The Toronto Maple Leafs‘ penalty kill has turned into a dominant force for them in the past month or so, and Saturday night’s 5-0 win vs. the Canucks was a textbook example.
The Canucks had six power plays including four in the first period, and the Leafs killed off all six of them to bring their penalty kill ranking to third in the NHL. Scott Laughton has been a driving force of the team’s improved penalty kill, logging over six minutes of time on the kill fresh off of a performance on Thursday that saw him win 19 of 20 faceoffs and score a shorthanded goal against the Philadelphia Flyers. That said, the success can chalked up to overall team success and a strong system implemented by new penalty kill coach Derek Lalonde, especially since the team has been without star defenceman Chris Tanev for much of the season.
The Leafs pounced on the Canucks early, with goals from Matias Maccelli, Max Domi, and William Nylander in the first period to give them a strong foundation from the start. It was a three-point effort for Nylander in his return, picking up right where he left off after missing the last chunk of games due to injury. John Tavares added another goal later in the game, and from there, the team tightened up and kept the Canucks off the scoresheet thanks to a stellar performance from Joseph Woll in net. The Leafs’ goaltender stopped 29 of 29 shots for his second shutout of the season. Nick Robertson also added an insurance goal with 13 seconds left in the game.
The Maple Leafs appear to be clicking at the right time on both sides of the puck. They’ve scored 38 goals since December 23rd, which is good for first in the NHL since that date. Their win over the Canucks is their third in a row, and they’ve yet to win four games in a row this season. They’ll have an extremely tall task in front of them if they want to do it on Monday, with a game against the league-best Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.
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