Before the game, Craig Berube was asked if he was expecting some rust from Anthony Stolarz in his first game since December 12.  

“That is a good question. Who knows? We’ll see how the game goes.”

Well, we can now confirm Stolarz was not rusty. He was excellent in his return, the Leafs won the special teams battle — 5/5 on the penalty kill and 1/3 on the power play — and the Kraken couldn’t overcome the talent disparity. 

Three consecutive wins to start on the road trip, with one more to go.

Your game in 10:

1.   It was a slow start for the Leafs. Just 14 seconds in, Adam Larsson hit the post on a point shot before Morgan Rielly took a penalty a minute and a half into the game. The Kraken generated some zone time on their power play but created nothing of real danger, and Anthony Stolarz seemed to settle into the game on the penalty kill.

A few minutes later, Pontus Holmberg drew his team-leading 19th penalty, which we seem to be writing almost nightly now (he drew a penalty leading to a goal in Calgary, too). The Leafs‘ power play has been red hot on this trip, and while they didn’t score on this one, they generated a lot of good zone time and touches. Auston Matthews had a near-empty net on one sequence and didn’t get the shot off on time.

When their power play struggled in the first half of the season, it hit a point where you didn’t even want them on the ice; never mind not scoring, they were actively sucking the life out of the team, and it would then spill over into their five-on-five play. As it’s finally turning around, we’re seeing the exact opposite. The Leafs generated offensive momentum, and it helped get them into the game.

2.   On the shift following the power play, the Leafs opened the scoring as Philippe Myers scored his first of the season and first as a Maple Leaf. Coming into this game, Myers compiled 26 shots on net in 21 games, as he often looks to hammer away when he gets the puck. He has a hard shot and needs to work on hitting the net more, but for a team that can get cute and look for the perfect shot at times, it’s sometimes nice to have a player who hammers away at the puck without abandon.

After a William Nylander shot off the rush rimmed around the boards, John Tavares and Mitch Marner combined to win the puck back before Tavares bumped it back to Myers, who wound up and teed off on a bit of a knuckle puck. Even though there was no screen, it deflected off Matty Beniers and beat Joey Daccord to give the Leafs the early lead.

That’s Myers’ first goal in the NHL since November 17, 2022 — a cool moment for Myers, who has to be thrilled that he bet on a contract in Toronto, earned an extension, and appears to have carved himself a bit of a role and a home in the league.

Marner also picked up an assist on the goal, giving him 500 for his career.

3.   Myers took a penalty immediately after scoring, sending the Leafs right back to the penalty kill. 30 seconds in, Marner picked off a pass and walked in on a breakaway, but he shot it high and wide. The Leafs killed off the penalty with ease.

Stolarz made his first big saves of the game right afterward. Vince Dunn ripped a one-timer with traffic, and Stolarz made two additional pad saves on Mitchell Stephens in front on the rebounds.

This was the only run of straight five-on-five play for the period, as the Kraken later took a four-minute high-sticking penalty, and neither team was really able to sustain any zone time of note. It was a lot of one-and-done both ways, and the Leafs did a good job limiting the Kraken’s rush offense, which Berube flagged in the pregame as a key to the game.

Shot attempts at five-on-five in the period were 9-7 for the Kraken, which demonstrates how low event the period was overall, but with 2:54 left, Stephenson took a four-minute high-sticking penalty. The Leafs weren’t going to be denied on such an opportunity.

4.    Much like the first power play, the top unit moved the puck around really well. It stands out how much they are teeing off with shots to the net, knowing Matthew Knies is causing havoc in front.

Marner immediately attempted a one-timer from the top of the circle area to start this power play. Matthews let one rip, and Knies grabbed the rebound before passing it over to Tavares, who hit the post on an empty net.

The second unit hopped the boards and promptly scored on a nice sequence. On the breakout, they are much simpler; Max Domi crossed center and ripped a far side rim, knowing Max Pacioretty was forechecking. Pacioretty executed a good stick lift to free up the puck, and Morgan Rielly supported him on the wall. Rielly grabbed possession, played pitch and catch with Domi on the point back to Rielly on the half-wall, and ripped a hard pass to Bobby McMann in the bumper for a deflection. McMann took it from there.

That’s three goals in three games for McMann on this road trip and 17 overall with 28 games remaining. For Rielly, it’s also his third point on this road trip. This is the best he has looked all season. He is way more active offensively, moving his feet on the blue line and jumping into the attack, which is critical to his game. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come for Rielly.

5.   The Leafs still had a minute of power-play time on the double minor to start the second period, but they came out lethargic. Once the game returned to five-on-five, the Kraken played with far more pace to push for offense and try to climb back into the game.

The Leafs did counter it well in one sequence where Matthews got a great look off the rush; Brandon Montour managed to deflect Matthews’ shot just wide on an empty-net opportunity. In the high slot, Myers had a wide-open look right before the Leafs took a too-many-men penalty.

Stolarz robbed Montour in the slot on the penalty kill with a big glove save. Even though the Leafs killed the penalty off, the Kraken really tilted the ice from there. The all-situations shot attempts for the period were 29-15 for the Kraken and 24-15 at five-on-five.

To the Leafs’ credit, though, the actual shots on net were only 9-8 in favour of the Kraken, so Toronto did a good job of boxing out and blocking shots. But they were getting hemmed in their zone due to their inability to break out cleanly. Often, it wasn’t the defense’s fault; their wingers were not winning battles on the walls to get pucks out.

6.   On one particular sequence, the third line and third defense pairing got stuck on the ice for a two-minute shift, ending with Simon Benoit fighting Oliver Bjorkstrand. Fighting after a nearly two-minute-long shift is incredibly difficult, but Benoit battled and fared well.

Last season, when games shifted against the Leafs, Benoit was always quick to engage physically to end cycles and possessions. We haven’t seen it as much from him this season as he has really struggled territorially, but on this play, he threw a hit, caused some frustration, and drew a fight.

Benoit and Myers each threw a couple of good hits in this game and were getting under the Kraken’s skin throughout the night.

7.   You almost felt for Seattle as they poured it on, only to get stonewalled by Stolarz and then see the Leafs go down the ice and score a goal that I’m not sure should have counted.

It was an admittedly tough play to make a conclusive read; Knies went high with his stick and chopped down on a Jake McCabe shot, and it was challenging to figure out where the stick was in relation to the crossbar.

In any event, the goal-scoring play had a few basic elements worth flagging from the Leafs’ perspective. The Leafs worked the puck up high well, and Chris Tanev walked the line to open up space before sliding it over to McCabe on the far side, where McCabe tried to bump a pass to Matthews as he skated up top to the blue line. The pass didn’t connect cleanly, but the Leafs won the battle. When McCabe had the puck, Domi was in the high slot, and Knies was parked right in front, so McCabe threw it to the net.

We have been screaming for the Leafs to do more of this: Generate traffic and throw pucks to the net, and good things will happen.

While the Kraken did start to push back and throw a lot of volume at the Leafs’ net, at 3-0, this was a comfortable game for the Leafs and never really in doubt from that point forward.

I should note that when the TSN broadcast interviewed Knies at intermission, he could barely keep a straight face when talking about this goal and how he tried to sell it.

8.   The Kraken came out to start the third and again created some zone time on the first few shifts, but the Leafs settled into the period. They created a wide-open 2v1 with Nylander and Marner, but the puck rolled on Nylander. 

A few shifts later, the Kraken broke the shutout, scoring a goal against the Leafs’ fourth line and third defense pairing. Similar to the 4-2 goal against Edmonton that started their comeback push, it’s a goal where their fourth line was caught in deep, leading to a rush opportunity the opposition capitalized on.

Look at the goal visualizer below when Bjorkstrand (#22) has the puck. All three Leafs forwards are right there and are beaten by one pass for a 3v2 down the ice.

The fourth line can’t give this up when the team is up 3-0 on the road. It should never happen.

On the rest of the play, it was almost certainly interference on Benoit, who tried to fight through it, but ultimately, Eli Tolvanen walked in, and he owns a bomb of a shot.

9.   Again, the Leafs’ top three lines settled the game down, and Seattle really didn’t have much going despite finally breaking the ice and making it a two-goal game… then the Leafs’ fourth line went out, and Pacioretty took a penalty below the goal line in the offensive zone. 

The Kraken set up a good one-timer look early from Bjorkstrand before Shane Wright had a clean look in the slot all alone but was robbed by Stolarz. The Leafs killed off the rest of the penalty without a sweat.

Pacioretty even came out of the box with some speed and drove the puck wide for a chance, then set up Rielly for a look. Right afterward, Steven Lorentz nearly went on a breakaway and managed to get a good whack on the puck right in the slot.

Over the 60 minutes, the only Leafs line with a positive five-on-five shot attempt differential was the Matthews line. Technically, both Matthews’ line and the Tavares line scored goals. Truthfully, it was a tough game to really evaluate the lines, given there were eight total penalties (Marner played 25 minutes in part because of the special teams time), and the Leafs built an early lead, to say nothing of the Kraken being a bad hockey team.

If you’re looking for an evaluation of the new look top six, this game won’t tell you much.

10.   Even though the Leon Draisaitl goal to tie the game against the Leafs was disallowed last Saturday, the Leafs spent time practicing their 6v5 kills afterward. For the second game in a row, they locked it down with the opposition’s goalie out.

The Leafs were put in a difficult position when Matthews was called for a high-sticking penalty on a play where Brandon Montour actually lifted Matthews’ stick to make contact with his head. Before that board battle with the penalty, McCabe made a great little bump pass to Knies, who had time and space to clear the puck. Knies didn’t get it out, leading to the penalty.

David Kampf won the opening faceoff on the kill, McCabe cleared it, and while the Kraken spent a bunch of time in the zone, it was largely on the perimeter. Seattle only put one real shot on net, and there was one really good block by Tanev as the Leafs killed it off.

Between the early 6v5, the penalty, and the Leafs icing the puck, Marner played a 3:38 second shift and did really well, all things considered. For the rest of the 6v5 time, the Leafs kept everything to the outside and didn’t allow the Kraken to make seam passes — a big focus for the Leafs.

Nylander scored on the empty net one second after the buzzer, giving us a 3-1 final score.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/ Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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