Morning-after recap:

The Leafs won again and all is well in the world. Auston Matthews may have been out of the lineup, but unlike some Canadian team(s) with top picks, the Toronto Maple Leafs reminded us that hey, they’ve got a cast of other players too. We’ll call that one a grind-it-out win. It’s always a big day when the Buds win… and two points is two points.

Nazem Kadri has been fantastic this season.

Here, he just got enough of a stick on it, and the broadcast debated for about 15 minutes about whether he touched it, whether Leo Komarov touched it (once, or twice?), or if the puck just went in off of Morgan Rielly. A fortunate bounce, but we’ll take it. 1-0 Buds.

You know that stereotypical coach that tells everyone to crash and bang along the boards?

Well, this is why. Zucker (#16) gets in the play in the corner along with Chris Stewart,

Eric Staal gets the lone assist on the play, Zucker gets his puck on the stick in front of the net, and it’s a one-oen hockey game. Ron Hainsey and Morgan Rielly have been very good together this season, but Zucker slips through the cracks here to pot it home.

My grade 10 gym teacher used to say, “Offence is spacing. Spacing is offence.” He was talking about basketball, but the same holds true in hockey. Zach Hyman pulls the play down low, Patrick Marleau pulls back… and then pulls the trigger. Watch this play like 20 times – it’s just so well done, and the Leafs take a lead they would not give up.

We got the caption wrong on this one, but so did the NHL, initially. A confused goalie, a point shot, and… that’s a good hockey goal. It was ruled to not have touched Martin… but either way, Leafs take a 3-1 lead.

He STOLE this from Freddy. Why anyone is left uncovered in front of the net on a power play is… always confusing. Impressive play from Zucker though, and with 4:59 left in the third it was a one-goal game.

All’s well that ends well, right? After a couple of icings and failed attempts at the empty net… Connor Brown slips it in, and the Leafs gain two points in regulation.

As far as games go… this one was a little boring, honestly. If you’re one for the fancy stats, the Leafs didn’t look great, getting out-corsi’d 72-41. Big game from Andersen, a few ugly goals, and that’s a Wednesday night win over the Minnesota Wild.

See you Friday (and Saturday) for a set of games against the Boston Bruins.