What a night for Toronto sports.
It wasn’t pretty but the Leafs took care of business against the rival Montreal Canadiens 5-2 in the season opener. Then, the Blue Jays smothered the Yankees by the same 5-2 score to punch their ticket to the American League Championship Series.
Suffice it is to say, we were fired up to kick off the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Incredibly, the Blue Jays are just four wins away from advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1993. After we got that out of our system, we did discuss the rest of Wednesday night’s NHL card a bit, too. The Oilers couldn’t get a save when it mattered most. What else is new?
And so, the Leafs are off to a 1-0 start following their opening night victory against the Habs. Most importantly, Morgan Rielly got off to a hot start with one goal – including the winner- and one an assist. If there’s one Leafs player who needed that start, it was Rielly, who’s coming off a tough campaign. Meantime, it was great to see Bobby McMann and Calle Jarnkrok hit the scoresheet, too. Unbelievably, through 50 minutes of that hockey game, neither Auston Matthews nor William Nylander had registered a shot. Speaking of which, we talked about the new look top six – especially the top line, which struggled for most of the night. The power play was hot garbage, although they had just two opportunities with the man advantage. Additionally, Anthony Stolarz made 28 stops, many of which came at important times in the game. It was sloppy and clunky, but they got the job done. Bottom line.
After that, Sportsnet’s Luke Fox stopped by to weigh in on the season opener. He dished on Rielly, the Maccelli fit on the top line, and power play patience. On top of that, we got Luke’s thoughts on what ends up happening with Easton Cowan long term. Joseph Woll and the crease were a topic of conversation, too.
At any rate, join us on Friday (11 AM ET) for a full preview of Saturday night’s tilt in Detroit.
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