As the Leafs continue to roll Matthews looks poised for a Thursday return date. The Leafs have been winning while Auston has been hurt and it’s surely given him peace of mind knowing that his team came through without him in the lineup and let him relax and heal properly.
Sometimes players with a big heart will rush back and it’s important for Matthews to be 100% before he returns. He’s much too valuable for the Leafs to risk rushing back and potentially aggravating his ailment before he’s good to go.
What a fantastic weekend it was for Leafs fans as they got four points from the Boston Bruins and have now won four straight games. It’s fair to say Leafs Nation is heating up!
If there was a team our boys could win on back to back nights like Friday and Saturday, Boston is surely one of the teams I would like it to be against.
Brad Marchand and Leo Komarov had a love affair going, as they always do. This time it went to the next level when Marchand went on his tippy toes and gave Leo a kiss on the cheek. When asked yesterday after the Leafs practice what he felt about the kiss, Leo Komarov answered with “I have a wife and baby, so I can’t do it right now.… You can bet Leo will have an answer the next time the Leafs square off against the Bruins.
Matt Martin almost ate rookie Anders Bjork for dinner with a hit near center ice, luckily for Bjork he saw Martin coming and was able to lessen the collision. He’s lucky he didn’t get hurt on the play, as is Martin as Bjork ducked and Martin and he collided heavily. Martin was a big soar from the hit and took a shift off, but the warrior he is, he returned to the ice and got into a fight the next shift.
Matt may not be the most gifted player offensively on the team but he brings a lot more to the game than the average fan believes. The Leafs are not exactly the most ferocious team with a number of so called “scary… players on the team to play against. Martin does his job well and it was good to see him come back and handle himself in a short scrap with Boston’s Matt Beleskey.
So who’s up next?
Well the good news us Nikita Soshnikov has been called up and we may see him as soon as Thursday when the Leafs play the Devils. New Jersey is off to an excellent start to the season with a 11-4-2 record and sit in first place in the Metropolitan Division. Soshnikov has been putting up points with the Marlies (12 points in 14 games, +8) and also had a clause in his contract that if the Leafs didn’t have him up with the team before November 14th it opened a door where Nikita could play in the KHL for the season. Soshnikov had 5 goals and 4 assists in 56 games with the Leafs last season in a reduced role.
After New Jersey is Montreal, a shorter week for the Leafs after a few heavy weeks in a row. Look for the boys to have time to work on some of their faults at practice and come back feeling good about themselves with lots of energy and a four game win streak under the belt.
Thanks for reading, have a great day!