The Leafs hosted the Panthers tonight, with Florida’s playoff hopes dwindling by the day. The Leafs’ hopes on the other hand, have been consistently rising.

If you ask Patrick O’Sullivan (you shouldn’t), the Leafs have the goaltending advantage as both teams play their backups, Florida’s being James Reimer, and McElhinney being one of the most statistically awful goaltenders to get starts in the last 3 years. His numbers this year though have been incredible and the Leafs hope that he continues the outlier season to hold the ship afloat while Andersen recovers.

Kasperi Kapanen makes his debut this season for the Maple Leafs. Leafs fans should be excited at his arrival, and many will be keeping a close eye on him tonight.

The first ten minutes of the 1st period seemed to fly by, as neither team had really created any dangerous chances. The Leafs did certainly seem the better team, but not much of fruition yet.

Then suddenly, on a great forecheck by Zach Hyman, he gets the puck out in front and Auston Matthews picks it up smoothly and beats James Reimer high. The goal breaks Wendel Clark’s record of 34 goals by a rookie, giving Matthews his 35th of his rookie campaign.

The game now resembles Florida’s computer boys – all 1’s and 0’s. Badum tss.

Not long after, Leo Komarov takes a great pass from Connor Brown, and one timers a shot past Reimer. This earns Komarov a milestone of his own, with his 100th NHL point.

At this point with just 5 minutes left in the period, the Leafs have only allowed 6 shot attempts by the Panthers, and none that were subjectively high danger. A good period both offensively and defensively thus far.

With a minute remaining, the Leafs draw a penalty, giving them an opportunity to increase their dominance over the Panthers. Unfortunately the best chance from this period would come shorthanded to Colton Sceviour, who would not score on a 1-on-1 high slot shot. The period ends with the Leafs leading 2-0.

Right at the start of the period, Michael Matheson takes a questionable delay of game penalty by shooting the puck over the glass, giving the Leafs a 45 seconds 5-0n-3 advantage.

The Leafs would be unable to capitalize on either powerplay, despite some good set-up plays with the extra player(s).

After the Panthers finally started to create some good chances, they took another penalty – this time Thomas Vanek for hooking. But the Leafs would not be able to generate much.

The Panthers really started to take control here, taking advantage of a lacklustre looking Leafs club in the early second. A cross-crease pass ends up on the stick of Reilly Smith and Curtis McElhinney denies him with a great stick save.

With 5 minutes left in the period, a great pass from the point from Yandle finds Reilly Smith’s stick for a quick backhand chip beats McElhinney to get the Panthers on the board.

A weird play closes out the period with the refs calling a high-sticking penalty on Roman Polak. The call was incorrect as it was a puck that hit the face of the Panthers player. The refs reconvened, presumably after seeing a replay on the jumbotron, and reversed the call. Interesting ethics call. Does it break the rules? I’m really not sure.

I’m going to take this moment to see if the editor actually reads these: Hi Jeff. Hi Ryan

The period ends with the Leafs up 2-1.

Alex Petrovic made a strong hit on Mitch Marner, a clean hit, but strong. It removed Marner’s helmet in the process, and the Leafs took exception. On Matt Martin’s next shift, he starts a fight with Petrovic for revenge. He draws an extra 2 minute penalty for roughing, so the Panthers go to the powerplay. Dumb move by the veteran Martin.

However, on the penalty kill, Zach Hyman makes a good read and capitalizes on a shorthanded 2-on-1 break with Leo Komarov to give the Leafs a 2 goal lead again.

The middle of the 3rd was largely uneventful, but late in the 3rd is when things picked up again. Florida pulled their goalie and on a great tip by Bjugstad that hit the post, Jaromir Jagr buries past Curtis McElhinney. 3-2 now for the Leafs.

They pulled again, and looked very dangerous, but did not get the 3rd goal to tie the game.

The Leafs win the game 3-2.

Knowing many were concerning themselves with Kapanen, I’ll start with him: I thought he was pretty good in a limited role. The Leafs as a team really showed up tonight, I don’t think I could isolate anyone as having a bad game. The Matthews line underperformed in shot attempts, but scored a goal 5v5 (plus Hyman’s SHG) so you can’t really give them a bad grade.

My three stars for the night:

A key win for the Leafs tonight to insulate their playoff hopes, meanwhile adding near to the final nail in the coffin of that of the Panthers. The Panthers are nearing extinction. Certainly endangered at this point.

Catch the Leafs again on Thursday as they face the Nashville Predators at 8PM ET in Nashville.

Goodnight, and go Leafs.