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It appeared that the Toronto Maple Leafs were going to open the 2023-24 regular season the same way they opened the 2022-23 season 12 months ago; with a disappointing loss to the underdog Montreal Canadiens. Toronto trailed by two goals twice, but rallied late in the third to tie the game and won a 6-5 shootout victory at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
Auston Matthews, fresh off signing an extension to become the highest-paid player in the NHL, scored a hat trick, including his 300th career goal and two goals with Ilya Samsonov pulled for the extra attacker. Noah Gregor and William Nylander also scored for Toronto, John Tavares had three assists, John Klingberg had a pair of assists, and Mitch Marner scored in the shootout.
Samsonov appeared rusty at times in a 19-save effort but stopped all three Montreal opportunities in the shootout for his first win of the campaign.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe after the game was grateful his club earned two points, but was not pleased with the effort or some of the glaring mistakes made in the contest.
“The game presented almost everything you can think of in a game. It was all over the place,” Keefe said. “You can maybe chalk it up to it being early in the season. These things are always easier to process when you get the two points, but there were a lot of things we’ve got to do better than we did tonight.”
Keefe was pleased with the performance of the fourth line of Gregor, David Kampf and Ryan Reaves, which got the Leafs on the board in the second period and started the game with energy and physicality, including Reaves first fight as a Leaf with Habs defenseman Arber Xhekaj. He also was pleased with the effort of rookie center Fraser Minten in his first NHL game. The 19-year-old played 11:32 in the contest, playing mostly with Matthew Knies and Calle Jarnkrok.
Mistakes gave Montreal momentum early in the game, as TJ Brodie's pratfall at the blueline gave Jake Evans a breakaway and opening goal just over three minutes into the first period. The Habs extended the lead early in the middle frame on Alex Newhook’s first goal in Bleu Blanc et Rouge, and Toronto appeared to be on their way to an opening night loss as Cole Caufield scored on the power play, but the goal was overturned after the Leafs requested a review for offsides.
The reversal seemed to energize Toronto, as Gregor scored past Jake Allen to get the Leafs on the board at 7:46 and took the lead on a pair of power play markers from Matthews and Nylander. The Leafs attempt to protect the lead failed miserably in the third, as Caufield scored with the man advantage to tie the game and Montreal took the lead 82 seconds later on Newhook’s second of the game.
The death blow appeared to have been made midway through the third, as Timothy Liljegren’s flubbed pass in the defensive zone led to Jesse Ylonen increasing the lead to 5-3, but Matthews responded with an odd tally off the skate of Allen to narrow the lead and his third of the game with 1:07 left in regulation to tie it.
“The power play was big for us,” Matthews said. “It was a little bit sloppy on our end for the first period and a half and then I thought we started to get some shifts together and start rolling a bit.”
Tyler Bertuzzi had a strong effort in his first game as a Leaf playing with Matthews and Marner, registering five shots on goal, but was stymied all night by Allen, who made 37 saves. Knies was impressive at times, especially in overtime when he nearly won the game on a nice setup by Tavares.
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