Late in their win against Colorado, the Maple Leafs reunited Bobby McMann with John Tavares and William Nylander. They out-attempted the Avalanche 8-1 in three shifts, earning another game together.
It’s a good thing for that. The line combined for three goals against the Rangers tonight and set up the fourth goal as well (coming off a line change), as the Leafs held on for a 4-3 win in New York.
Anthony Stolarz produced an excellent performance, and the Leafs‘ defense is clearly starting to settle in. Following a silly weekend of conversation in which fans debated whether a) the Senators would catch the Leafs or b) they would even make the playoffs, the Leafs reasserted a 10-point gap on the Senators and a 15-point gap on the final playoff spot.
Your game in 10:
1. This game started off high-event as both teams traded chances and looks, setting the stage for a flurry of goals overall.
On the game’s second shift, the second line with Bobby McMann hemmed the Rangers in and created some looks. The top line’s second shift of the night afterward created a good chance in front for Matthew Knies, while the Rangers had a good look in the slot from Carson Soucy, but he shot it off his back foot and couldn’t muster much.
There were two shifts in a row early where Mitch Marner got stuffed on the wall on breakouts, and Matthews also looked a bit lethargic early, coming off a big game against Colorado the night before. Oliver Ekman-Larsson also made a good shot block in front in the slot to deflect a hard shot wide, and then the Leafs received a gift of a penalty as William Nylander stepped around K’Andre Miller in the neutral zone and was hauled down.
Early on the power play, Marner set up Matthews for a one-timer, and it looked like he had an open net, but Shesterkin closed the angle, and Matthews probably didn’t put it in the right spot. Unlike the night before against Colorado, the Leafs only kept the top unit for barely half the power play, giving the second unit a run of time.
Some 12 minutes into the game, shots were 9-9, and the play was back and forth.
2. After the flurry of action, the Leafs ultimately opened the scoring following a defensive-zone faceoff where Nylander took a hit from K’Andre Miller to break the puck out. With Miller pinching down, Nylander hung in there and spun up to hit John Tavares with a clean breakout pass in the middle of the ice. With Nylander and Miller down, McCabe activated off the far side of the play, and Tavares hit him with speed up the wall. McCabe gained the zone and passed it back to Tavares, who blasted an impressive one-timer home off the rush.
Against Colorado, Tavares had a similar look late in the third off a Nylander pass and was denied, but he left no doubt this time. Also against Colorado, McCabe was quite active offensively, with his toe drag play on Cale Makar and later hitting the post on a good point shot. He carried that into this game and was active offensively all night, and he helped kick off the scoring in this one by joining the rush.
3. The opening frame was a good period overall for the Leafs, who led in shot attempts, high-danger attempts, expected goals, and carried the play in general. However, with just under a minute left, the Rangers tied it.
The play itself was rather innocent as the Rangers flipped the puck up ice, and Morgan Rielly tried whacking at the bouncing puck to get it out but couldn’t get enough of it. The Rangers got it deep from there and worked it around the net to the point where Pontus Holmberg pushed down too deep, leaving his defenseman wide open. Nick Robertson got caught deep instead of covering his point man. That left both Rangers defensemen wide open, and Carson Soucy passed it over to Will Borgen, who had all sorts of time to walk in and rip a shot through traffic, off the post, and in.
The Leafs’ makeshift Holmberg-Domi-Robertson line was on in that situation (final minute of a period, up a goal, on the road); it felt like a bit of a test, and they made it far too easy. There’s no chance that Berube would have deployed that line late in the period against the Avalanche the night before, for example. He tried it in this one, and they got burned.
4. It appeared the Leafs would go into the first intermission tied; that would have been a rather disappointing result, given they were the better team in the first, but they got the goal right back.
It started with a decent shift by the Leafs’ top line, who took the faceoff after the goal, got the puck in deep, and then forechecked. The Rangers staved off their initial push and had the play settled down, but Marner stayed on Will Borgen, forcing an icing, and then the Leafs’ second line went on the ice.
We noted yesterday that the Leafs moved McMann up to the second line toward the end of the night against Colorado, and they were really good, creating four very good looks in two shifts. He received his reward by staying on this line, and then he rewarded the staff by winning a battle off a lost offensive-zone faceoff. He kicked it to Tavares, who passed it to McCabe on the point. McMann then won the race to the net, where he deflected McCabe’s good point shot through.
It was a great sequence and an example of why McMann fits on the line: he brings speed, he can be the main forechecker, he’s disruptive, and he can score. That’s 19 goals and counting for McMann. The next highest scorer on the team is Robertson with 12.
5. The Leafs’ top line started the second period and began it the way they ended the first — by getting it deep and forechecking. They created a turnover and gained possession. Off the cycle, Knies cut above the top of the circle and made a back pass to McCabe on the point that started a bad sequence of events.
It was a really poor pass from Knies — basically, a no-look pass from the top of the circle back to the point — and it sewered McCabe, who was caught flat-footed, allowing Mika Zibanejad to forecheck him and create a turnover.
The Rangers now had possession against a tired line, but the puck went up to Knies on the wall. Knies threw a cross-ice pass in Marner’s skates that got kicked out to center for a turnover that the Rangers immediately turned back up ice, keeping four of the Leafs’ five skaters on (Matthews managed to change).
As the Rangers held possession, the puck actually did go up Knies’ wall one more time, but it was off a weak flick by Morgan Rielly, who needed to make a better play. Carson Soucy gloved it down, went D-to-D, and then they found Vincent Trochek, who pulled high and got a clean shot off.
Anthony Stolarz stopped the shot, but the rebound kicked right out to Panarin, who blasted it in. The whole sequence was the result of a really poor and unnecessary pass by Knies in the offensive zone, and the Leafs never recovered from there.
6. It took the Leafs just three minutes to get the goal back. Once again, it came courtesy of the second line, starting with McMann. This time, Nylander made a good hard outlet pass through the neutral zone that McMann received with speed. McMann then used his speed to skate it hard into the Rangers’ zone, stop up, and curl back, causing Carson Soucy to fall down.
After the centering pass saw a Nylander backhand effort go to the corner, McMann stuck with it and won the puck back. Just like the first goal, he kicked it to Tavares, who passed it to McCabe. He went to the net, where McCabe’s shot hit him, and instead of going in, it deflected right to Tavares, who had a gaping net to shoot it into. Tavares wound up a slapshot, making no mistake with it.
That’s Tavares’ 29th goal of the season, and it was the 1,100th point of his career. What a 2024-25 season for Tavares.
7. Knies got the goal back from earlier in the period. This was another goal that started with McMann, as he skated the puck through the neutral zone at the end of a shift, got it deep, forechecked, and forced a bad pass that led to a turnover. After applying pressure, he immediately went off, which worked out well; Nylander picked up the puck, made a good move to go forehand, backhand, and then wide on Adam Fox and around the net.
Nylander found Knies — who hopped on for McMann — all alone in the high slot. Knies was on for all of four seconds, took the pass in the high slot, had Matthews screening Shesterkin, and ripped it by both of them in the high corner for what was truthfully an easy goal.
That’s 25 goals and counting for Knies, and it made MSG dead quiet for the rest of the period. Hitting the 25-goal mark also made Knies one of only three players in the league this season to record 25 goals plus 150 hits. The others: Brady Tkachuk and Tom Wilson (pretty good company).
Knies also became the first Maple Leaf ever to do it since they recorded the stat. Of course, we know Wendel Clark hit that mark the four times he scored 25+ goals as a Leaf.
8. As expected, the Rangers came out in the third period and tried to make an offensive push. They had a few plays where they just missed connecting in the slot; the most notable was a sequence where Will Cuyle had a little time and space but couldn’t handle the pass cleanly.
The Leafs countered with a few looks as the Rangers pressed, including a nice Steven Lorentz drive wide and backhand effort, and a good shift by L3 that generated a few looks for Holmberg in front. Robertson also went on a 2v1 and kept it (which was the right play), but he couldn’t beat Shesterkin. Nylander had a look in all alone off a 3v2 rush where Tavares hit him with a pass streaking down the right, but he was too tight to make much of a play. Nylander’s his shot — and Tavares on the rebound — were denied.
On the flip side, Trocheck also had a clean look as the trailer off the rush, but Stolarz stood tall. To be honest, this period hit a point where the neutral zone was wide open, and the teams were basically trading chances, which is not what the Leafs wanted to do while on the road up two already. They want to slow the game down and grind it away.
The Leafs then headed to the PK after Knies was called for a slash because Zac Jones didn’t hold onto his stick properly. The Leafs’ PK dug in and did a good job. Without Jarnkrok and with Kampf back, they rolled Matthews-Marner, Kampf-Lorentz, and Laughton-Marner. The Rangers couldn’t get anything going—to the point where Rangers fans started booing.
9. The only thing really left after the kill was to see the Leafs defend with the empty net, and unlike the night before against Colorado, they didn’t do a great job. First, Stolarz had to make a huge save on Trocheck in all alone, then Tanev basically saved a backdoor goal before the Rangers hit the post twice and drew an icing against a tired line that was on for over a minute. Eventually, the Rangers scored on a soft point shot by Panarin that got through traffic. Chris Kreider made a nice deflection right in front of Stolarz, who had no chance to make a save.
From there, the top line closed out the game as there were just 33 seconds left, and the Rangers didn’t seriously threaten to tie the game at any point. Still, you’d still like to see the Leafs close it out and not give the Rangers one with the empty net.
Of note, it was also a tad surprising to see the Leafs keep McCabe out after the goal and take Tanev off for OEL, while Carlo watched it all on the bench. I would have thought they’d use Carlo there, but he sat and watched.
10. The Leafs tried to roll their lines as much as possible in the third period, which showed with their ice-time allocation. Tavares led all forwards on the team with just 19:42, while Nylander played 19:28. They were the only forwards to play more than 18 minutes; Matthews logged 17:35 and Marner played 17:35 as their line was out-attempted 13-7 and looked a bit gassed after the intense game the night before.
Max Domi played the least of any Leafs forward with just 10:31, while David Kampf logged 13:28 in his return as his line started 80 percent of their shifts in the offensive zone. It was a bit of a strange deployment for a checking line to receive heavy offensive-zone starts and basically line up against the Rangers’ fourth line for most of the night.
All that said, the Leafs played a desperate Rangers team, tired, on the road, with not nearly as much on the line, and generally rolled their lines. They didn’t receive a great game for their top guys and still won rather comfortably, which speaks to their overall depth.
Stolarz was really good, the defense was great — McCabe had three points! — and the Rangers were held to just 11 shot attempts at five-on-five in the third period while down two until they pulled their goalie at the end. All in all, this was a business-like win by a Leafs team that was simply better than their opponent.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
