Return date still unclear for Leafs’ starting goaltender Andersen

The Toronto Maple Leafs look to earn another big victory here after winning seven of their last 10 games.

And Eichel was more than pleased to send the “Go, Leafs, Go!” chanting contingent back across the border unhappy following a 5-2 win Saturday night. It’s common for thousands in blue and white to stream over the border for Leafs games here; on Saturday night, the collective group of Leafs fans in the crowd of 19,070 might have bigger and more vocal than anything we’ve seen for a road game in the past decade. But I think I worked hard and I feel close to 100 percent and I’m just really happy to be here. “And it’s good to see”. They need to beat the Panthers.

Eichel scored twice and set up another in dousing the celebratory atmosphere and slowing the youth-laden Maple Leafs’ late-season surge to clinch just their second playoff berth in 12 seasons. He has also opened the scoring in a game for a league high 14 times, tied for second most in a season since Pavel Bure had 15 during the 1999-2000 season. Reimer was able to skate to the dressing room under his own power but did not return to the game.

The Maple Leafs won the lottery and drafted Auston Matthews.

The Leafs improved to 87 points, further solidifying their third-place spot in the Atlantic Division.

“The other team’s doctor thought he should come out of the game, so he came out of the game”, said Toronto head coach Mike Babcock.

“We took to them for a while and played in their end”, Eichel said. “We expect ourselves to be better than that”.

So the sight of 19-year-old Auston Matthews potting his 35th goal of his remarkable first National Hockey League season on Tuesday night, even if it surpassed Clark’s record of 34 goals set back in 1986, didn’t appear to plunge Clark into a period of intense mourning. His three goals allowed on 22 shots through two periods against the Sabres on Saturday might not inspire confidence, but it doesn’t have to: this is not McElhinney’s team.

The Dane discussed his uncomfortable status with the team’s medical staff as well as the Sabres doctor in the intermission and “just chose to play it safe” by coming out.

Sparks is recalled from the Marlies after having a shorter season due to a suspension from the team due to the team’s social media policy and injury.

“It’s good”, Clark said emphatically during the first intermission at the Air Canada Centre. “They skated better, they were quicker”. We always like to play against them. “We weren’t prepared mentally or physically, and that’s what happens when you come into a building like this and they’re ready and we weren’t”.

After 10 minutes of smothering defense from both sides, the Leafs rookie top line made it 1-0 at 11:54.

Eichel picked up his first goal of the evening on a blast from the left circle 25 seconds later. His style of play is rather erratic; he can allow goals in bunches. There are many pieces to the turnaround, but a good chunk of it was luck, and that’s part of what makes it all so unexpected: the Toronto Maple Leafs are on an extended run of good fortune. Marner is tied with Gus Bodnar for most assists by a rookie.

Brown made it 1-1 at 9:30, burying a rebound after Leo Komarov’s initial shot was stopped.

With five minutes left, numerous Toronto fans had exited the building.

Obviously, said atmosphere had nothing to do with the Sabres’ postseason odds, which now stand at an impressive 0.0002% according to Sports Club Stats. “The goal is to keep it quiet”. Kulikov played his 500th game in returning after missing nine with an upper-body injury.

The goal represented Matthews’ 62nd point in 75 games and it put him four off the Leafs rookie points record of 66, set by Peter Ihnacak in 1982-83.