Good morning PPP!

The Leafs beat the Sens 3-0 last night, which is always fun given how much the Sens tend to bring it against us. The Leafs maintained their four-point lead on Tampa, and the Sens dropped to six points out of a wildcard spot – so much for Ottawa being a great team this year! The Leafs play again tonight at 7, this time against the Red Wings.

Samsonov played a great game last night, stopping 30 shots last night for his fourth shutout of the season. Bunting, Nylander, and Zohorna also scored.

Us PPP staff were having a conversation on depth scoring last night, and Lo! and behold: Radim Zohorna! Based exclusively on his G/60 numbers in his first game six minutes and fifteen seconds with the Leafs, Zohorna is the best scorer on the team. He's scoring at almost seven times the per-60 rate Matthews is. Our depth scoring concerns are solved! Just look at that shot.

Check out the full highlights here:

Goal Gif Recap!
This is your Maple Leafs vs the Ottawa Senators in pictures. Maple Leafs forward Zach Aston-Reese is skating in the 300th regular season game of his NHL career tonight. — Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) April 1, 2023 Intern learning the ropes: net is off pic.twitter.com/0W1NygyAfh — Omar (@TicTacTOmar) A…
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

Note: if you're concerned about depth scoring in the playoffs, consider checking out this article that Cathy posted earlier this week.

How many goals can you expect in the playoffs?
There’s a lot of lore about NHL playoffs. The depth has to chip in, the defence has to score, the grinders win you the series. A great fourth liner who doesn’t get power-play time gets 10 goals in an entire NHL season. What are you expecting in a playoff round?
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

Unfortunately, the Marlies didn't have as much luck with the B-Sens last night as the Leafs did with the Sens. It was SDA's first game back from injury, but they lost 4-0 anyway. Yikes.

That's their seventh straight loss, with their last win coming on March 12th against Rochester. The Marlies have already clinched a playoff spot, though, and they have an 11-point lead on Syracuse and Rochester, who are tied for second. That's seven more wins then the next best team, and I could almost imagine that they're struggling because there isn't much pressure to win with such a big standings lead.

That said, it seems more likely to me that the team is missing some key players since the deadline, and struggling with so many recent additions like Tverberg and Ovchinnikov. Tverberg was oh so close to his first professional goal last night, though, but not quite.

Oh well, Niemelä and Hildeby will soon be joining the team. I'm sure they'll save them...

Topi Niemelä and Dennis Hildeby join the Marlies | PPP Leafs
The Toronto Marlies have announced that prospects Topi Niemelä and Dennis Hildeby will join the team.
PPP LeafsBrigstew

The Leafs' 2nd round pick from last year, Nicholas Moldenhauer, scored a nice shorty last night. He's been having a great season in the USHL this year.

Cam Charron from the athletic had an interesting article about powerplays in the playoffs yesterday. It gets trotted out pretty often that, actually, powerplays do go up in the playoffs, but does that statement accurately portray how playoff special teams impact the games?

Power plays increase in the NHL playoffs, yes, but here’s why that feels deceptive
A look at data in recent years reveals that not all games are called equally.
The AthleticCam Charron

What are they doing down at the rink in Jersey?

This looks like a bad poutine, and Species did some sleuthing (read: googled it), and that's basically what it is. Disco fries are apparently a poutine knock-off with regular shredded cheese popularized in the 90's in the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York border area. They're a real "drunk patrons at 1 a.m. will devour this" food. For those keeping track at home, that's 24 dollars Canadian at a Devils game.

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