Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs continue winning ways in March mayhem
March 29, 2017, 9:45 AM ET [290 Comments]
Lucas Neilson
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Take yourself back a year and think about the talks that were taking place. The Leafs were rolling in the gutter and had called up a number of prospects to fill the voids of players traded, bought out or who were simply not playing in the organization anymore (drinking cocktails on ‘Robida’s Island’).

There were certainly some eye brows being raised when Leafs fans got a glimpse of William Nylander and the skillset he possessed. But the bottom line was, the team was filled with plugs who were either not part of the future or were in the plans but not expected to carry a team filled with mediocre talent.

When Toronto won the lottery and the chance to pick first everything changed; everything!

There were tears of joy shed from the Leafs faithful. After countless years of searching for a true number one center the wait was finally over and a 19 year old All-Star was going to ride the horse into the sunset for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Matthews took no time breaking into the league and winning the hearts of all Leafs fans with a legendary four goal night to start his career and the new season. It was epic, legendary and surreal all in one go.

Auston Matthews has even had a few scoring slumps throughout the season, imagine if he didn’t? He would be hovering around the 40 goal mark as a rookie! Guess what? The season isn’t over yet and big Auston just may tickle the twine a few more times before it’s all said and done. What a beauty he is, I just love this Maple Leafs team.

The crop of rookies is out of this world. I have a feeling there will be some Leafs records set this season that will never be broken by future Leafs or other teams in the National Hockey League. It’s been a scoring frenzy from the young bloods and it’s been ever so exciting to watch and refreshing, my god has it been refreshing after the garbage we’ve seen growing up.

Last night our boy Matthews scored his 35th goal of the season to pass Wendel Clark’s 31-year-old franchise rookie scoring record. Toronto scooped up two vital points and off to Nashville they go!

The biggest stand out in last night’s game was without a doubt McElhinney. He was not only on his game but he was a dominant force for the Buds. I found myself shouting at the television “EL HINEY” all night because he was everywhere. It was a given that McElhinney wanted that win, especially after coming in the other night for Andersen and struggling as he did. The Leafs goaltender certainly stole the show, but it will be Auston’s 35th that will be the talk of the town.

Matthews joined some high end company scoring 35 goals as a rookie, only Ovechkin and Crosby (as rookies) have scored 35+ since 1995-96.

Just wait until Auston fills out that frame; kid’s going to shred a few more records!

Toronto is now sitting 1 point up on Boston, but with a game in hand and is 4 points up on Tampa Bay with the same number of games played. The Islanders and Hurricanes are both 5 points back but still in the hunt. Another huge game on Thursday night so get your gear ready and support the boys; Leafs Nation!


A couple quick notes:
Kapanen looked decent in the few minutes that we saw of him.

Boyle almost killed Reimer as he skated around the net, we’ve seen that before.

Uncle Leo is playing a possessed game right now; he’s priming up for playoffs in warrior mode.

Babcock blew his gasket on that “high sticking” call that was a puck hitting a Panther in the face. (I can’t remember the last time I saw the refs reverse a call like that, but they got it right).

Thanks for reading, happy hump day!