Leafs Postgame: Prince William

Check your pulse. Check our pulse. Check his pulse, and her pulse too. They never said it would be easy and they definitely didn’t say it would be pretty, but they said it would be hockey and that’s exactly what we got tonight.

Is that poetic or incoherent rambling? Yes.

Either way, the Leafs ended up with a 4-3 regulation win at home over the league’s best team in one of the wildest games of the year.

The Leafs fell apart for a little stretch in the second there and allowed Tampa back into the game. In just 5:19, the Lightning managed to tie it. All for nothing, though, as Toronto came through with the regulation win anyway.

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Is this a recording? Leafs take a 1-0 lead, in a team that’s now taking the “get off to a quick start, score the first goal of the game” mantra to heart.

It was goal #13 for young William, assisted by… who else but William and Jake Gardiner? The period was pretty low event otherwise as things go, with the teams tied at 9 shots apiece once the twenty minute buzzer came and at the end of the first, it was 1-0 Buds.

Is one William Nylander goal good enough for you? Why not two?

3:08 into the second period and William’s scored both goals of the hockey game. The assist this time come from the two other members of the Holy Rookie Class of 2016-17: Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.

Later in the period, Jake Gardiner threw a puck through traffic to make it 3-0, his first goal since December 20th against the Blue Jackets.

Up 3-0 at home? Game over, right? Ah nvm, this is the Toronto Maple Leafs.

After a bit of a sequence of “scrambly play” from the Leafs, Alex Killorn got the Bolts on the board. However, friend of the site and noted celebrity had some trouble with his television set, nullifying the goal.

The Leafs were outshot through 40 23-17, although it didn’t seem to matter much.

We lied. The Leafs came out incredibly flat to start the third period, and were tied 78 seconds into the frame. Household name Nikita Kucherov scored his 30th goal of the season, which is just nuts at this point in the year, and then Yanni Gourde scored his 21st goal of the season, which seems like something a lot more people should be talking about considering he had 6 goals in just 22 games prior to this season.

Blow the lead the Leafs did, but blow the game they would not.

Though things went bad for the Leafs earlier in the period, they got lucky when James van Riemsdyk remembered once again he’s got a decent shot away from the net and snuck this one past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

There was a lot of breathing, a bit of drinking, and a whole lot of praying, but when the final whistle blew, it was a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Leafs’ 8th win in their past 10 games. Not bad at all.

The Leafs play the Blue Jackets Wednesday night. See you then.