also had a big night.  He made some huge saves in the third period.

Andersen ended the night with 25 saves.

Leaf's defenseman, Jake Gardiner, had two assists.

Ovechkin also had two assists last night.

Toronto host the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow night.

Preview Leafs Verses Capitals

Tonight 7 p.m. EDT.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are the hottest team in the National Hockey League right now and their hottest player is Auston Matthews.

Matthews has scored in five straight games and has scored nine goals in three games.

On Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings, Matthews scored two goals on the power play.

Matthews's teammate, John Tavares, had a career high of four assists on Thursday night.

Leaf's defenseman, Morgan Rielly, has also been hot lately.  He has racked up 12 points in his first five games.

The Washington Capitals, however, had their worst loss of the season on Thursday night.

The Caps. were shut out by the New Jersey Devils 6-0.

The Capital's starting goalie tonight, Braden Holtby has played good against the Leafs in his career.  He has a 8-3-1 record against Toronto.

Injuries:

Washington

Travis Boyd - Lower Body.

Toronto

No Changes

Preview: Leafs Verses Red Wings

Tonight 7 p.m. EDT.

The Detroit Red Wings are still the same.

The team haven't won a game this season.

Injuries are probably contributing to their woes.

As for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team has scored a NHL high 20 goals this season, averaging five goals per game.

Injuries:

Detroit

Evgeny Svechnikov - Injury Reserve (IR.) - Undisclosed,

Henrik Zetterberg - IR. - Back,

Brian Lashoff - IR. - Undisclosed,

Dennis Cholowski - day to day - Undisclosed,

Trevor Daley - Out - Lower Body,

Jonathan Ericsson - Upper Body,

Johan Franzen - Concussion,

Mike Green - Illness.

Toronto

No Changes.

Leafs Out Shine Stars

Morgan Rielly (left) got four assists and Mitch Marner (right) got four points in a 7-4 win over Dallas.

Finally, the Toronto Maple Leafs are playing the way the fans wanted the the team to play this season.

There's no excuse for the Leafs to play the way the team played the first two games of the season.

The Leafs won their first game in regulation last night, defeating the Dallas Stars 7-4.

Both John Tavares and Auston Matthews scored two goals last night.

This is what fans wanted to see from the two players.  Offensive production.

Also, Mitch Marner is finally picking up some statistics along the way.  He finished the night with four points.

His teammate, Morgan Rielly, had four assists last night.

Toronto also scored the opening goal for the first time this season last night.

Marner scored the goal.

Dallas, however, did give the Leafs a scare last night.

Down 5-2, Dallas scored two goals to closed the gap at 5-4.

Thankfully, the Leafs got the two goals back before the end of the third period.

Toronto's goalie, Frederik Andersen stopped 30 shots last night.

Dallas's Tyler Seguin got four points last night.

Toronto are off to Detroit to face the Red Wings tomorrow night. 

Preview: Leafs Verses Stars

Tonight 8:30 p.m. EDT.

After a day off yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs are back at it in Dallas tonight to face the Stars.

It is the first and last trip to Dallas this season for the Leafs.

The Leafs last played on Sunday in Chicago where the team defeated the Blackhawks 7-6 in overtime.

Despite the win, Leaf's head coach, Mike Babcock, feels there's still room for improvement.

As for Dallas, the Stars defeated the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night 5-1.

Dallas's first year head coach, Jim Montgomery, is pleased with his team's performance this year.

Dallas is 2-0-0.

Injuries:

Dallas

Martin Hanzal - Back,

Stephen Johns - Head,

Valeri Nichushkin - day to day - Lower Body.

Toronto

No Changes 

Tavares Gets First Hat-Trick As A Leaf

John Tavares, (above), got his first hat-trick as a Leaf against Chicago last night.

Going into last night's game, I had my doubts about the Toronto Maple Leafs defeating the Chicago Blackhawks.

After all, the team played terrible against the Ottawa Senators the night before.

Also, Garret Sparks was in net last night.

Sparks was unimpressive in the preseason.

Last night, though, Sparks proved me wrong.  He was terrific in the first nine minutes of the game.

The first two goals wasn't even his fault.

The Leaf's defense didn't help Sparks.

What really helped the Leafs last night is having Kasperi Kapanen and Auston Matthews on the same line.

Leaf's head coach, Mike Babcock, put Kapanen and Matthews on the same line mid-way through the first period.

It worked.

Kapanen got the Leaf's first goal at 14:43 of the first period.

Matthews tied the game 2-2 34 seconds later. 

Matthews ended the night with four points.

Auston Matthews

3:56 into the second period, John Tavares put the Leafs ahead 3-2. 

Tavares got his first hat-trick as a Leaf last night.  It was also his ninth career hat-trick.

At the end of the second period, the Leafs were ahead 4-3

2:20 into the third period, Brandon Manning tied the game 4-4.

At  9:29, Tavares completed the hat-trick.

With extra attacker, Patrick Kane tied the game 5-5.

Matthews put the Leafs ahead at 18:58.

With the extra attacker again, Kane tied the game.

Off to overtime.

19 seconds into O.T., Morgan Rielly scored the winner for Toronto.

Toronto head off to Dallas to play the Stars tomorrow night.

Preview: Senators Verses Leafs

Tonight 7 p.m. EDT.

The battle of Ontario is no longer exiting, especially this year.

The Ottawa Senators are going to have to try to find a way to play without former captain, Erik Karlsson.

Karlsson went to the San Jose Sharks a few weeks ago.

The Sens. already lost a game this season.

On Thursday night, Ottawa lost 4-3  in overtime to the Chicago Blackhawks in their season opener.

As for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team got lucky in their season opener on Wednesday night, winning 3-2 in O.T. against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Leaf's performance on Wednesday was not too impressive.

Leaf's head coach, Mike Babcock, was happy the team won, but said the team has to play harder.

Injuries

Ottawa

Marian Gaborik - Injured Reserve (IR.) - Back,

Clarke McArthur - IR. - Neck,

Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Achilles,

Max McCormick - Upper Body,

Brady Tkachuk - day to day - Groin.

Toronto

Nathan Horton - IR. - Back.

Matthews Scores Winner In Overtime In Home Opener

Auston Matthews, (above) scored in O.T. last night's season opener, but it was a lack luster effort by the Leafs.

Despite the 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens, it was a lack luster performance by the Toronto Maple Leafs in last night's season opener.

Watching the game, I noticed a few things about the Leafs that worries me a bit.

The first two lines are really good.

The third line, however, is mediocre and their fourth line is the weakest

The Leaf's defense is questionable too.

Despite just scoring the lone power play goal, the Leaf's power play unit is deadly.

Teams better stay out of the penalty box when playing the Leafs this year.

Arturi Lehkonen opening the scoring at 9:34 of the first period for Montreal.

Auston Matthews tied the game with five seconds to go on the man advantage at 12:57.

At 18:07 of the second period, John Tavares scored his first goal in a Leaf's uniform.

Andrew Shaw tied the game with seconds to go in the period.

There was no scoring in the third period.

1:01 into overtime, Matthews scored the winner.

Max Domi (MTL) and Nazem Kadri (TOR) got two assists last night.

Toronto's goalie, Frederik Andersen, stopped 34 shots last night.

Toronto hosts the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night. 

Preview: Canadiens Verses Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs face their all-time rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, tonight to kick off the National Hockey League's 2018/19 campaign.

This is John Tavare's first game in a Leaf's uniform.

Speculation indicates that the Leafs are aiming for the Stanley Cup this year.

Although the team is really good this season, I highly doubt Toronto is going to win the Cup this season.

Why?

It's because there's teams in the NHL just as good as Toronto such as the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

As for Montreal, they're just looking to improve.

The Canadiens have made two good moves in the offseason, though.

The team has added Max Domi and Tomas Tartar to their roster.

I'm still scratching my head over a decision Montreal made on Monday.

The team named Shea Weber as captain.

Are you kidding me?

Weber hasn't done anything since being acquired from the Nashville Predators.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Toronto has put goalie, Curtis McElhinney, on waivers this week.

He (McElhinney) has already been claimed.