The second week of Leafs hockey is in the books, with a 1-1 record for an overall record of 3-2 on the early season.

Maple Leafs 6, Kings 2

After a couple days of rest, the Leafs went back at it against the LA Kings. Max Pacioretty drew out of the lineup for the returning John Tavares.

The Buds started off strong, with an early tally from Bobby McMann. Berube’s coaching style seems to be clicking now, as it’s a pretty simple style: crash the net. On McMann’s goal, there were two Leafs on both sides of the net, ready to grab a rebound off of McMann’s shot if it went wide.

Less than two minutes later, Auston Matthews finally buried his first of the year, off assists from Mitch Marner, and OEL. Auston seemed to be quite the unlucky player in the first couple games of the season, hitting posts and just coming up short on a lot of his chances. Hopefully this goal will help him swing back in the right direction, and hopefully he can get another crack at trying to hit 70 goals in a single season. Later in the opening period, McMann tallied his second goal of the game, from a beautiful pass from William Nylander. McMann’s second of the night ended up being the game-winning goal.

In the second period, the defenders wanted to get in the scoring, with Jake McCabe and Morgan Rielly linking up for a defender-to-defender goal, for Rielly’s first of the year.

With the whole team getting in on the scoring, the powerplay was fed up with going 0-11 on the new season, and William Nylander finally broke that streak with a goal from the top of the faceoff circle, while the goaltender was screened by Mitch Marner. John Tavares added another powerplay goal late in the game, to seal the Buds 6-2 win.

Stolarz was excellent between the pipes yet again, stopping 32 of 34 shots for a statement win over the LA Kings. The style of hockey that the Leafs are starting to play is more like what we expected to see come playoff time, where they’re being physical and they’re not giving up the puck and lazing around the offensive zone. Berube is the coach that should lead the Leafs to the postseason, and he will be demanding the very best from his players every night forward.

Maple Leafs 1, Rangers 4

The game was not as bad as the score will tell you. Two of the Rangers four goals came with the empty net, leaving the other two goals on the back of Anthony Stolarz.

Early on, the Leafs had good pace as well as momentum, but so did New York. Eventually, New York was able to capitalize and take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Igor Shesterkin as you’d expect, was the shining star for New York. Making save after save, with there being many high-danger chances that Shesterkin kept out of his net. Igor robbed Leafs forward John Tavares on a great shot from the slot, flashing the glove and making a huge save for his hockey team. Igor is demanding a huge contract from the Rangers, and with every game that passes, you can see why he believes he deserves it.

“You can see why he’s going to be the highest-paid goalie in the league,” Stolarz said of his counterpart post-game.

In the third period, Auston Matthews broke Igor’s shutout as he tallied his second goal of the season on a wraparound with traffic in front, notching back-to-back games with a goal. Other than that, nothing the Leafs could do could break Shesterkin’s strong game.

“Obviously, we try to communicate that. It literally just started with getting to the paint, being around there. Like you saw on Auston’s goal, it was right by the net, just traffic and chaos and that’s kind of what we need more of”, said Matthew Knies post-game.

Overall, the game was fine. Toronto played a fine hockey game, but you can see why New York is held in such high regard. They can confidently roll all 4 lines, and they can confidently depend on Norris candidate Adam Fox, as well as the depth they have on their blueline. New York still has yet to lose in regulation, and with the way they’re rolling now, any team would have a hard time stopping them.

Toronto and New York will play twice again down the road, and you can look for a similar game with a similar style of play, and hopefully the Leafs could crack Shesterkin more than once.