Leafs Bounce Back With Win Over Preds 

Getting swept by who most experts deem as a club inferior to them apparently did not sit well with the Toronto Maple Leafs, as they rebounded from a loss to the Detroit Red Wings with a 7-4 victory over the Nashville Predators at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday. The Leafs did not display a Thanksgiving tryptophan-induced coma in the second of back-to-back home games, jumping out to an early lead, surrendering and retaking the lead in the middle frame and then pulling away in the third for their second victory of the season. 

Auston Matthews scored a pair, Jake McCabe, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, John Tavares, Bobby McMann, and William Nylander added singles for the Leafs, Matthew Knies had three assists, and Cayden Primeau made 26 saves for his first victory with Toronto. Rookie Easton Cowan registered his first NHL point, assisting on Matthews’ game-winner at 10:42 of the third period. 

“Cowboy” Cowan Impresses

The Leafs definitely benefited from the fact that the Predators played Juuse Saros in their win over Ottawa on Monday, as backup Justus Annunen allowed five goals on 26 shots in his season debut. In only their second game as a line, you could see the budding of some chemistry between the Arizona tandem and the 20-year-old nicknamed “Cowboy”. Perhaps if the line was monikered the “Tombstone Trio”, Cowan would be the Doc Holliday of the group, since in his second game, he seemed to find trouble and was successful in getting underneath the skin of the Preds. The youngster was unfazed by a cheap shot from Predators winger Ozzy Wiesblatt, and later was nailed by Filip Forsberg. 

“(Cowan) really supports the puck well with those guys, makes a lot of little plays that maybe go unnoticed to a lot of people, but I noticed.” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said. “He’s a dog on a bone out there for me, he hounds everything, gets pucks back, strips people. He’s played well, he played well again tonight, back-to-back nights, I wasn’t sure, but I thought he had another good game…….He’s a worker, a worker with skill.”

One area of concern for the Leafs through four games is their lethargic performances in second periods so far. The middle frame in the season opener against Montreal and in Detroit last Saturday were the club’s weakest 20 minutes, and on Tuesday after taking a 2-0 lead, Toronto surrendered it in the span of 44 seconds on goals from Michael McCarron and Erik Haula. 

“We have to do a better job, especially early in second periods,” Leafs center John Tavares said after the game. “(Nashville) got back in (the game) and pushed back. We weren’t as quick and didn’t win as many battles as we wanted, but we were able to get the lead back and from there, I think we played hard.”

Toronto will continue their five-game homestand on Thursday against the New York Rangers.