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Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies collected five points apiece, Auston Matthews grabbed three of his own, and the Maple Leafs handed Boston their second loss of the season at Scotiabank Arena by a score of 6-4.

Your game in 10:

1.   So much went on in this game, particularly in the final 40 minutes, but the most important big-picture item was not just the return of Auston Matthews — and his three-point, plus-five game tonight — but the way he looked doing it.

Matthews was eased in with 17:32 of ice time, and it was actually pacing for around 15 minutes through much of the game before Craig Berube leaned on him more than he probably wanted to close out the game (some of it was that the Leafs saw less than 2.5 minutes of the power play time tonight, and Berube kept him off of the PK). But he engaged physically without any hesitation, including finishing a nice hit on Marchand in the first five minutes. He invited contact when protecting pucks. His skating had plenty of jump, as he got on the puck and attacked the net right away from the start of the game. He helped recover a puck leading to the 1-0 goal, then outmuscled Charlie McAvoy down low to set up the 4-3 goal. He sprawled out to bury the 6-4 empty-netter to clinch the win.

The Leafs‘ hopes this season — not as far as playoff qualification is concerned, clearly, but certainly as far as a deep playoff run is concerned — hinge on whether Matthews can get himself back close to 100% and then sustainably remain somewhere around that mark (keeping in mind no one is ever 100% in the playoffs). Elliotte Friedman reported in the second intermission that Matthews intends not to be in and out of the lineup as a conservation measure from here on out; he wanted to take the time to fully get back to himself and then play a normal schedule.

It’s one game, and the setback after he was targeted in Buffalo will naturally play on Leafs fans’ minds for quite some time, but as far as a single-game sample goes, it was encouraging how much he looked like the Matthews of old.

2.   With their full complement of forwards finally available, we were looking to see if the Leafs could start building offensive momentum shift-over-shift in a manner that’s been challenging for them to do consistently this season without Matthews available (and also in general, as they’ve adjusted to a new mindset and system under Berube and tried to find answers with their third line).

The Leafs got off to a nice start to this game in that regard, as three different lines created great looks in the first few minutes, and one was converted.

Nick Robertson — whose game was a mixed bag the rest of the way — was set up by Max Domi for a good one-time look from the slot on the third line’s first shift. The re-united top line cashed in less than four minutes into the game. Max Pacioretty rang the iron on a point-blank look for the second line moments after the Leafs made it 1-0 (although the second unit didn’t have its best night as the game wore on, including on that same shift, as they gave up a good look the other way).

3.   After a strong reload by the forwards to recover a puck high in the zone (via Matthews and Marner), it was refreshing to see Jake McCabe decisively/confidently jump up and rip one home to open the scoring and end the 16-game defense-scoring drought.

McCabe scored eight goals last season yet was still looking for his first in his 35th game. He definitely didn’t look like a guy who hadn’t scored since last April with this calibre of finish.

We also saw Simon Benoit jump up and nearly set up a goal at the back post late in the first period. The Leafs’ defense has been no offensive juggernaut in recent seasons, but we used to see a little more of these kinds of plays where the Leafs forwards pull high within cycle sequences and create backside plays or handoffs for the D jumping in. It was encouraging to see a handful of those tonight.

There is too much offensive skill up front for the Leafs’ D to feed off of, and enough offensive ability on the blue-line unit, for the team to at least be closer to the middle of the pack in goals by defensemen rather than dead-last in the league.

4.    Across the league this season, you probably won’t find a nicer tip goal than Matthew Knies’ 2-0 tally early in the second period. The deft touch from behind his back was something else in terms of the imagination and the execution.

Unfortunately, it was immediately erased seconds later as the second line was a little casual coming off of the goal — starting with Pacioretty’s engagement or lack thereof on the wall, then some looseness in front by Benoit, OEL, and Tavares — leading to Morgan Geekie’s backdoor finish.

The Leafs should’ve learned this lesson as recently as the loss to Washington in terms of the importance of shifts after goals. It was also hard not to think back to them conceding a tying goal in the third period of Game 7 a minute after scoring, given Boston scored three times in this game within 30 seconds of a Leaf goal. Good teams almost always push hard after conceding, and the focus has to be heightened on the shifts after goals.

5.   On the Bruins’ tying goal late in the second period, the broadcast focused on Morgan Rielly‘s “unnecessary” icing, which ignored a bunch of the key developments in the buildup to the goal.

There were multiple failures by McMann and Robertson to get the puck deep/through the neutral zone before Rielly iced it, and there was also the fact that it shouldn’t have been called icing. Rielly chipped it up the wall, and Brando Carlo just let it go by him on the boards.

From there, Myers and McMann collided trying to close down on McAvoy off the lost faceoff, and Domi made a split-second decision to close on McAvoy on the wall and leave his centerman in the middle, which McAvoy read quickly to find Trent Frederic, who ripped it by Woll.

Shifts after goals and shifts late in periods are two important details the Leafs didn’t get right in this game, but thankfully, they overcame it tonight.

6.   Knies’ behind-the-back magic continued in the early third period at the end of his shift to make it 3-2 Leafs.

Unfortunately, so did the Leafs’ theme of giving goals back immediately, as Tavares’ brain was buffering on dial-up speed for a second. I’m not sure if Pacioretty and/or Tanev were alerting Tavares to the pressure on his back or not, but it was a tough look. Tavares also handed one to Mat Barzal right in front of Woll on Thursday, so he’s now had a slap to the face and should be ready to clean this up.

Pastrnak’s shot wasn’t exactly labeled top corner, either, as it ticked off Woll’s blocker and went into the left-center of the net. Woll wasn’t as sharp as he was in his last three starts in this game, fighting the puck throughout, but the Leafs were able to overcome that as well.

7.    That was an undeserved five-on-five goal against for the Jake McCabe – Chris Tanev pair, which otherwise is 3-0 in five-on-five goals and controlling all of the underlying numbers when Pastrnak is on the ice this season despite starting just three of their 28 faceoff starts against him in the offensive zone.

This Pastrnak goal came from the top of the circle, so it didn’t count as a high-danger goal against, of which this pair has given up a total of four all season in 350 five-on-five minutes, much of which has been spent matching up against the opposition’s best players. They make the lives of top opposition really difficult by protecting the front of their net extremely well and breaking pucks out efficiently.

There was another tough break with the broken stick for McCabe on the 5-4 Pastrnak goal with the Bruins’ goalie pulled, but both players clocked over 21 minutes in this game and walked away with points and pluses (1g/1a/+3 for McCabe, 1a/+2 for Tanev). McCabe’s composure in front was critical to seeing the game out before Matthews’ 6-4 empty-net clincher.

8.   With the game at 3-3, the Leafs came up with the quick reply this time. Initially, the third line withstood some pressure — Philippe Myers might’ve saved a goal with a nice tie-up at the back post in that sequence — before Robertson sped away the other way and set up a good McMann look.

On came the man who couldn’t miss tonight. Knies took a great pass from Matthews — after Matthews took McAvoy’s lunch behind the net — and buried a one-timer off the far post and in.

Soft hands, hard shot, good hockey sense, and a powerful skating stride inside a 6’3, 230 frame…

Knies is still just 120 games into his career and is learning the consistent habits required to be effective every night as a power forward in the league (as we saw with his recent drought coming off the injury), but his sophomore leap forward is a huge development for this Leafs team over past iterations.

9.    It’s also worth noting how much better Knies’ game got as the series vs. Boston got tighter and more intense last spring and the fact that he seems to have their number in general — he’s up to five goals and nine points in seven games vs. Boston (he also has five goals and 10 points in seven games vs. the Lightning).

Pair Knies’ emergence with the season Marner is having (now 19 — 19! — multi-point games 40 games into the season, with five points tonight), and if Matthews can stay healthy and find his form, it’s hard not to dream about the possibility this can be one of the best lines in hockey capable of winning a matchup against any and all playoff comers. Tonight, it decidedly got the better off Marchand – Lindholm – Pastrnak / Zadorov – McAvoy.

10.   Garbage time got a little tense with the Pastrnak goal at 6-on-5 just after the Marner empty-netter, but the Leafs found the empty net a second time thanks to Matthews to close out the 6-4 win.

With their full complement of forwards in the lineup, it was encouraging to see this Leafs team dial up a four-goal game at five-on-five against a good defensive team/good goaltender and win in regulation despite a mediocre performance in their net. They’ve now put the Bruins eight points below them with a game in hand for Toronto — it’s not curtains, but it’s a big hill to climb with 42 games to go.

As a bonus, the Leafs were able to conserve minutes reasonably well in the first half of the back-to-back weekend, as after Marner’s 22:42, no forward topped Knies’ 18:52 (Tavares, Nylander, and Matthews were in the 16-17 range).

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/ Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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