Weirdly enough, the Marc Savard firing seems to have sparked the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Is that not the Leafiest thing ever?

Suddenly, the power play has a pulse.

That’s where the conversation started on the Monday edition of Leafs Morning Take as we made our triumphant return from our 3-day holiday break. The Leafs grabbed three of a possible four points over the weekend, they’re 2-0-1 since relieving Savard of his duties. As mentioned, the power play is starting to click. They went 3-for-5 over the weekend. Someone make sense of that, please. We talked about the nostalgia of seeing former Leaf Steve Sullivan behind the bench. That smirk on the Nylander power play goal sure was funny. Long-term, we’ll see if Sullivan, who at least to start, will be working closely with the rest of the coaching staff to figure out this team’s Achilles’ heel. The sample size is very small, but so far so good.

At any rate, we got into the nuts and bolts of the overall successful weekend. Did Detroit’s OT winner encapsulate the type of season it has been for the Maple Leafs, or what? All that play was missing was the Benny Hill theme song. Jokes aside, Dennis Hildeby was awesome. He’s been massive for this team this season, especially with no signs of Anthony Stolarz showing up anytime soon. Furthermore, Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies strung themselves together two very song outings. If the Leafs get more of that moving forward, they should be able to gain some ground here in the Eastern Conference standings. Meantime, we commended Nick Robertson, Bobby McMann, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson as well. Also, we talked about Chris Tanev’s value as well. He’s such a steadying force back there. In fact, since Tanev returned last week, Jake McCabe’s a plus-7. Tanev could be the most important player on this team. Speaking of which, we gave some love for Troy Stecher, too, who’s been a breath of fresh air since being claimed off waivers from Edmonton. The guy hates to lose. Hopefully his enthusiasm and passion proves to be infectious. He’s been a great story.

David Pagnotta will tag in for Jay Rosehill as co-host for the Tuesday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Join us at 11 AM ET for a full preview of Leafs/Devils as Sheldon Keefe makes another return to Toronto. Also, free agent head coach Pete DeBoer is slated to stop by the show.

You can subscribe to TheLeafsNation (TLN) YouTube channel HERE. Additionally, we’re available in podcast form, too —wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re at it, be sure to leave us a 5-star review!