TORONTO – Games like these tell you who you are.
Not the ones where everything is arranged, where you conquer teams with dominance like a machine, each gear rotates with impeccable precision. These are nights like this: it still hurts from yesterday’s tilt, the best of the best of the lineup, the lines thrown in the blender at the last minute. This is a tough opponent who looks down at you on the other side of the ice, goes through you at every opportunity he has, fights for his life in the playoffs when yours is already signed, sealed and delivered.
What do you have in these moments?
On Sunday night at the Scotiabank Arena, the Toronto Maple Leafs proved imperceptible from the challenge, defeating the rough New York Islanders 4-2 without Rocket Richard Trophy managing winner Austin Matthews. And thus winning a record 50th victory and 106th point.
They did not facilitate themselves. With the tone set by the initial draw with the kind assistance of the clicking New York check Ross Johnston on veteran Mark Giordano, the Maple Leafs began their journey through the mud. They stumbled early, the Islanders gave a very easy token of strength in the game late in the first, while Ilya Lubushkin performed what his coach later called the “textbook screen” on his own netminder, allowing Anthony Boville to enter and carelessly Shoot the first past of the game Jack Campbell.
But the Maple Leafs struggled, returning to level just minutes later, Mitch Marner drifting into the net unseen as a ghost in the slot, eventually landing in the perfect spot to hit Giordano’s rebound in the top corner of Ilya Sorokin.
A similar story was in the middle frame. This time Alex Kerfut committed to an own goal, an unsuccessful attempt to clear before Campbell accidentally ricocheted off the back of the Toronto net. They climbed back again, Kerfut taking him on his shoulders and correcting his mistake with a great stuttering setup for Pierre Engval in the middle of the night two on one.
A few minutes later, William Nilander – who flew throughout the match, with his deft lifting of the stick, without a pass to help Kerfut and Engval’s tie – took a pass from John Tavares in the power play and shot a host to give his Maple Leafs leading. He was not refused from there.
This is emblematic of how this season went for this team. Stumble early, fight back, take off.
“There was very little complacency in our group. We had a hard time starting at the beginning of the year. Many things were said outside the room, inside the room, and they came from there to where we are now [says] a lot, “Kerfut said of the trip after the match.
But just like Sunday night, it could have been just as easy for them to escape if they had allowed it.
“I think it can do one of two things for a band,” Kerfut said, referring to the chatter of suspects earlier this year. “It can either tear things up or it can bring you together. I think our game on the ice really speaks to how we reacted to it. “
The victory over the Islanders offered Maple Leafs a chance to step back and take stock to see beyond historical dominance, which has become a daily routine for the team’s usual focal point. Recently, there was the Auston Matthews show in Toronto, and rightly so, given the dilute air in which the young sniper enters. But after number 34 was set aside, 17,464 attendees were given the opportunity to better assess what was happening in Matthews’ orbit.
Scoring his 34th goal of the year on Sunday night, Marner also scored his 94th point, leveling his career record in 15 games less than the last time he reached the sum, and with eight more goals in his name. road. The 24-year-old has been in the league class since the calendar changed from 2021 to 2022 – no other NHL player has surpassed him since January 1, during which time Marner amassed an absurd 72 points in 42 games. He has scored more points per game since November, more than 1.50 per game since January, more than 1.65 in the last two months.
Nylander’s strength marker almost guarantees that he will set a new personal record before the end of the year, aiming to equal his personal high of 31 – news for Nylander, who laughed when told he had tied that 31st place: “No I knew that … I thought I had more goals. ” – to combine with the best in his career 74 points. And then there’s the ongoing transformation of Engwall and Kerfut’s 50th career best, making Maple Leafs the only club with seven players above the 50-point threshold.
It remains to be seen if any of this matters in the end, but the team can take comfort in the fact that they are pushing harder than ever to correct their past mistakes after the season, even when key names come and go.
“You know, we had a lot of guys who missed a lot of games this year, including me, and the boys got more active and played a bigger role and we won a lot of big games,” Marner said after Sunday’s game. I win. “It’s something we always talk about – we just get stronger and take on more spotlight and the boys thrive on that.”
Kerfut added: “There will be injuries. Each team deals with them all year round, and we’ve played with a bunch of different guys all year. And we really moved forward. “
This is the most important education these maple leaves can receive this season. There is no doubt that they are an elite team if everyone is arranged correctly, if everything is in their favor. The questions have always been about what happens when plans fall apart, when plot twists arrive. It’s not about improving the way you’d rather win – it’s about learning how to win every game, in any way.
They did it tonight. And in the eyes of their coach, they’ve been doing it for a long time this season.
“Look at how we played, look at the results we have achieved and how we have achieved these results – especially against some of the best teams and teams we will face in our division, whether at home or on the road – we have done well. work, “Keefe said,” and we got good results. “
Without the best of themselves, they proved that they still have elite talent, that they can still face opponents who deal with the game with an approach opposite to theirs, and come out with two points. They even proved that they can still make a story without number 34.
But all this will only matter if it turns into a brick on the way to the place they really want to get to. This is clear from the tone of these lists after the official collection of the best regular season in the history of Maple Leafs.
“It’s been a long season. Winning many matches in this league is difficult. There are many good teams. So it’s a really great thing to be a part of. But we have bigger and better things ahead of us, “Kerfut said of the franchise record.
“It really means nothing if we don’t achieve anything in the playoffs. But it’s hard to win matches this regular season, and we do it pretty consistently. “
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