The win over Utah was Toronto’s most complete effort of the early season: Leafs Morning Take
The Toronto Maple Leafs have won three straight games to start the month of November.
Nothing to see here, folks.
We kicked off the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take by discussing the atmosphere at Scotiabank Arena. Rosey was in town for the game. In fact, he had the honour of presenting a Canadian Armed Forces member with a commemorative jersey during of the TV timeouts. All in all, it’s amazing how much winning does. It was doom and gloom in this market through two periods on Monday night against Pittsburgh, and now, there’s reason for optimism as the Leafs head into the final two games of their four game homestand.
At any rate, we recapped Toronto’s 5-3 win over the Utah Mammoth. Most importantly, it was a great response for Matias Maccelli, who was acquired from Utah this past summer. He notched a goal and an assist against his former team —responding in Nick Robertson fashion after being health scratched for the Pittsburgh game. Meantime, Auston Matthews scored for the third straight games. He’s quietly now up to eight goals on the season. Meantime, prior to the game, John Tavares was honoured for becoming the 49th player in NHL history to hit the 500-goal plateau. Well, he’s now at 501 after notching a goal and an assist on Wednesday night.
Additionally, Scott Laughton looked good in his season debut stabilizing the fourth line. Elsewhere, Anthony Stolarz made 21 stops. He even tried for an empty netter late in the game. Suffice it is to say, the Leafs have a lot of confidence right now, something that couldn’t be said even a week ago. Remember that UGLY loss in Columbus?
To make room for Laughton, the Leafs sent Easton Cowan to the AHL. Naturally, we discussed where Cowan’s at in his rookie campaign, and if that was the right decision. Unfortunately, for us at least, it came down to a numbers game. Cowan’s waiver exempt, so from that standpoint alone, the move made an abundance of sense. Funny enough, the conversation morphed into one about making trades. Do the Leafs consider Cowan an untouchable? You know teams will be calling about him over the next few months.
Lastly, we touched on Joseph Woll. On Wednesday, Craig Berube disclosed Woll was getting closer, but didn’t say much outside of that. It would be great to see him play against Carolina, but right now, that scenario doesn’t seem likely.
One more to finish off the week. Join us at 11 AM ET on Friday as we preview Toronto’s back-to-back at home against Boston and Carolina respectively.