The Toronto Maple Leafs put forth a more complete and emphatic effort in the second of a back-to-back home-and-home series with New Jersey, overwhelming the Devils with four first-period goals in a 7-1 thrashing at the Prudential Center in Newark on Tuesday.
Mitch Marner scored twice to extend his consecutive goal scoring streak to seven games, with Jason Spezza, Auston Matthews, David Kampf, Michael Bunting and Pierre Engvall scored for Toronto in their fifth victory in a row, and Jack Campbell bounced back from a rough outing on Monday with 31 saves for his 21st victory of the season.
“That was really important for us for the obvious reason that we’ve had some poor starts here the last little bit and we wanted to fix that, but also because you’re playing the same opponent for the second time in back-to-back nights,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “We’re trying to have some continuation of the third period from the other night in terms of taking the will away from your opponent, so a good start was something we were really looking for today. Both offensively and defensively like we talked about, we need to play better for our goaltenders and I liked the response from our guys today.”
It was an excellent night for everyone except the second line of Alex Kerfoot, John Tavares and William Nylander, who did not register a point and were on the ice for New Jersey’s only goal, courtesy of Jack Hughes.
The Leafs (except for Matthews and Campbell) will have five days off due to the All-Star break and will return to action next Monday when Frederik Andersen and the Carolina Hurricanes come to town.
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In the ‘if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard’ category, the Maple Leafs are reportedly interested in Anaheim Ducks defenseman Josh Manson. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on the “32 Thoughts” podcast that Toronto is interested in acquiring the 30-year-old blueliner, who is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.
Friedman indicates that the Ducks, who are currently in second place in the Pacific Division, may choose to keep Manson as an own-rental in hopes of re-signing him before hitting the open market this summer. Anaheim also has Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindholm as pending UFA’s, which also could mean that they’d be willing to trade someone who they cannot afford to sign.
With the availability of someone like Manson uncertain, the Leafs may be exploring other options for a right-handed blueliner before March 21. Toronto Asst. GM Laurence Gilman took in the Jets - Flyers game in Philadelphia on Tuesday. It is likely that the Leafs have interest in one of Philly’s pending defensive UFA’s in Justin Braun or Rasmus Ristolainen.
Braun makes $1.8 million this season, an amount that would be easier to fit under the cap, but the 34-year-old would be more of a bottom-pairing veteran add than someone who could fit into the Leafs top four.
Ristolainen is a big, physical right side defender averaging over 21 minutes per game, but his salary ($5.4 million) would require Toronto to shed salary or have a third club retain a portion to make the money work.
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