Why were the Original Six afraid of 7? Because the Toronto Maple Leafs scored 7, 8 and next time’s 9!

I don’t even care that the joke doesn’t really work WOOOO GO LEAFS!

Seriously, last night was crazy. I was driving home from my first Thanksgiving dinner and my phone kept buzzing like crazy, so I was happy it was because the Leafs had a 5-2 lead. Lucky me I sit down for the second period to see the Leafs blow the lead. But THEN I get to see them seal the deal with an 8-5 lead!

Guess that one end of the ice was a bit tilted eh? 11 of the 13 goals were scored at the same end of the ice.

And if you were wondering how long it took the Leafs of the last few years to get to 15 goals, the answer was helpfully provided by HardevLad (new kid on the block who’s showing hustle, is a good man, and a good pl’r):

And the Leafs this year did it in two games. EL OH EL.

ONTO THE LINKS!

Katya wrote about how the Leafs have made roster decisions because of how LTIR and bonuses work.

The Toronto Marlies won their season opener 3-1 last night, thanks to goals from CLUBE, Rychel and Soshnikov and Mr Sparkles stopping 19 of 20 shots. We’ll have our own recap up later today!

Steve Wheeler from The Jock (so maybe paywalled) tells us we should be excited to see a potentially dominant Marlies squad this year.

MLHS shares some quotes from Marlies’ coach Sheldon Keefe raving about Travis Dermott.

Speaking of the Leafs’ affiliates, did you know that the Orlando Solar Bears is the Leafs’ ECHL affiliate? It’s true! That’s why PPP wrote about them preparing for their pre-season games!


Around the NHL

I normally don’t share a lot of stuff from elsewhere around the league, but last night was legit nuts. First, JT Brown of the Tampa Bay Lightning raised his fist during the anthem.

Nathan Walker of the Washington Capitals became the first Aussie-born player to make the NHL, and scored his first goal in his first game for good measure last nigh. I defy you to not feel warm and a bit teary about it!

The Minnesota Wild tied the game up with a fraction of a second left in the game:

Last night was also a night for insane saves. This one by Bernier might hold up as the save of the year:

There was also this one by Stalock:

And this one by Anderson:

Also Ovechkin scored 4 goals last night. Ho hum, call me when he does that in his first ever NHL game as a teenager! Mind you he DID score the 4 of them against the Habs so that’s pretty great, as was this ridiculous goal:

Happy Sunday everyone!

From The Branches