Great news Leafs Nation: the Toronto Maple Leafs’ power play has turned the corner.
Toronto’s power play scored twice against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, en route to a 3-1 win, and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down anytime soon. This is quite the turn over events and it’s occurred without captain Auston Matthews, who missed his second straight game and landed on the injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
Matthews’ supporting cast when to work against the Red Wings. What stood out during this Original Six matchup was watching Mitch Marner’s opening goal and his power-play entry was in the middle of the ice, and not along the side boards just over the blue line. Marner got in the zone, William Nylander got the puck to the net, and good things happened.
MITCH MARNER 🚨
The power play keeps going pic.twitter.com/MDZOulnVY2
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 9, 2024
The team’s power-play entries has been one of the Maple Leafs’ biggest flaws during the first few weeks and also has been a familiar sight we’ve seen far too many times throughout the past few years. Constantly, the Leafs would wind up passing it to a forward standing still just over the blue line and time after time, the play would crumble. Not anymore! The Leafs are trying new things, the power play is 6-for-11 in their latest sample and have skyrocketed up the NHL ranks because of it.
Another reason they’ve been so effective is Matthew Knies standing in front of the net, which once again played a huge part in John Tavares’ game-winning goal. Knies doesn’t always have to be directly in front of the net, just being around the crease increases the pressure and decreases the site lines for any goaltender. You could tell on Tavares’ quick turn around wrister that Red Wings’ netminder Cam Talbot lost his angle. Knies didn’t get a point on the play, but he had a huge impact on the Leafs’ second power play goal of the night.
catch and shoot pic.twitter.com/All4Log3qj
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 9, 2024
Besides the effectiveness of the power play, some other numbers that stood out for the Maple Leafs included Max Pacioretty landing five hits, Tavares notching his seventh goal on the season on the empty netter to seal the victory and goaltender Anthony Stolarz making 21 saves against the Red Wings for his sixth win of the season. Stolarz was once again as solid as ever and while of late, it’s been a bit of a circus when it comes to him holding onto his goal stick, against Detroit, he did one better and lost his stick along with his blocker and took things into his own hands…literally.
Stolarz got the puck with his barehand! pic.twitter.com/kIXAikt18y
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 9, 2024
It’s another solid win for Toronto as it’s learning how to win in multiple different ways under Craig Berube, which is going to be a great sign down the stretch and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Maple Leafs are right back at it Saturday when the Montreal Canadiens come to town. Two teams heading in opposite directions as the Canadiens have struggled of late, and the Maple Leafs have won three in a row. Hockey Night In Canada, Leafs vs. Habs, it doesn’t get much better.
