Sheldon Keefe and John Tavares drop some excellent quotes following very rough home opener
Well, it wasn't pretty, but the Maple Leafs won their season opener on home ice last night against a Montreal Canadiens team who came in with every intention of spoiling the party in Toronto.
The Leafs didn't bring their best effort during the first period of last night's game, going down 1-0 on a horrendous giveaway from T.J. Brodie, who slipped and fell on a rough ice surface at Scotiabank Arena just 3 minutes into the game and surrendered a partial breakaway to Montreal's Jake Evans, who made no mistake.
Alex Newhook made it a 2-0 game for the Canadiens very early into the 2nd period, silencing the home crowd even more, having many wondering whether or not the Leafs were about to be blown out at home. Thankfully, Newhook's early 2nd period goal really seemed to snap the Leafs out of their trance, with Noah Gregor, Auston Matthews and William Nylander scoring 3 unanswered goals in the period to take a 3-2 lead.
With the Leafs and the fans coming into the 3rd period riding a bit of a high, thanks in part to a brand new goal song ("Pursuit of Happiness" by Kid Cudi), the Habs reminded them that they won't go away easy, scoring a trio of goals of their own to take a commanding 5-3 lead with just over 8 minutes to go. Thankfully, Auston Matthews got pissed off and did what he does, scoring two big goals late with the Leafs' net empty to force overtime.
The OT period was a bit of a back-and-forth affair before the Leafs took a penalty, giving the Habs a great chance to win the game in extra time. The defense played well and Samsonov stood tall, resulting in the game going to a shootout, where only Mitch Marner would score, securing a 6-5 shootout win for the Buds, capping off a very exciting, albeit very sloppy, home opener.
Following the game, head coach Sheldon Keefe was asked what he can take away from a game like that. Obviously, the Leafs didn't execute the way they wanted to, but rather than blowing up after the first game of the season, Keefe gave the best answer that he could. In a game where there weren't a ton of the positives, sometimes you have to give the most obvious answer.
Team captain John Tavares also spoke with the media and shared a lot of the same sentiments with his coach. There wasn't a lot that went right, other than picking up the win and, as Tavares pointed out, not every win is the best-looking win.
The Leafs will have a day off on Thursday to get some rest in after a long camp and pre-season. It will give the team some time to process what went on last night and identify a few areas that need to most cleaning up before Saturday's matchup against the Minnesota Wild. If I had to guess, I'd imagine that they'll be looking for a much cleaner win against the Wild.
| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 12 | 72 ANSWERS Sheldon Keefe and John Tavares drop some excellent quotes following very rough home opener How do you feel about the team's first win of the season? | ||
| They don't as how, just how many | 4 | 5.6 % |
| Embarrassing effort. This team's going nowhere | 9 | 12.5 % |
| It's just one game | 34 | 47.2 % |
| Loved the gutsy win! | 25 | 34.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
