Saturday FTB: Can the Leafs make it a 3-0 start?

This has been a fun start to the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Last year they struggled against Montreal but somehow won, they played good against Ottawa but lost due to defensive struggles. This year they’ve largely played even or better than their first two opponents on the way to two decently convincing wins.

Auston Matthews is firing even more ridiculous shots than ever before — I still can’t see when the puck goes in on a real-time replay. Mitch Marner has 4 points in 2 games. William Nylander has 2 points. Their depth players are holding their own and contributing — Frederik Gauthier actually looks like he can contribute to the play instead of just trying to have a complete null effect on all offense, even his own team’s! And Frederik Andersen looks very steady.

Now they have their first real rivalry game against an NHL divisional opponent.

Meanwhile, some of their prospects down in the CHL are doing pretty great too thank you very much.

Semyon Der-Arguchintsev is near the top of the OHL in points with 2 goals and 12 assists 5 games.

Nick Robertson is not far behind with 7 goals and 4 assists in 5 games, and averaging 6 shots per game.

Mikhail Abramov seems to have decided he likes shooting the puck too. He has 4 goals and 4 assists in 7 games, averaging 4 shots per game.

Kalle Loponen, on the winning end, picked up his first OHL points with 2 assists in Sudbury's 9-6 win over Peterborough. Here's his PP assist on the Byfield goal #OHL pic.twitter.com/YHKn9gqwID
— Future Of The Six (@FutureOfTheSix) October 5, 2019