First Period

The Leafs had a very good power play, and outstanding PK and a goal from Auston Matthews.

Grebenkin drives the net and draws a hooking call

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T00:50:36.591Z

Nylander slices his way through Martinez stops Tavares from getting to the rebound

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T00:52:22.971Z

Tavares is called for hooking

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T01:04:35.270Z

AUSTON MATTHEWS 🚨 THE CAPTAIN STRIKES!

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T01:11:48.112Z

Nylander to Matthews with some sauce

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T01:12:44.969Z

Score was 1-0 Leafs after one.

It was a fairly even game at five-on-five, but that Leafs power play was an order of magnitude better than Chicago's. And Chicago is usually at least good.

Second Period

This period was all Chicago. Almost. The Leafs* gave them a long power play with a brief five-on-three in the centre, and the PK plus Anthony Stolarz held up, but the entire period was all Chicago except for this one little moment when the Leafs did some offence.

*That power play started with Auston Matthews taking his fourth penalty of the year on this call, so it was partly the ref:

Matthews is called for roughing because he definitely did that for no reason

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T01:39:56.731Z

The moment of offence:

JOHN TAVARES 🚨 Pinball goal

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T01:55:43.387Z

throw the puck on net and see what happens one of the Leafiest goals scored by a Leaf

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T01:56:49.982Z

Stolarz was the reason the game was 2-0 Leafs.

Stolarz robs Donato off the rebound

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T01:47:20.220Z

Score was 2-0 Leafs after two.

The Leafs can't play that badly for another period, or this game will end up in OT.

Third Period

The Leafs clearly didn't listen to either me or Craig Berube because they started out as bad as they were in the second, and they paid for it.

Lukas Reichel cuts the lead in half

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T02:35:41.521Z

Fraser Minten to the rescue, though, as he restored the two-goal lead.

FRASER MINTEN 🚨 Two-goal lead restored!

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T02:36:13.595Z

Taylor Hall helped the Leafs concentration on closing this out by taking a very dump "trade me now" penalty behind the play with seven minutes left.

Hall is called for slashing

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T02:51:01.637Z

Alex Nylander returned the favour with a defensive penalty on Hall as he came out of the box, but the Leafs PK is way too much for Chicago.

Marner with a breakaway that delayed the goalie pull was the most exciting thing in the second half of the period.

Marner thought Knies was closer

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T03:01:42.126Z

Knies with the ENG off a puck that banks off the boards.

Matthew Knies gets the empty-net goal 🚨

— Omar (@tictactomar.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T03:02:26.891Z

Nikita Grebenkin with a scrum after the horn.

Final score was 4-1 Leafs. They won the game, but it looks like they washed their offence in with the whites and bleached the life right out of it:

Next game is Wednesday vs Nashville see you then.

Game Coverage