The first day of World Junior action might just have filled the appetite of Leafs Nation, who has had to go through three grueling days with friends and family and without their beloved  Maple Leafs. The boys are back tonight, playing the New Jersey Devils in Newark.

Yesterday saw the start of the 2020 World Juniors. We had 30 goals combined over the first four games, top amongst them being this inspired snipe from young Nick Robertson, who is a Leafs prospect dontcha know!

I’ve seen this goal more than a dozen times and each time it’s astounding that the Peterborough Petes star could release the puck from that tight, with that much power, and hit the water bottle at the back of the net.

We haven’t seen many water bottle shots in recent years after leagues moved to video review and required top of the net to be unobstructed for the goalie cam. I’m glad we got to see the return of it in this game. Canada won it, by the way, a 6-4 comeback over Robertson’s USA.

Katya has a Leafs-focused preview of the tournament that went out yesterday. Follow Lauren Kelly (@LaurKelly24) who will be live-tweeting the games and posting daily recaps of the previous day’s action over on our sister site Raw Charge.

Nick Robertson, Rasmus Sandin and Mikko Kokkonen want WJC gold

Also in minor hockey, I have a recap from the Marlies third straight Boxing Day Game loss to the Belleville Senators that will go out a few hours after this. It’s my first game back in about a month away for exams. Stay in school, kids!

The Spengler Cup is also on and Seldo played a bit of Where’s Waldo with this year’s cast.

Spengler Cup 2019: Let’s play find the Leafs

And finally, Brent Seabrook is on Robidas Island.

Blackhawks’ Calvin de Haan, Brent Seabrook will miss rest of 2019-20 season

From The Branches