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The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the weekend losers of two straight and with rising concerns about their goaltending, but solid performances by Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray were central in a 4-1 Toronto win over Detroit on Saturday and their 6-2 victory over the Flyers in Philadelphia on Sunday.
Samsonov faced only 23 shots against the Atlantic Division rival, but slammed the door on the Wings after a Jake Walman first-period breakaway goal, with John Tavares scoring a pair of goals to cap off Toronto’s three-game homestand.
In the second of back-to-back games, Murray bounced back from a subpar effort against Seattle with a 34-save effort, keeping the Leafs in the lead in spite of their best efforts to keep Philadelphia in the game with sloppy giveaways in their own zone.
Calle Jarnkrok, Zach Aston-Reese, Conor Timmins (first NHL goal), Timothy Liljegren, Tavares, and Auston Matthews scored for Toronto, in a win that moved them eight points ahead of Tampa Bay (who have three games in hand) at the halfway mark, with a record of 25-9-7.
“We made good on a lot of our chances. We scored a bunch of goals. That put us in a good spot in the game. I didn’t think we had our best game by any means. We relied on (Matt Murray) probably too much, but he was terrific. That is the story of the game for me, how he played.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “At 41 games, any time you get to this point, you feel like it has been a lot of hockey, and yet there is still half a season to go. Lots can occur in that time.”
After a two-day respite, Toronto will once again play back-to-back and three games in four nights, hosting the Nashville Predators on Wednesday before heading out on the road to play in Detroit on Thursday and Boston on Saturday.
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GM Kyle Dubas, Team President Brendan Shanahan, and the bulk of the Leafs hierarchy held pro scouting meetings in Philadelphia over the weekend according to TSN’s Chris Johnston well in advance of the NHL’s March 3rd Trade Deadline, which does not mean any deals are imminent, since Toronto has just under $2 million in available cap space and to maximize their ability to fit player salaries under the cap, they will likely have to wait until late February or early March to pull the trigger.
In spite of the likely season-ending injury to Jake Muzzin, Toronto’s confidence in youngsters Rasmus Sandin, Timothy Liljegren, and Conor Timmins may have Dubas putting a defensive add at a lower priority to adding a scoring forward or third-line winger with size and sandpaper.
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