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The Toronto Maple Leafs had what you would call an up-and-down weekend in Bigfoot Country, digging themselves a hole and rallying twice before falling 6-4 to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, and rebounding with a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Sunday.
The Leafs fell behind 3-0 to the Canucks in the first period due mostly to some loose defensive play, but rallied to tie the game in the middle frame on a pair of William Nylander goals and a tally by Jake McCabe. Vancouver took the lead late in the second, Toronto tied the game on a Mitch Marner short-handed goal, but was undone by a combination of a lack of discipline and bad special teams play, as penalties by TJ Brodie and Max Domi resulted in power-play goals by JT Miller and Elias Pettersson.
Toronto played a much more disciplined game against the Kraken, with Ilya Samsonov playing in the second of back-to-back games. Auston Matthews and Nick Robertson staked Toronto to a 2-0 lead, Jordan Eberle responded late in the second, and the Leafs held on to a slim one-goal lead, limiting Seattle to 17 shots on goal. Samsonov played well in his first win since December 9th.
“(Samsonov) just looked confident and prepared for whatever was going to come at him. He didn’t get a lot of work tonight, but that sometimes is even harder. You get long gaps between them, so you have to really stay focused.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “It has been a tough road for him, but he has worked extremely hard. As I had alluded to before the game, to me, it had felt all week that he was back to himself. Today was certainly a good indication of that.”
The Leafs finish the Western road swing 2-2 with wins over Calgary and Seattle but had chances for more points in losses to Edmonton and Vancouver. The club is off until Wednesday when they begin a home-and-home series to finish up their schedule before the All-Star break against the Winnipeg Jets.
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