Following an ugly shootout loss in San Jose, the Leafs responded accordingly over the weekend in Southern California.
First, they went into Los Angeles and beat a red-hot Kings squad 3-1. Then, they finished off the sweep of the back-to-back with a 3-2 win in Anaheim.
Just like that, Toronto owns a three point lead for first in the Atlantic Division on the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
We kicked off the Monday edition of Leafs Morning Take by dissecting the standings. With less than 10 games remaining, there’s still so many different scenarios to play out. If the season ended today, the Leafs would play Ottawa. The Battle of Ontario returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs would be utter insanity. Meantime, I had Rosey react to Niko Mikkola’s unnecessary clapper at the buzzer on Sunday afternoon in the Cats/Canadiens game. It set the Habs off, and rightfully so. We had a chuckle about that.
After that, we got into a full weekend recap. Toronto grabbed five of a possible six points in California (2-0-1). Additionally, they improved to 31-1-1 when leading after two this season. Also, they finished 11-3-2 vs. the Pacific Division in 2024-25. Joseph Woll made 28 saves in the win over Anaheim. All in all, it was a solid bounce-back effort after he was indirectly called out by Craig Berube following the San Jose game. In general, we had a lengthy chat about the crease. We have faith in both guys with the playoff just around the corner. Over and above all that, we broke down the shoddy officiating on Sunday and the two high-stick challenges. We thought they got very fortunate on the Matthews goal that stood. You win some, you lose some.
It was a strong weekend for the bottom six. Max Domi scored a beauty against the Ducks and it was great to see Steven Lorentz chip in with his fourth game winning goal of the season. Lastly, I had Rosey break down Brandon Carlo’s first scrap as a Leaf. Unknowingly, he dropped the gloves with Los Angeles’ Jeff Malott, who’s the younger brother of UFC fighter Mike Malott. He held his own. Kudos to Carlo! That’s 11 different Leafs (and counting) with a registered fighting major under Berube.
The Leafs are back home and prepping for another big one with Florida on Wednesday night. Join us for the Tuesday edition at 11 AM ET as we begin to tee that one up.
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