‘A very long time coming’: Maple Leafs explode for feel-good rout over Penguins

Long deferred confidence.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, 60 minutes like Saturday’s has been 11 slogging video games within the making.

That’s how far one should observe again to discover a evening (Nov. 5) during which the reeling Leafs acquired the job finished with such relative ease. When their offence clicked to the tune of five-plus objectives they usually sealed up victory without having nail-biting time beyond regulation heroics.

Postgame music blaring from the dressing room (“Come On Eileen”), Nick Robertson playfully mimicking Dennis Hildeby’s soft-spoken Swedish, and loud high-fives… ah, that is what profitable appears like.

“Yeah, it’s been a long time coming, right?” Max Domi stated. “This just does nothing but build a lot of confidence for our group, and we needed it. That’s a good team over there, and we had everyone going tonight. So, huge win.”

Skating in entrance of their most enthusiastic and voluminous highway crowd all season — “Go! Leafs! Go!” chants reigned supreme from the heavy splattering of blue throughout PPG Paints Arena — the Maple Leafs cruised to a 7-2 wire-to-wire romp over the Pittsburgh Penguins, regardless of being outshot 35-23.

Granted, they could not have dominated the run of play. But they dominated on the scoreboard and in feel-good storylines.

“Nice to score a couple goals, and win with quite a big lead, which we haven’t done in a long time,” William Nylander stated in a trendy toque. “Lines were clicking and being connected. From the D to the forwards, everything was just flowing better.”

Red-hot Ekman-Larsson solved Penguins backup Arturs Silvos with Toronto’s first puck on internet, and by the point the Leafs had registered eight extra his method, three extra had smashed twine. 

Silvos, who couldn’t observe the play in case you noticed him an AirTag and a pair hound canines, acquired chased earlier than the sport was 25 minutes previous, thwacked his purpose stick down the tunnel, and compelled Tristan Jarry to take the crease for the second time in lower than 24 hours.

Unless you’re the Maple Leafs, who had as many redemption tales as purpose celebrations:

1. Dakota Joshua, scratched Wednesday, flattened Matt Dumba with a tone-setting hit in open ice, scored in tight, and drew a penalty that resulted in a hard-to-come-by power-play purpose.

“That’s my goal every night,” Joshua stated. “To lastly have a sport like that feels good.

“It’s obviously been not ideal to this point. So, to get that result means a lot.”

To Joshua’s teammates, too.

“We see a guy that’s competing like he was, and winning every battle and drawing penalties, scoring goals — he really did it all” Domi stated. “So, it’s great to see.”

2. Domi, scratched Saturday for the primary time in his Leafs tenure, responded to his coach’s problem with two main assists and good flashes of top-line chemistry.

“That’s what happens when you get scratched,” Nylander stated. “You come back with maybe a little bit more fire. He did a great job.”

Berube agreed: “Max was a lot better tonight. Made some nice plays. But he was engaged in the game, just on some forehecks, taking the body, winning the puck battle. Just defensively, working back to our zone, breaking plays up. He was good.”

How troublesome was it for Domi to sit down one out?

“Not gonna answer anything about that,” he stated. “That’s behind us now.”

3. Nylander, a shock scratch because of sickness Saturday, acquired over his illness with the quickness and added to his level whole.

“Willy’s a gamer. He’s not gonna miss too many games if he can help it,” Berube stated. “He gutted through it, and I thought he did a lot of good things with the puck.”

4. Bobby McMann, who’d been mired in one other six-game level drought, scored the winner, added an help and had his legs churning.

5. Robertson, who’d been demoted to the fourth line, snuffed his five-game level drought with one of many prettiest steal-and-snipes you’ll see.

6. Third-string goalie Dennis Hildeby — who’d been strong however with out run assist in his 5 earlier appearances — lastly secured his first win of the season.

“Every time we needed a save, he came up with one. They had a few ice tilts in their favour, and he stood tall for us back there,” Joshua stated.

“He’s grown, in a year, a lot,” Berube added. “Got a good future ahead of him.”

7. And captain Auston Matthews scored for the primary time since coming back from his lower-body damage.

To ensure, when a dozen skaters splash the scoresheet, and 7 of them stroll out with multi-point nights, the vibes are a little bit sunnier.

“A lot of secondary scoring tonight, which is good for our team. We need that. It’s not just on three guys or whatever that have been putting points up,” stated Berube, who additionally shouted out a defensive effort that noticed Toronto out-block Pittsburgh 26-11.

“It’s confidence. You know, they’re going to feel good about themselves — and that’s good,” Berube stated, earlier than including a caveat. “We got to keep getting better, though.”

But being on the completely satisfied facet of a blowout earlier than flying to Florida and dealing with the Panthers for the primary time since Game 7 ought to solely juice morale for Tuesday’s revenge match.

“Everybody was clicking,” Nylander stated. “We just gotta build off that.”

• Big 48 hours for Cowan, sharing his first sheet with Alex Ovechkin and hanging a splash on Sidney Crosby by ending off a nifty give-and-go with Nylander.

The rookie downplays these occasions as “just another game,” however… c’mon, actually? 

“He’s pretty level-headed,” says teammate Dakota Mermis. “Certainly, a high-confidence child. 

“But that’s got to be cool. I mean, it always is. You sometimes try to underplay it, but it’s a cool part of what we get to do. And he may be in shoes where people are looking at him one day across the ice. So, it’s exciting.”

• Saturday marked the Maple Leafs’ fifth back-to-back already this season — however not as soon as have they been at an obstacle. 

In every case, Toronto’s opponent was additionally on a back-to-back. And with Friday’s 5 p.m. begin in Washington, the Leafs arrived in Pittsburgh earlier than the Penguins’ aircraft touched down from Columbus.

• How impactful has 34-year-old Ekman-Larsson been?

Well, the most efficient season of his 16-year profession was 2015-16, when he erupted for 55 factors in Arizona.

This season the defenceman is buzzing alongside at a 66-point clip, whereas injecting edge and logging heavy minutes. He’s on a nine-game level streak regardless of being relegated to the second power-play unit.

Ekman-Larsson left the third interval with an upper-body damage that Berube hopes isn’t severe.

“He said he’s fine to me,” Nylander recognized.

• Nice David Amber sit-down function with Joshua discussing his battle with most cancers:

• Robertson’s boyhood idol was Crosby. And it by no means will get previous going head-to-head.

“I just remember the first time playing against him, I knew this guy my whole childhood, so I was like, Yeah, I’m gonna give him a cross-check,” Robertson says. “I went to give him one, and I kind of went back on my feet. Didn’t realize how strong he was.” 

When the Penguins rolled by way of Toronto in October, Crosby gifted Robertson one in all his sticks. Where will it’s stored?

“In my house in Michigan, tucked away, where no one can take it.”