Toronto Maple Leafs

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Earned it 🧱

3:06 AM · Feb 2, 2025

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Arun Srinivasan

@Arunthings

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Joseph Woll saved 2.08 goals above expected in all situations via Natural Stat Trick. Outstanding performance, countless great saves, including the game-saver at the end.

Arun Srinivasan

@Arunthings

Joseph Woll has been outstanding and has kept the Maple Leafs alive, you don't necessarily need to quantify it but he's saved 2.25 goals above expected in all situations through 40 minutes via Natural Stat Trick.

2:52 AM · Feb 2, 2025

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Here are six takeaways from the Maple Leafs’ 4-3 victory over the Oilers:

• Joseph Woll was the reason why the Maple Leafs won this heavyweight fight, stopping 45 shots in the winning effort, with his save on Corey Perry ranking among the best we’ve seen from any goaltender in recent memory, considering the circumstances. Evan Bouchard’s cannon of a slap shot was a real weapon all night, the Leafs were bracing themselves in shooting lanes and Woll came to the rescue with another stop on Bouchard, before robbing Perry. It wasn’t just the final sequence. Woll made a great shoulder save on Perry during the first period, he stopped Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on a breakaway before Toronto scored its second goal, he made a terrific stop on a Leon Draisaitl one-timer set up by an expert pass from Connor McDavid, and ended the second period with another sensational stop on Draisaitl. Woll had stopped 2.45 goals above expected in all situations through 40 minutes via Natural Stat Trick, and it doesn’t account for the third-period barrage he faced. Woll is facing some of the largest volume in the league since Anthony Stolarz’s injury and he’s aced the test, with Saturday’s performance as a clear testament to his enormous value as a genuine No. 1 goaltender.
• William Nylander said good teams find their way out and he led by example during the first period, with the team’s first three shots, opening the scoring by beating Stuart Skinner through an expert Max Pacioretty screen. Nylander’s line may have got carved up on shot differential but it ultimately didn’t matter, as the Maple Leafs abandoned the rigidity of a north-south structure that let the offence dry up, Woll was sensational and Toronto’s best players hunted for their offence all night. It’s fitting that Nylander got the party started with his 30th goal of the season.
• Jake McCabe was sensational, logging a game high 30:22 in all situations, primarily against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and this isn’t using data selectively, you can punt the expected results into the sun. McCabe was the best point-of-attack defender for the Maple Leafs, he helped neutralized Edmonton’s first line which boasts two Hart Trophy winners and all of Toronto’s core defencemen — McCabe, Chris Tanev and Morgan Rielly — had to elevate their games when Oliver Ekman-Larsson left with a lower-body injury after the first period. McCabe blocked three shots, Tanev blocked four, in a game that may have been defined by Toronto’s resilience against an Edmonton team playing with tremendous pace and opportunism. Morgan Rielly has been struggling lately, and he wasn’t perfect by any means, but he also withstood the challenge and was fine as Toronto’s No. 3 in the winning effort. Berube and his staff will have to keep an eye on McCabe, Tanev and Rielly’s minutes during Tuesday’s game against the Calgary Flames.
• It’s a simple observation, but it makes a world of difference to have Matthew Knies and John Tavares back in the lineup. Knies cleaned up an Auston Matthews rebound on the power play to give the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead, he was hounding down pucks, and the way he scored the goal was exactly how Berube wants the power play to operate. Knies continued to drift well off the space Matthews and Marner created, and received a secondary assist on Marner’s sensational individual effort on the opening shift of the third frame. Tavares’ impact was a lot more understated but we’re not going to sneer at winning 56.3 percent of his faceoffs in just under 20 minutes of action against the defending Western Conference champions on the road. It’s nice to a nearly fully optimized forward corps play together.
• Bobby McMann also added a power play marker and he’s finding ways to show up when the Maple Leafs need a goal. McMann started the comeback two weeks ago against the Montreal Canadiens, he was one of the three players (Nylander, Matthews) to score during the team’s most-recent losing skid, and he finds a way to elevate his linemates. Nick Robertson was active throughout the game, and barring a trade ahead of the deadline, or the preemptive deadline that has been apparently formed ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off, Berube knows what he has in his third line and work the variables out if they land Brock Nelson.
• Ekman-Larsson was listed as day-to-day and at the time of this filing, it’s unclear how he suffered the injury, and it had a compounding effect as McCabe, Tanev and Rielly were pushed to their limit, but it placed Benoit and Conor Timmins in sub-optimal situations as well. If Ekman-Larsson is ruled out Tuesday, it invites a chance for Philippe Myers to re-enter the lineup and perhaps another look for Marshall Rifai. If that’s the case, it may be wise to load manage one of the team’s top three defencemen, as there’s far more at stake than regular season glory. Who could blame anyone for thinking about the Stanley Cup after a thrilling win over the Oilers, we’re sure Ekman-Larsson wouldn’t blame us either!

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