The Maple Leafs are currently much more than Marner

Mitchell Marner is currently the focus of interest for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The forward scored on Thursday in the Maple Leafs’ 5-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the Scotiabank Arena to make it 4-0 in the second period, extending his current points streak to 21 games.

Toronto increased their tally from the last 13 games in which they could score points with this renewed success to 10-0-3. Incidentally, the organization’s record in this category is 16 games (14-0-2) and is therefore not too far off. This historic Maple Leafs run ran from November 22 to December 26, 2003.

In addition to Marner’s impressive performance, there are currently many other positive approaches to be noted in Toronto, which have faded somewhat into the background in the shine of the point series. So booked William Nylander two more points against Los Angeles and thus has 14 points from the most recent 13 appearances. And also Auston Matthews was among the goalscorers again, leading to an 11-goal streak in 11 games. David fight has three points in four appearances and Alex Kerfoot has six of his 12 points in the last eight games.

Video: LAK@TOR: Marner extends his run

The Maple Leafs, who seem to fly through the league so lightly and easily these days, are benefiting from their enormous roster width at this stage of the season, which, apart from Marner’s individual strength, is a big pound with regard to the upcoming Stanley Cup in the spring Playoffs 2023 should be.

“I think it’s definitely a good result against a team that’s really good at stopping opponents in the neutral zone, slowing down and always countering dangerously,” Marner commented on the game against Los Angeles. “I think in the second period we really took over and played our game. We managed to play with speed and pace. We did a really good job today.”

In addition to Marner, who has 28 points (ten goals, 18 assists) during his current streak, goalkeepers were the main favorites against the Kings Ilya Samsonov, who celebrated his first shutout for the Maple Leafs (17-5-6) after 29 saves. Nylander managed a goal and an assist Denis Malgin fired three shots in 12:56 of ice time after missing three games.

Video: LAK@TOR: Nylander hits with a backhand

“It was an incredible performance by the entire team,” confirmed Samsonov. “We dominated our opponents in every respect today. It was a great performance.” It was also the Maple Leafs’ second straight game without conceding a goal after goalie Matt Murray also kept a clean sheet in the 4-0 win over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, making 44 saves.

The decision on the ice was made in just a few seconds on Thursday. The Maple Leafs scored three goals in 1:06 minutes in the second period and took a decisive 3-0 lead in this phase. It was only the sixth time in the past 20 years that they have netted three goals in that span (or less).

“I think it was a very, very good game from us overall,” said Toronto center Matthews after the final siren. “We’ve obviously done a lot of good things and two games in a row without conceding a goal, that’s mainly a credit to our defense and the goalkeeping performance of Samsonov and Murray. I think it was just a cohesive team effort from everyone. That’s the type of games that you want to play and that you have to play through consistently.”

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Pierre Engvall made it 1-0 in the 26th minute when he caught Kings goalie’s glove from the left faceoff point on the power play Jonathan Quick missed. David Kampf made it 2-0 26 seconds later when he shot from the left cushion. It was his first goal in 20 games. Nylander increased further after 6:16 of the middle third when he passed the puck to defenders Sean Walker snooped past the Kings blue line and outwitted Quick with a backhand shot past his right cushion.

Marner even extended the lead to 4:0 in the 34th minute when he slapped a shot into the box from the right face-off circle. Marner is the 10th player in 35 years to have a point streak of at least 21 games and the third active player (Patrick Kane, 26, 2015/16; Sidney Crosby25, 2010/11).

Matthews extended his personal scoring streak to six games with just over ten minutes remaining when he netted a pass from Nylander in the slot to make it 5-0. He has ten points (five goals, five assists) in that streak.

“To be honest, I was a little unsure how we would perform here tonight,” admitted Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe in retrospect. “I kind of felt like we had a longer road trip after Dallas, even if we only played two games away. We only came back yesterday so didn’t have much time to recover and then it’s straight to the point today into the matchday, but the lads reacted really well.”

Toronto continues on Saturday (7 pm ET; NHL.tv; Sun. 1 am ET) when the Calgary Flames will be making their calling card in the city.

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