Maple Leafs Takeaways: Scoring depth shines, Murray shuts the door in win over Flyers

Twenty-four hours after reeling off a wanted win over Detroit again dwelling, the Toronto Maple Leafs discovered themselves staring down a well-recognized take a look at Sunday evening in Philadelphia.

“I feel it’s going to be the same sort of recreation,” head coach Sheldon Keefe had mentioned forward of the puck dropping on Toronto’s remaining assembly with the Flyers this season. “It’s going to be a group that skates onerous, forechecks nicely, will get on high of you. They prefer to make it onerous for us to interrupt out and get going — it took us some time to get that sorted yesterday.”

The Maple Leafs devoted wanted no reminder, having watched their membership get outshot, outscored and outworked by means of the early goings of the primary half of this back-to-back — that efficiency following a pair uninspiring losses to kick off the brand new yr — earlier than Toronto ultimately discovered its recreation and turned the tables on the Purple Wings.

Sunday evening, they wanted no late-act plot twist.

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From the opening seconds of this one, Keefe’s squad was flying, David Kampf getting an opportunity on the opposing cage within the opening seconds, Auston Matthews establishing William Nylander for an excellent look quickly after, Timothy Liljegren feeding No. 88 for an additional simply after that. The message was clear, the tone set early.

Halfway by means of the opening body, the early onslaught paid off, Calle Jarnkrok bagging his ninth purpose of the yr to place the Leafs up 1-0.

As is so typically the case with this membership, although, it was Mitch Marner who served because the architect of the sequence, No. 16 displaying some all-world poise as he weaved into the offensive zone, waited out the Flyers’ defence for what appeared like an eternity, earlier than whipping an ideal cross-ice feed over to Jarnkrok for the one-time end.

It was only the start. By the tip of the evening, the pair and linemate John Tavares had amassed 9 factors collectively, every member of the road leaving the Wells Fargo Heart with three factors of their very own.

Return by means of the trio’s movie, and also you received’t discover empty energy there.

You’ll see Marner with one more instance of that elite persistence later as he arrange Conor Timmins for a purpose within the second — by the way, the primary tally of the 24-year-old defenceman’s NHL profession.

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You’ll see Jarnkrok bearing down and battling, deep in Philly’s zone and off the faceoff, to arrange Liljegren and Tavares for a pair extra targets.

And also you’ll see the captain, after selecting up two factors by means of the primary 40 minutes of the eventual 6-2 win, arising with a good looking feed to Matthews for the purpose that capped all of it off within the remaining body.

All advised, Tavares, Marner and Jarnkrok have mixed for a sterling 33 factors within the 9 video games they’ve suited up for collectively, with Jarnkrok — who himself has 14 factors by means of his final 13 video games — lastly discovering his place on this squad after looking to sea by means of the early goings of the marketing campaign.

Toronto’s scoring depth rises to the floor

Whereas the highest six did their job in delivering the eventual victory, with the captain’s line feasting and Matthews sniping his twentieth of the yr — making him simply the third American in NHL historical past to start his profession with as many 20-goal seasons as he has — it was the names additional down the bench that made the distinction on this one.

After seeing three of 4 targets come from Marner and Tavares on Saturday, Sunday’s win was of a wholly completely different flavour, with Jarnkrok, Timmins, Zach Aston-Reese and Liljegren all contributing, build up a 4-2 lead for the membership earlier than Tavares and Matthews put the sport away within the second half.

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Given the impression the damage bug’s had on this group’s marketing campaign to date, it’s the depth on the blue line that needs to be most encouraging for the Leafs devoted.

As Toronto continues to rotate blue-line our bodies out and in of their lineup on account of these accidents, the replacements have continued to step up with significant performances. This time it was TJ Brodie sidelined — and later mentioned to be day-to-day — and Timmins drawing again into the combo.

The younger blue-liner gave the blue and white all that might be anticipated of him, placing in a stable efficiency over 18 minutes of ice and chipping in with a purpose and an help.

Maple Leafs kick down the door, however go away it open

Although the offence was rolling, and although the membership did what it wanted to do to get the W, there have been nonetheless warning indicators hidden amongst that pile of targets.

Twice Toronto constructed up a lead, and twice they let the Flyers again into the sport instantly after — Travis Konecny scoring 16 seconds after Aston-Reese made it 2-0 for Toronto, and Nicolas Deslauriers getting one again only a couple minutes after Timmins made it 3-1.

Later within the recreation, too, after Liljegren and Tavares had added two extra Leafs targets to the combo, pushing Toronto’s result in 5-2, nonetheless the Maple Leafs left the door open just a bit bit, gifting Philadelphia energy performs and weathering storms of net-front scrambles because the Flyers pushed to chop the lead down additional.

This time, they didn’t.

However whereas the Twenty seventh-ranked offence within the league couldn’t take that rope and pull their approach again up onto the ledge, the identical received’t be true for the sport’s extra prolific squads. Those this membership might want to get by, ultimately, come post-season time. When the strain will ramp up and the stakes shall be actual.

Spectacular because the win was, spectacular because the offensive outburst was, key among the many takeaways from this evening needs to be the necessity to additional concentrate on quieting these comebacks earlier than they decide up steam.

Murray provides these Maple Leafs all they want

The one purpose the Maple Leafs didn’t get burned by leaving that door open in Philly? Matt Murray.

It didn’t look flawless, however Murray was stable towards a Flyers squad that examined him all evening, the netminder turning apart 34 of 36 photographs to maintain Toronto’s lead intact till the ultimate buzzer.

As for the 2 that did beat him, it might be powerful to pin these squarely on Murray’s shoulders.

In each instances, a defensive gaffe left No. 30 on their lonesome with a Flyers ahead. The primary was a uncommon Marner misstep, the winger firing an ill-advised cross-ice saucer cross by means of his personal zone, solely to see it snagged out of the air by Konecny, who had on a regular basis on the planet to place one by Murray.

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The second was no much less egregious, the Maple Leafs’ defenders leaving Deslauriers on their lonesome behind them, permitting the winger to gather a cross and stroll in uncontested earlier than beating Murray with a top-shelf backhand.

That Murray held the Flyers at bay for the remainder of the evening isn’t essentially a world-beating feat — see: Twenty seventh-ranked offence — however on an evening that noticed Toronto’s offensive depth shine because it did, all they wanted from their netminder was for him to make that saves once they mattered most.

And thru all the opposite net-front scrambles, partial breakaways, and defensive lapses, Murray did that. In doing so, the 28-year-old earned his tenth win of the season, and pushed his save share to a middle-of-the-pack .916 on the yr, degree with Ilya Samsonov.

The pair get their subsequent likelihood to make good on Kyle Dubas’s guess on Wednesday, when Toronto returns dwelling to face the Nashville Predators.

Extra from Sportsnet

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Maple Leafs’ Samsonov clocks extra time to rebound from psychological struggles: ‘I’m again on monitor’

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