5 takeaways from Leafs-Kings: Matthews, Tavares, Stolarz engineer victory against the run of play

Alex Laferriere scored for the Kings, burning Simon Benoit on the outside, before beating Anthony Stolarz with a slick backhand. Stolarz was otherwise stellar, making 35 saves in the winning effort. Toronto was outshot 36-26 by Los Angeles throughout the game, but it made the most of its scoring chances and shot location Saturday. It wasn’t a perfect game, but the Maple Leafs are back in the Atlantic Division lead.

Here are five takeaways from the Maple Leafs’ victory over the Kings

• Auston Matthews took over the game in the third period and is the greatest reason why the Maple Leafs are walking away with a stellar road victory. Matthews was doing all the small things well during the first 40 minutes, but it wasn’t translating to the scoresheet. Toronto’s captain was relentless and it led to a short-handed goal, just moments after he was initially stopped on a breakaway. Matthews batted the puck out of the air, retrieved it, found Jake McCabe, then circled back into the zone, got the puck back from McCabe, before wading through the defence on a terrific effort. He was constantly looking to pull off wraparound attempts, he won puck battles and he finished with eight shots in all situations, winning 70 percent of his faceoffs along the way. It’s been a down year for Matthews, but he was excellent Saturday.
• John Tavares came alive during the third period and continues to be on fire for the Maple Leafs, with eight goals in his last five games. Tavares worked his way to the front of the net, cleaning up a Matthews’ rebound for the go-ahead goal and was the best player on his line along a much-improved Bobby McMann and William Nylander on Saturday. He’s been playing to his strengths, getting to the net-front with ease throughout March, and he’s navigating space extremely well off the rush, and he’s a veritable nightmare hanging out at the back post. Tavares’ 12 goals are a career-high for a single month, and he’s in terrific company, as he’s now 50th on the NHL’s all-time goals list, tied with Hall of Fame forward Jean Ratelle. This is precisely what you want to see out of your second-line centre heading into the playoffs.
• Toronto’s 5-on-5 goal scoring remains flat, and it’s become obscured by the scorching power play — in this case, Matthews’ shorthanded marker got the ball rolling, before Tavares scored on the power play, then again with an empty net. This space should be largely positive after beating a strong Kings team on the road, but the Maple Leafs won’t be able to hide behind their power play in the playoffs, especially if they’re matched up against the Lightning or Panthers during the first round. There’s no immediate solution either and it doesn’t appear that Berube has any radical line combinations in store ahead of the playoffs, but that’s what this final month is about.
• Two more negatives, if you will: Philippe Myers needs to be reinserted into the lineup for Simon Benoit, who was burned completely by Alex Laferriere on the Kings’ lone goal. If Myers can’t win the No. 6 job outright, then at least you can say the Maple Leafs exhausted all their available options, but Benoit has become borderline unplayable throughout the calendar year of 2025. Pontus Holmberg was also reinserted into the lineup in exchange for Nick Robertson and was barely noticeable on the ice. Holmberg’s ability to draw penalties is the only thing that should place him in the lineup over Robertson, and that likely isn’t a good enough reason.
• Anthony Stolarz was excellent throughout the game, and while the Kings didn’t force him into many spectacular saves, they won the shot differential battle, and tried to get pucks through traffic constantly. Stolarz was calm, cool and collected, and while Berube will take the whole season into account, the 31-year-old may be back in the lead for the playoff starter role. Joseph Woll will almost certainly start Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks, and now Stolarz can prepare for a potential playoff preview against the Panthers on April 2.