Tonight was the Leafs Pride Game. Happy Pride everyone.

First Period

The kids are alright.

I have to admit to being a little surprised at how physical Fraser Minten was out of the gate. No surprise with Nikita Grebenkin, a member of the Bobby McMann school of hockey, but he did get away with what should have been a penalty.

Minten:

Marner searching for a forward:

Greb with the hit that should have been called:

Score was 1-0 Leafs after one. Vegas with the only power play.

Considering the roster, this is a fabulous start from the Leafs at five-on-five.

Second Period

Hits to the head are bad in and of themselves.

First, some more Grebenkin magic.

And then the bad stuff:

The refs called a major to allow for a review. No one said what for that I heard. This is a hit to the head, and despite the conversation on the broadcast and intermission, I don't think that needs to be questioned. An illegal check to the head has the following exception which makes it non-penalized:

(ii) Whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position by assuming a posture that made head contact on an otherwise full body check unavoidable.

I think that's the reason there was no penalty on the play, but I'm not sure yet because the situation room has not reported on the issue. Whatever the reason, it led to a Vegas power play as Simon Benoit got two minors to his one for the extracurricular.

That led to the inevitable further chaos because the Leafs were mad. The Leafs killed the penalty and then no one played hockey for a bit:

Conor Timmins with a very stupid move:

Finally, the Leafs had the puck some:

Score was still 1-0 after two, and while Vegas owned the Corsi and the SOG count in the second (at five-on-five and in all-situations) they were not producing good enough offence to get by the Leafs defending. The Leafs got hemmed in, but it was harmless. Joe Woll was also very up to the job.

Third Period

No Matt Knies to start the third, and:

Whitecloud took a penalty for having not taken a penalty earlier in the first two minutes of the period. Fraser Minten was promoted to the top power play unit.

William Nylander got it done with Mitch Marner. The whole power play was excellent.

Leafs got another power play and looked so dangerous.

Nick Robertson with a couple of dreadful giveaways. He played very little, and was shown up by three guys who were on the Marlies last week.

Pontus Holmberg with an ENG for his first of the season.

Final score was 3-0 Leafs.

A lot of talk on air about the SOG favouring Vegas, but the shot quality was very poor. The Leafs played a good game in a tough situation in more ways than one. Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander were great. Simon Benoit was good in his first game back. But it was the Greb and Mint show for me.

See you Sunday as the Leafs take on Utah at home.

Game Coverage