The Good, Bad, & the Ugly in Maple Leafs 4-2 Win In St. Louis

It was Knies’ 10th goal of the season and just the second goal he has scored in his last 22 games. It was exactly the “Power forward” type of goal that he was known for in university and the kind of goal we hope to see more of in the NHL. 

Marner and Matthews

Toronto would score a power-play goal 45 seconds into the second period. Marner would steal the puck off the stick of Blues defenseman Nick Leddy and wait patiently behind the St. Louis goal for Matthews to circle and get into a scoring position. Marner would then feather a pass out front to Matthews.  Matthews wasted no time snapping the puck past the glove of Hofer into the net to score his 49th goal of the season. 

The shorthanded goal came off of the stick of William Nylander after Knies was sent to the box for hooking Leddy. Nylander bumped Tory Krug off the puck in the Toronto zone, poked it into the neutral zone, and then broke into the Blues zone on a two-on-oh breakaway with Pontus Holmberg. Using Holmberg as a decoy, Nylander hit the top corner of the short side over Hofer’s glove. That goal gave Toronto a 3-1 lead seven and a half minutes into the third period.

McMann

Bobby McMann would round out the scoring into the empty net when he shoved Krug off the puck about ten feet in front of the Blues goal and fired it into the empty net. Krug argued for a penalty on the play but it was ruled a clean play – as it should have been. 

I am sure Head Coach Sheldon Keefe loved McMann’s game in this one. Until he potted the empty netter he didn’t factor into any of the scoring. But, he did make three excellent defensive plays in the Toronto zone in the game, coming back to disrupt three potential St. Louis scoring chances. 

McMann has scored six goals in his last four games and now has eight goals and fourteen points in 30 games played. That would translate to a 22-goal, 38-point in a 82-game season. For a lot of this game, Keefe had McMann playing on the left wing with Nylander and John Tavares. 

Marshall Rifai

With an injury to William Lagesson and Mark Giordano absent due to the passing of his father, 25-year-old undrafted Marshall Rifai got his first NHL start. Rifai is the type of defenseman who if he is playing well you don’t notice him. How do I know this? I have watched all 34 games he has played for the Marlies this season and I hardly ever notice him. 

He did just that in this game. His stat line reads 11:33 of ice time, zero points, zero in plus/minus, one shot, and one hit. According to Naturalstattrick.com, Rifai was on the ice for one High Danger Chance For, and zero against. 

The Bad

The first period of this game was like watching paint dry while playing chess. It was not that exciting. The shots were 6-6 and the scoring chances were 4-3 Blues. Things did pick up a little in the last two periods but this game would not be used to define the word “intense” in any form. For the Maple Leafs that is not a bad thing. They played a simple and defensively strong road game.  

Ryan Reaves had a shift to forget that also played a role in the first St. Louis goal. Reaves passed up a chance to change when his linemates did and with the Matthews line coming onto the ice, deciding to join the rush instead. He then took a tripping penalty behind the Blues net. On the ensuing power play, Brandon Saad would fire a wrist shot from the middle of the slot past Ilya Samsonov.

After Tyler Bertuzzi missed a wide-open net with the St. Louis goalie pulled, the Blues would come back down the ice and Pavel Buchnevich would tip a Krug shot from the point past Samsonov to pull St. Louis to within one with 1:08 left in the third period. 

The Ugly

It looks like Bertuzzi finally scoring a goal against the Ducks to end a 20-game goalless drought didn’t change his luck at all. He had an empty net to shoot at from the neutral zone between the center line and the St. Louis blue line. Bertuzzi had the puck on target to hit the middle of the net. The problem was it was too high and sailed over the top of the goal. It could have been costly for the Maple Leafs as the Blues scored right after that. Thankfully McMann bailed Bertuzzi out with his empty-net goal. 

What’s Next?

Toronto flies to Arizona to take on the Coyotes on Wednesday night and then they move on to Nevada to play the Golden Knights on Thursday night. Matthews could score his 50th goal of the season in front of his family and hometown friends. Both games have a 10 pm start Eastern Time.  

I was hoping we might see Joseph Woll get one of the two starts. However, with the number of players Toronto has injured at the moment, it might be impossible for the Maple Leafs to activate Woll off of LTIR. I’m going to guess we’ll see Martin Jones in Arizona and Samsonov start in Vegas.  

The Toronto win on Monday combined with the Ottawa Senators upsetting the Lightning in Tampa 4-2 gives the Maple Leafs a three-point lead over the Lightning in the battle for third place in the Atlantic Division. It also gives them an eight-point cushion on a spot in the postseason. They go into Arizona having won eight of their last ten games and riding a four-game win streak.