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The Maple Leafs entered this game with a deceiving 3-2-0 record that, based on the quality of their performances to date, probably deserved to be better.

While it’s great news that they are playing well, it is also important to bank points, especially against division rivals. Tonight, the Leafs did just that, winning quite handily in regulation against the Lightning. 

Anthony Stolarz was once again excellent, the special teams were good when it mattered, their forecheck was aggressive and caused problems, and all four lines should have scored (even though only three technically did). 

Your game in 10:

1.   The Leafs got off to an excellent start in this game. The away team declares their starting unit first, and Jon Cooper went with the Anthony Cirelli line, which set the stage for Craig Berube to declare his approach to the game matchup-wise.

The Bobby McMann – Max Domi – William Nylander started and generated a good shift — lots of energy going up and down the ice — before the premier matchup hopped over the boards: the Brayden Point line against the Auston Matthews line.

The Matthews line fired the first serve, creating a really good chance off the rush courtesy of a Matthew Knies cross-ice pass off the rush to Mitch Marner. He didn’t score, but they controlled play and created so much zone time that they could execute a far-side line change while keeping the puck in the offensive zone.

Overall, the game had a really good pace, and the Leafs generally won the run of play to start. In a game between two top teams with excellent hockey on display, the Leafs were on the right side of it, which was nice to see. Over the past five years in this space, I constantly slagged the team’s starts to games — regular season or playoffs — but so far, the Leafs have come out with real purpose and energy to begin games this season. It’s a welcome change, and while I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, I think it’s really important when the time comes to set the tone in the playoffs.

2.  The Leafs’ early pressure paid off with the opening goal just under four minutes into the game.

The goal itself was simple enough; Morgan Rielly rang a far-side dump-in around the boards, and Max Domi, who clearly knew it was coming, forechecked well, won a race to the puck, and got it low to Bobby McMann, who tried to center the puck to William Nylander in the slot. The pass didn’t work, but it bounced right back to Domi, who touched it back to Nylander in the slot, where #88 made no mistake with a one-timer.

While the pass was about as simple as it gets, Domi’s forecheck really stood out. He won the race, two Tampa players were on him, and he pulled free. It took him a while to adjust last season, but so far this season, Domi is off to a great start. His six points (all assists) currently rank third on the team.

3.   The Leafs continued pushing after they scored, which was nice to see, and they were rewarded with a power play, giving them an early chance to pull away in the game.

It wasn’t a bad power play — they sustained zone time, and Marner almost finished a down-low spin play in space — but they didn’t score again. As the penalty ended, Tampa connected on a stretch pass for a breakaway; the puck hopped over Jake McCabe, and Simon Benoit raced furiously to catch up. Benoit did well to harass Nick Paul without taking a penalty but lost his footing and went down in the process, leading to an unfortunate bounce. Anthony Stolarz made the save on the breakaway, but the rebound banked off a falling Benoit before entering the net.

The power play is facing a ton of scrutiny right now; it has been struggling, and it did feel a little soul-sucking in the first period to not only not score but give up a goal right afterward. From there, the rest of the period was a lot more even and played at a pace Tampa would be more comfortable with.

4.  Whatever was said between periods—and there is no chance it was a tongue-lashing from Berube or anything along those lines—the Leafs were able to shake off the swing in play and come out with purpose in the second period. The Leafs again went to a power play right away after some offensive zone time.

This time, they cashed in. Truthfully, the power play wasn’t exactly humming in the zone, but sometimes, you just need a goal to go in to get rolling, no matter how it comes about.

After Tampa cleared the initial pressure, Anthony Stolarz made a heads-up play to riffle the puck down the ice to the far blue line, catching the Tampa forwards on a line change and giving the Leafs an odd-man rush. Mitch Marner got a clear shot on goal in the slot, and while he didn’t score, the puck dropped right at the feet of Vasilevskiy. Auston Matthews was there to tap it through his legs and into the net for a relatively easy goal.

It was an excellent play by Stolarz, who didn’t collect an official assist on the play but really created the whole thing.

5.   Roughly five minutes later, the Leafs extended their lead, which was well-earned based on the run of play.

If the second goal earns Stolarz tons of credit, the third one is all Bobby McMann. He hounded Victor Hedman in the neutral zone to knock the puck free, won the race to the puck, and took a big hit from Hedman to advance it to William Nylander, creating a 2v1. Nylander kept it and sniped past Vasilevskiy cleanly — the type of goal we have seen him score regularly.

Nylander already has five goals this season, and for all of the talk about how he would fit in under Berube, it has been a non-story. He looks great and is producing. Tonight, he was the best player on the ice, for my money.

For McMann, I don’t want to fully revisit the game one healthy scratch, but this is why it was eyebrow-raising at the time — he is very clearly the team’s second-best left winger, and he does so much dirty work to free up Domi and Nylander to create offense in open space (which is what they do best!). This has been an effective and promising line early on in the season; all three players appear to be meshing very well.

6.   Two minutes later, the Leafs really started to pull away, making it 4-1. This time, Conor Timmins deserved a lot of credit for leading the breakout by not only skating the puck out but lugging it through the neutral zone, gaining the blue line, and flipping a pass over to John Tavares before driving to the middle of the ice.

The goal wasn’t anything special; the puck went to Max Pacioretty, who whipped the puck towards the net, seemingly catching Vasilevskiy off guard from distance. For Pacioretty, it’s his second goal in four games, and if nothing else, he’s showing he still has some knack for finding pucks and getting them into the net, which is particularly notable after he scored just four goals in 47 games last season.

This goal, though, was all about Timmins making a really good play and contributing with what he does best by driving offense. Plays like this — paired with not giving anything back the other way — justify his lineup roster spot with ease. It’s just about finding the right balance and growing his game after playing so little for so many years.

7.   Andrei Vasilevskiy was rightfully pulled after the Pacioretty goal. Toronto seemingly has his number, including in their last playoff meeting.

Tampa was expected to make a push after pulling their star goalie, and they did just that against the Domi line and the Benoit and Timmins pairing. A big Stolarz save bailed out the Leafs, but they took two penalties in the process.

One of those penalties resulted from the new rule about taking an opponent’s helmet off; frankly, it’s a dumb rule. Domi and Girgensons were in a scrum, and at that point, the league has to let players work through it or call both for engaging. A helmet coming off is simply going to happen sometimes.

Either way, the Leafs suddenly needed to kill a 5v3, giving Tampa a big opportunity to get back into this game. It was interesting to see the Leafs put out Mitch Marner for the 5v3 faceoff to start, alongside Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev on defense (as expected). Marner lost the faceoff and Tampa created some zone time, but Tanev, in particular, was excellent at closing lanes and blocking shots. Anthony Stolarz also made a great save, pulling the puck off the goal line on a jam play by Jake Guentzel.

The second PK unit consisted of Pontus Holmberg with Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins. Timmins, for his part, showed quite well. When we boil it down, Timmins set up a goal and killed a 5v3 tonight — a really nice game from a bottom-pairing defenseman.

When the Leafs killed off the full 5v3, they received a standing ovation from the crowd for their efforts. It was a great moment, and the fans did well in recognizing it with energy. The game easily could have turned the other way.

8.  After the big kill, the momentum swung the other way. Shortly afterward, the Leafs extended the lead on a bit of a broken play.

Mitch Marner made a heads-up play to read Tampa through the neutral zone, position himself in the right spot in the middle of the ice, and break up a pass at the Leaf blue line. Once he recovered the puck, Marner chipped it off the wall to the neutral zone to try to create a race for Matthew Knies, who was trailing up the ice. Knies somewhat lucked out as two Tampa players ran into each other, giving him all day to skate in on a breakaway.

To be honest, I was curious to see what exactly Knies would do when in alone. It’s hard to remember many breakaways for him in his young career, but he made a nice little curl and ripped it five-hole.

Knies played an excellent game, and the breakaway was a nice reward. Early on, he was strong on the forecheck, physical, and won all sorts of battles with his size and strength.

9.  The Craig Berube timeout and tongue-lashing last week against the Kings received a lot of attention, and while the Leafs responded well in the moment, their response in a similar situation in this game was noteworthy. Generally speaking, they were full marks with the multi-goal lead.

The Leafs dumped it in frequently in the third, looked to grind zone time, and were physical throughout. In the second period, Jake Guentzel took a cheap shot at Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who was not pleased with it. In the third period, OEL bided his time and ran Guentzel when he got the opportunity.

We see a lot of talk about responding with fights, but taking a number and laying an opponent out when the chance arises is a great form of retribution. It was a bit of a high hit — and OEL did take a penalty — but it didn’t matter to me. Two minutes in the box is well worth it to respond to a cheap shot and send a message. The Leafs even killed the penalty off.

Later in the period, Girgensons tried to pay OEL back, and Max Domi took exception with a fight. It was nice to see the physicality, the team camaraderie, and the edge the Leafs played with.

10.  Tampa did score on the Domi penalty, and while it’s a late-game goal to make the score look closer, I will flag the entry on the play. It was just too easy by Tampa. The Leafs are really sagging off the drop-pass play, making it a little too easy for teams to enter the zone.

Tampa entered clean and scored a relatively easy 5-2 goal off the entry on a play Anthony Stolarz had no chance on. Otherwise, Stolarz was excellent in the game.

The Leafs killed another penalty right afterward, and they had a 6-2 goal taken away that should have counted; Pontus Holmberg shot the puck into the empty net after a pass from Steven Lorentz that was not actually a hand pass.

Overall, it’s a great win with a lot of things to love from the Leafs perspective.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/ commentary by Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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