The Leafs lost 3-1 to the Washington Capitals to tie the season series at one each. John Tavares scored again for his 12th goal of the season (on pace for 42 goals), but a bad bounce in the third period gave the Capitals the lead and an overall below average effort by the Leafs didn’t change the result. Stolarz stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced.

The Leafs only took 21 shots — one shot better than their season low performance against the Red Wings where they lost by the same scoreline. I have some concerns about the Leafs offence taking three fewer shots a game from last year. And to put it another way, the Leafs are down from 7th to 14th in shots for per game. Traditional thinking is the team is sacrificing offence for defence, but to me it looks like they’re just plain bad at transitioning the puck up. They don’t have the same puckmovers in the bottom six as they have had in the past.

Washington wins it on a fluke bounce
They won it on the deserve to win meter too.
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

Washington Capitals set new franchise record for consecutive road wins with 8 after defeating Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 on Friday

— RMNB (@rmnb.bsky.social) 2024-12-07T04:06:22.397Z

Big congratulations to Alex Steeves for tying the all time Toronto Marlies franchise record for points with 168 points (79 goals, 89 assists) in 199 games over four seasons. He ties Kris Newbury for the lead and can pass him in his 200th game. The top three according to Elite Prospects are Steeves, Newbury, and Ryan Hamilton. The franchise leader in points per game is Alexander Barabanov with five points in two games (I just wanted to mention that because I hadn’t seen that name in a long time).

Elite Prospects - All Time Regular Season Player Stats for Toronto Marlies
All-time/historical regular season player stats for Toronto Marlies, including top goal scorers, most games played, PPG leaders and more.
All Time Regular Season Player Stats for Toronto Marlies

So… do you want the good news first about Easton Cowan or the bad news?

Okay, good news first. He scored to extend his point streak to 56 games, getting a tweet out of Doug Gilmour!

Now the bad news. Cowan got caught with an open ice hit later in the game and was forced to leave. We don’t know the extent of his injury but we know he left the ice on his own feet.

The other Leafs first round pick in that game, Ben Danford, laid a similarly big hit on a Knights player.

And to cap off a night that presumably spiralled out of control, Danford was hit in open ice by another of Cowan’s teammates.

Former Rangers captain Jacob Trouba has been traded to the Anaheim Ducks for defender Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth round pick. Trouba’s play has dropped off in the last year and change so the Ducks are hoping a change of scenery for the 30-year-old works. The Rangers needed the $8 million in cap space without any strings attached. And on the same day, they used that cap space to extend Igor Shesterkin to the wealthiest goalie contract in the league — 8 years for $11.5 million.

New York Rangers trading captain Jacob Trouba to Anaheim Ducks | TSN
The New York Rangers have traded captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks after weeks of rumours that the defenceman was on the block.
TSNTSN.ca Staff
New York Rangers agree to eight-year, $92 million extension with Igor Shesterkin | TSN
The New York Rangers have agreed to an eight-year, $92 million contract extension with goaltender Igor Shesterkin, making him the highest-paid goaltender in NHL history.
TSNTSN.ca Staff

The Habs traded Jacob Perreault to the Oilers for Noel Hoefenmayer (who I thought was still in the Leafs organization). I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hoef in the NHL considering the Habs depth chart. Perreault was a first round pick of the Ducks acquired by the Habs for Jan Mysa. This is his second trade and he has spent time in the ECHL this season. Perreault, Yannik’s son, is in the last year of his ELC.

Canadiens acquire Noel Hoefenmayer from Oilers in exchange for Jacob Perreault
The Montreal Canadiens made a minor trade Friday, acquiring defenceman Noel Hoefenmayer from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for forward Jacob Perreault.
Montreal

Mark Stone is off LTIR and was in the lineup last night for the Golden Knights against the Stars.

Knights captain Stone back after 1-month absence
Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone is returning from a monthlong absence to play in Friday’s game against the visiting Dallas Stars.
ESPNGreg Wyshynski

And the Hurricanes are terminating the contract of Brendan Lemieux.

From The Branches