The Leafs defeated the Oilers 6-3 which sounds great, but this was a game where the Leafs had a 5-0 lead. However, the big news for the Leafs is Ilya Samsonov going down injured with only a few minutes left in the third period.

Here's my real time recap of the game.

Pre-Game

Everyone is talking about Zach Hyman, one of the many ex-Leafs on the Oilers, but far and away the most successful. I'm gonna go with Willy's guess here.

And you can't have the Oilers vs. the Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada without it being McDavid vs. Matthews even though that's really not a rivalry but I guess it's more of one than some other fake ones they make up.

Stuart Skinner in net for the Oilers and Ilya Samsonov in net for the Leafs.

So here we go!

First Period

The game starts with Matt Knies tripping McDavid and gifting the Oilers a power play.

It's no surprise that Samsonov is called upon to make a lot of big saves here and he manages to make all of them and the Leafs kill off the penalty.

The Leafs pull themselves together and start getting the offence going and it's not long until John Tavares sets up Bobby McMann for the first goal of the game.

Zach Hyman is definitely trying to get a chance at hitting 50 goals tonight, and the Oilers are getting a lot of o-zone time for him to get in place for it with Samsonov called in to stop him more than once now.

Now past the half way point the tables are turned with Rielly leading a charge across the neutral zone and setting up Nylander who can't get it in the net as the play developed so quickly.

Things are trending for the Leafs to end this period up 1-0 with the Leafs able to tackle any zone entry by the Oiles and quickly get the puck out, but then John Tavares gets a little to handsy on one turnover and penalty for holding.

The Leafs PK has to go to work again with Joel Edmundson a standout again blocking shots and the Leafs not only kill it off then they get a penalty of their own when Nylander is tackled by Kane well before he can receive a pass.

And guess who it is that scores on the power play!

Having not learned their lesson, the Oilers almost immediately take another penalty for tripping. The period ends with 33 seconds still left on the penalty to start the next period.

Second Period

The second starts with Matthews coming in hot with a shot as the power play continues but the Oilers kill it off. Tavares then gives us all a scare by giving away the puck right behind the Leafs and the Oilers get a shot off on it but Samsonov reacts quickly enough to get in the way and stop the puck. Sammy is actually on fire in this game so far.

Things turn in the Leafs favour again as the Matthews capitalises on a slow response to get control of the puck on the boards, pass it up front to Domi who gets it to Holmberg who has a wide open net and puts it in.

But good fortune doesn't last as the Timmins is called for cross-checking. This is a big power play for the Oilers now down 3-0, but things quickly change again with both teams taking a penalty and we get some rare 4-on-3. For their part, the Leafs did pretty well here with Liljegren leading a three on one charge due to an Oilers miscommunication, and then there's a terrible turnover by Adam Henrique that gives the Leafs another three on one and what happens?

It's actually quite remarkable how bad the Oilers were on that power play opportunity. "Actually it's quite remarkable how bad they are at even strength tonight too," says Bobby McMann.

Second period ends with Durnell Nurse being an idiot and starting a post-whistle scrum.

Oilers are down 5-0

Third Period

Samsonov is just all over the pucks tonight. The Leafs have to kill off a penalty and he's doing a great job, and then there's even a Sammy chant in the crowd even, but, all good things...

And then the Leafs take another penalty and then, ugh this guy.

Lesson here is to stop taking penalties for the rest of this game, please.

As the clock shows ten minutes left in the game, the Oilers are really turning up the heat. McDavid and Draisaitl have now been split up to spread out their offence.

Now Max Domi gets in a fight for some reason.

The Leafs are very much in hold the lead mode as the Oilers are putting out McDavid as much as possible, so far to no effect except making the digital board ads glitch out of control for a few seconds.

Then the Oilers pull their goalie and we get a goal you could feel coming, but something much worse happens than the goal.

Samsonov is down on the ice for a few minutes with the trainer. He eventually gets up and very gingerly skates off and immediately leaves the game. Martin Jones is pressed into service to play out the final minutes, and the Oilers are going to be all over him.

Thankfully, Jones holds up, though he gets some help from the post.

Finally, Matthews seals the win with an empty net goal, which is his first ENG of the 58 scored this season.

Post-Game

The Oilers had no even-strength goals. The Leafs had four.

So, wow. There was a wild swing in emotion through this game from the first period to the end of the game here. The team played well and let's not forget the great work by Bobby McMann and Pontus Holmberg.

Now we await for word on Samsonov. UPDATE: Keefe said post-game he's probably going to be fine.

The Leafs jet off to Carolina to play the Hurricanes tomorrow night and we already knew Joe Woll was starting that one, so we should be thankful the Leafs are carrying three goalies on the roster right now so no major shuffling is necessary. Tomorrow's game is an early 6:00 p.m. start. See you then!

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