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The Toronto Maple Leafs finished up their two-game swing through the Big Apple with an impressive offensive performance by a team racked with illness at Madison Square Garden, besting the Metro-leading New York Rangers 7-3 on Tuesday night.
Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner each scored a pair, Conor Timmins, Calle Jarnkrok, and David Kampf added singles for the Leafs, and Martin Jones made 28 saves for the victory in his first start in Blue and White.
The Leafs jumped out to a 4-1 first-period lead, as Vezina winner Igor Shesterkin was having an off night. Toronto sat on the lead in the middle frame and that allowed New York to steal momentum and narrow the lead to 4-3 on goals from Mika Zibanejad and Blake Wheeler, but the Leafs stole it back early in the third on Marner’s power-play goal and finished the Rangers off with Matthews league-leading 21st goal of the season.
“It felt like we were a tired team for a lot of the night. I didn’t think we had our legs, but we were just encouraging and pushing our guys to dig in, move their feet, close, and pressure the puck.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “We drew a penalty (early in the third), which really changed the game with our ability to score as quickly as we did on the power play.”
Jones gave the Leafs a solid performance with a few good saves, but Toronto’s defense did allow the Rangers some opportunities and life in the middle of the game that put the outcome in jeopardy at the start of the third.
The Leafs return home to start a three-game homestand on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Leafs have been able to maintain a winning pace over the last few weeks with a makeshift blueline and loading heavy minutes on Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, Jake McCabe, and Conor Timmins. While Toronto has been successful in plugging holes with depth players William Lagesson and Simon Benoit, they definitely will welcome the return of Timothy Liljegren and Mark Giordano in the next few weeks.
Any hope of GM Brad Treliving making an impact move to upgrade on defense has to be tempered, based on what Pierre LeBrun indicated in his Rumblings column for the Athletic.
The Leafs have been logically connected to Calgary defenseman Chris Tanev, but interest is expected to be brisk for the 33-year-old defenseman and the belief is that the cost could be as much as a first-round pick.
LeBrun believes that Toronto might be reluctant to pay that price for a rental, even if it is someone they can think they can sign before free agency in July since they do not have a second-round pick in 2024 and a first and second-round pick in 2025.
The Leafs have limited assets to make deals before the March 8th deadline and might be limited to dealing a mid-round pick for a rental defenseman, and going after significant upgrades on defense during the summer.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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