CRISIS ?  WHAT CRISIS ?

It was off to the “PEG” for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first of five road games through the wild west.  The 2 and 2 Winnipeg Jets just love to play the Leafs, especially at home.  Their covid afflicted new head coach Rick Bowness was back behind the bench and their new player leadership group seems to have the “room” in order.  They definitely missed sniper Nicolaj Ehlers, recently assigned to the injured reserve.

Toronto, decided to beef up for this encounter adding both Kyle Clifford and Wayne Simmonds to the fourth line, placing Pierre Engvall and Aube’-Kubel seats in the press box.  The steady play of goalie Ilya Samsonov earned him a second straight start in the net.  Most of the pre-game hype was about this trip being an excellent team bonding opportunity away from the “white noise” of the Toronto media.

A very competitive first period produced lots of end to end action with solid goaltending from both sides.  Winnipeg opened the scoring at 4:17 when Pierre-Luc Dubois finished off a nice 3 on 2, banging in his own rebound.  Brooklin, ON native and former Whitby Wildcat, Cole Perfetti was a big part of that goal.  Toronto responded with a nice power play goal featuring a “roofer” from Captain John.  Nylander and Mathews were very instrumental in that set-up.  Speaking of Austin, he must have had 5-6 shots directed at Hellebuyck – none of which actually hit the net.

The Leafs took over an increasingly hostile game in the final 5 minutes of the second.  Despite fine saves at either end, goal posts and missed nets, the speed and hitting started to ramp up.  John Tavares, having another great game rapped one of the cross bar/post.  That was followed on the next shift by the “new” 4^th line as Clifford laid one into the middle ice where the “Wayne Train” showed his skill to send a perfect feed to David Kampf for the go ahead goal. Lots of crease scrums and general nastiness ensued.  As an example, Robertson was accepting a bit of a suicide pass on his way out of his own zone when he was rocked by Josh Morrisey.  Not only did TJ Broadie get after Josh, but Morgan Rielly just lost it trying to defend his young team mate.  Next shift – Keefe sends out Clifford and Simmonds as if to show “there’s a new Sheriff in town”.  You could feel the temperature rising and with more scrums and face washing – the refs had to do something.  They (wrongly?) chose to give the Jets a penalty, which riled the crowd but led to Tavares’ second goal of the night.  Mathews and Sandin drew assists and the period ended with SOG 23-19 for Toronto.

The Leafs pretty much shut the home team down in the third.  Samsonov was called on for a couple of keys saves but it was an empty net goal by Michael Bunting from his linemates Mathews and Marner that put the capper on this night.

HOPPER NOTES:  Tonight’s game winning goal was set up by Simmonds and Clifford – just sayin’…Ilya Samsonov, although a little awkward with the puck at times, is now 4 and 0, squares up to shooters and seems to have been accepted as a valued team mate…Guys I wish I had on my team: Neil Pionk….I didn’t see a lot of ice time for Victor Mete tonight…congrats to the Argos for clinching the east today…you can’t tell me: that Wayne Simmonds is done as an NHL player…to all the Austin Mathews second guessers – RELAX ! – the guy could have had a hat trick tonight (3 assists ain’t bad)…loved the 7 pm opening song “VEHICLE” from one hit wonders the Ides of March…”I’ll take you anywhere you want to go – and by now, you surely know”….please feel free to comment and watch for my Hopper on Hockey “VLOG” next Tuesday on You Tube…CHEERS !