Physical Leafs Pounce On The Panthers 

The Colorado Avalanche have carved out a sizable first-half lead in the overall NHL standings, and part of the reason for that is their near-perfect 17-0-2 record at home, but based on their positioning outside of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, it is surprising that the second-best record in the league at home belongs to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs scored three times in a span of 4:25 at the end of the first and early second period to take a commanding lead and relied on the goaltending of Joseph Woll to hold on in a 4-1 victory over the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday. 

Rookie Easton Cowan, Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews, and Bobby McMann scored for Toronto, and Woll made 31 saves – 18 of which came in the third period – for his ninth victory of the season to give the Leafs their 15th win on home ice, which drew them to within two points of the final Eastern Conference wildcard spot.

The Panthers were without top forwards Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, along with defensemen Dmitri Kulikov and Seth Jones, but still represented a challenge to the Leafs, not only because of the real estate they occupy in the heads of the Blue and White, but also because Toronto has shown an ability over the years of not taking advantage of an opponent being short-handed (like on Saturday, when the NY Islanders beat the Leafs without starter Ilya Sorokin and leading scorer Bo Horvat).  

Toronto did not have leading scorer William Nylander, winger Dakota Joshua, defensemen Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe in the lineup, but did get veteran Brandon Carlo back, whose presence on the right side with Morgan Rielly once again cured the ills of the Leafs longest-tenured defenseman, who was +2 in just under 20 minutes of ice time on the night. 

Physical And Dangerous

Two factors appeared to be the keys to Toronto’s victory over the Panthers: the Leafs being extremely proactive in terms of their physicality against their arch-rival, and the fact that all four of their forward lines were dangerous and generated chances. Apart from the wrestling match between Max Domi and Aaron Ekblad, Toronto played with an edge for the majority of the contest, such as Bobby McMann taking a run at Brad “The Rat” Marchand, but also showed some pushback when Florida started to get frisky, such as Nick Robertson responding with a cross-check to Uvis Balinskis when the Panthers defenseman got physical with the smaller Leafs forward.  

With the win, Toronto is 5-0-2 in its last seven games and has gotten back in the mix in the East, but its schedule over the next 10 days will be a big factor as to whether it can continue to close ground, with five of its next six on the road. Their 5-10-2 road record is the worst in the NHL, and the Leafs will have to find the same formula they had last season as one of the best teams away from Scotiabank Arena in fairly short order, or this recent turnaround will go for naught.