Hockey!!!

Or some reasonable facsimile at least.

First up, you get to see Igor Ozhiganov make a defensive play on one of the Leafs better players. Blue features Auston Matthews, Patrick Marleau and Tyler Ennis as their top line. They look good together with multiple close ones early. They are up against Frederik Andersen in the first period, so it’s a real test.

Mitch Marner gets some chances too, but it’s blue that scores first as Martin Marincin wires it past Eamon McAdam with a little deflection help.  McAdam then weathers some of that Matthews line offence well.

You really get to see the strengths of Jordan Subban’s game here too, as well as why Colin Greening is the last and best remnant of the Dion Phaneuf trade. He’s a good AHL pro.

The Pierre Engvall goal is so much fun, though. It’s a classic of the Mitch Marner genre. He comes out on a delayed penalty call like he’s the invisible man until he’s the only one anyone can see. I’m sure Engvall enjoyed his time with Marner and John Tavares.

For reasons known only by the Leafs, they didn’t show the shootout, so here is the winner:

That was fun. And I think we can all agree, you want to play with Marner or Matthews if you want to look good.