The players returned to their respective NHL teams on Saturday after Canada won the 4 Nations Face-Off. The Toronto Maple Leafs played the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, winning 6–3. Alex Steeves scored his first NHL goal, finishing the night with one goal and one assist. Auston Matthews scored the empty-netter, tying him with Darryl Sittler for second in goals Maple Leafs franchise history.
The Maple Leafs entered last night on the second half of a back-to-back against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Maple Leafs continued to push for first in the Atlantic Division, sitting one point behind the Florida Panthers with two games in hand.
Let’s take a look at the main storylines coming out of last night’s 5–2 win against the Blackhawks.
McMann-Domi-Robertson magic
All five of the Maple Leafs goals came from secondary scoring, with the Bobby McMann–Max Domi–Nicholas Robertson line taking charge. The third line continued the Maple Leafs’ offensive zone pressure in the second period, forcing Seth Jones to take a hooking penalty against McMann.
The second power play unit scored the equalizer from a beautiful sequence by McMann to Domi to Robertson. McMann outworked the Blackhawks defenders to get the puck to Domi. Domi passed the puck to Robertson in tight and Robertson delivered:
With 14 seconds to go in the second period, Domi outskated and outworked Jones for the puck and made an excellent pass to Robertson for his second of the game:
The Domi line drew another power play later in the third period, though the power play was not successful. Robertson was goalless in his last 10 games entering tonight and has tied his goal total for January with two.
With the trade deadline two weeks away, is Robertson upping his trade value? Or is he making the case not to move him? As a unit, there’s no denying that the third can put the puck in the back of the net. However, it’s their play without the puck that has led to rumours about acquiring a third-line centre to provide stability.
McCabe-Tanev pairing is elite
When we took a deep dive into the Jake McCabe-Chris Tanev pairing, we concluded that the pairing has been elite defensively for the Maple Leafs. However last night, the Maple Leafs got two goals from this pairing.
McCabe had a bomb from the point off of a face-off win by Matthews and a pass from Tanev. Tanev scored a goal in the third period, his first in 33 games from a pass from McCabe. Both defencemen finished the night with one goal and one assist, as well as six blocks between the two defenders.
The Maple Leafs have 15 goals by defencemen this season, which is the worst in the NHL. McCabe and Tanev are not going to score every night, it is not their game. However, the Maple Leafs need to improve the lack of production from the back end.
Woll was steady
Joseph Woll had an excellent start after a week off. Woll was the reason why the game was only 1–0 after the first period when the Maple Leafs did not start on time. The Maple Leafs were outshot 10–6 after the first period, and did not get a shot on goal until 13:30 of the first period. The Maple Leafs did not generate any sustained offensive zone pressure.
The Blackhawks on the other hand got bodies in front of Woll and generally made life difficult for him in the first half of the game until the Maple Leafs’ offence took over. When the Blackhawks were applying pressure with their net empty trying to bring the game within one, Woll stood tall by making key saves to maintain the 4–2 lead.
Woll finished the night with a .926 SV%, stopping 25 out of 27 shots for the Maple Leafs’ first win in Chicago since 2003. With Anthony Stolarz fully healed, the Stolarz-Woll goaltender tandem is back and ready to backstop the Maple Leafs down the stretch.
Onto the next
The Maple Leafs play against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday at TD Gardens. After Marner’s assist to Connor McDavid’s goal to win the 4 Nations Face-Off last Thursday, maybe the karma at TD Gardens has shifted.
As we begin to enter the last two months of regular season action, every point in the standings becomes critical. This is especially true for the bubble teams on the outside looking in like the Bruins. Games start to become tighter and the intensity ramps up for the playoffs.
With the 5–2 win against the Blackhawks, the Maple Leafs are now first in the Atlantic division. Hopefully, the Maple Leafs can continue with their foot on the gas and can claim home-ice advantage for the playoffs.
Seriously ,you report secondary scoring has come alive but do not report it was the coach that ruined the secondary scoring they had from earlier i nthe season by breaking this exact same line up they had together earlier i nthe season, Domi, Robertson, McMann were great earlier i nthe season and broken up for no reason by the dumbass coach. Now he putsa them back together and again they are great and it is reported he made agreat move doing this when it was his fault for breaking them up earlier.