Leafs Takeaways: Star power turned up, Stolarz and defence dig in

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In a measuring-stick game, the Maple Leafs had the better of the Edmonton Oilers by a country mile. 

Let’s see if what can be called the biggest win of their season Saturday sustains momentum through their entire four-game Western trip, but this was previewed as the hardest test. A 7-2 final got silly on the scoreboard at the end, but leading 3-0 through almost 40 minutes while killing two power plays fronted by Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard was certainly impressive. 

A closer look at the Leafs’ fourth consecutive victory: 

Matthews/Nylander vex McDavid/Draisaitl 

This was a classic, keeping it to collateral damage against two sniper forwards who’d carved up the NHL through 10 games. 

By the time McDavid and Draisaitl combined on an inevitable couple of goals, the Leafs were up three or four. At 5-on-5 the league-leading duo got nothing, needing 4-on-4 and a power play for the extra work room. 

Draisaitl had seven of Edmonton’s 32 shots on Anthony Stolarz, but fired high and wide on perhaps his best chance early in the game that would’ve blunted Leafs momentum. 

Auston Matthews only had two shots on net, one a perfect 2-on-1 pass from Easton Cowan and though it wasn’t a great night on faceoffs, he was doing a lot of other tough tasks defensively head-to-head against McDavid’s line. Nylander, with his mates Nick Paul and Kirill Marchenko, awaited his opening to cash a power-play and later nab an empty netter for 300 goals and sixth place in franchise history. 

Thin blue line plays thick minutes 

After three losses without Chris Tanev partnering Jake McCabe, there was rightfully some concern the Leafs shouldn’t wait for U.S. Thanksgiving to initiate a trade for blueline help. 

A deal in that area might still be a talking point for general manager John Chayka, despite his lack of trade resources, but the past four contests allowing just nine goals has allayed fears of the dam bursting. 

Toronto has allowed 30-plus shots in three of those games. But the extra burden on Jake McCabe and Darren Raddysh as the new shutdown pair, Morgan Rielly and Troy Stecher doing their best as well as being offensive catalysts (light-scoring Stecher with goals in consecutive games) and Oliver Ekman-Larsson with whomever else stays healthy has seen limited breakdowns.     

It’s been an eventful week for McCabe, after his brush with a serious eye injury in Columbus and a rough and tumble night Saturday where he kept crease encroacher Zach Hyman and other Oilers away from Stolarz with a heavy stick. 

Superb Stolarz stays fresh 

Part of the end-game in acquiring Sergei Bobrovsky was having Stolarz as his stablemate, a familiarity from their Stanley Cup year in Florida. 

Rather than let Stolarz sit on the bench while their new $21 million US star got all the quality starts, the Leafs turned to their 1A netminder in a pressure situation Saturday, despite Bob’s superior numbers against the Oilers. Stolarz, in tandem with his defence and penalty killers, looked very much the 21-game winner as a new Leaf in 2024-25. 

With the Oilers’ result, Stolarz improved his record to 4-1 with a .907 save percentage. Some earlier crease machinations this week saw Stolarz stay off the ice entirely for the game against San Jose in favour of call-up Artur Akhtyamov so he’d be well rested to stare down nearly 40 shots by Columbus. 

His chance at being an NHL No. 1 last year, perhaps his last kick as he approaches age 33, has probably gone, but he still has much value to offer the Leafs in a support role.

Bound by Alberta memories

Two former Oilers scored for the Leafs, Stecher and Jack Roslovic, giving the latter, a Columbus native, goals against both of his former teams this week. Stolarz was also briefly an Oiler, both of his decisions in 2018-19 being losses to the Leafs.

While McDavid increased his points lead over Matthews head to head to 34-24, the Leafs continue to be one of the most successful visiting teams at Rogers Place, 12-2-1 in the McDavid era.

Not a great night for former Leafs across centre, starting with Mike Babcock. He took the biggest loss by a former Toronto coach against his old team since Dan Maloney was shelled 6-1 after taking the Winnipeg job in 1986, while Zach Hyman and Kasperi Kapanen were blanked.  

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

X: @sunhornby  

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