TORONTO — With his team already holding a 3-0 lead one period and roughly one minute into the game, Pontus Holmberg streaked down the right side of the ice toward goalie Kaapo Kahkonen. The Toronto Maple Leafs winger was fending off San Jose Sharks defenceman Kyle Burroughs with his left hand while curling toward Kahkonen in the crease.
With just a crack of separation between himself and Burroughs, the natural inclination may have been for Holmberg to get his left hand back on the stick as he attempted to score his first goal of the season. Instead, he reached out with his right and chipped the puck past Kahkonen.
It was a cheeky little one-hander that, in a sense, offered tangible proof that the Buds likely could have defeated this particular opponent with one hand tied behind their backs.
Sometimes the first contest back at home after a road trip — especially one that took place three time zones away — can be a bit of a trap game. And sometimes you return to the softest landing possible, as the Leafs did on Tuesday night drubbing the Sharks 7-1 at Scotiabank Arena.
By beating San Jose for the second straight outing — Toronto downed the Sharks 4-1 Saturday night in Northern California to complete a three-game sweep in that state — the Leafs ran the Sharks’ losing streak to an even dozen games. That’s one game more than San Jose dropped in a row to start the season as the team in teal plummets toward securing the NHL’s best draft lottery odds.
On the other side of the ice, all of Toronto’s numbers sure hit in this one, as the Leafs ran roughshod over the visitors for a win that marked their fourth straight victory, while simultaneously snapping a three-game losing streak at home.
“Four lines rolling, three ‘D’ pairs, [goalie Martin Jones]was rock-solid when we needed him,” said Leafs winger Mitch Marner. “I thought every line did a great job tonight at controlling the play, forcing stuff and finding plays to make.”
Marner netted two goals and set up two others during a four-point night that gave him 598 for his career and moved him past Frank Mahovlich into seventh place on the Leafs’ all-time list.
“Obviously, everyone knows I grew up in this area, grew up wearing these jerseys as a fan,” Marner said. “To have your name with some of the greats, it’s a cool moment to enjoy and sit back and just really take it in. Obviously, saying that, I wouldn’t be up there without a lot of these guys in this locker room, so big thanks to my teammates over the years.”
One of those all-world teammates is Auston Matthews, who scored his league-leading 31st goal against San Jose. Another is William Nylander, the newly minted $92-million man after his big extension announcement Monday. No. 88 went right back to work after putting down the pen, racking up three assists to give him nine points in his past four outings.
With the signing still fresh, the 27-year-old Swede received a rousing ovation from the home fans when he was introduced as part of the starting lineup.
“It was special,” Nylander said of the recognition from the crowd. “First game since signing the contract, so that was nice.”
Toronto — which wound up putting 45 shots on goal — somehow took nearly 17 minutes to score its first goal of the game, seizing a 1-0 advantage when Morgan Rielly popped his first goal in 13 games. Thirty-four seconds later, Marner was teeing up Matthews on the power play and the Leafs were off to the races thanks to a sharp-angle shot from the bottom of the circle No. 34 somehow managed to make look routine.
Fifty-four ticks into the second it was Marner scoring his first of the night, which was soon followed by the one-handed effort that got Holmberg off the schneid for the season.
Marner was just one of many people visibly marveling at Holmberg’s goal. And while the play itself obviously drew a lot of attention, it’s just part of the package the 24-year-old can bring.
“He’s a hell of a player,” Marner said. “He’s always above the puck, he seems annoying to play against, which you love to have on your team. He’s very strong on the puck and wins a lot of battles, comes out of corners with the puck.”
Holmberg wasn’t the only player deeper down the lineup who showed well. Nick Robertson — scratched for the team’s past two outings — drew into the lineup for an ill Noah Gregor and fired his third tally in his past four games, while Timothy Liljegren picked up a helper for his seventh point in his past nine showings.
Meanwhile, Jones — the former Shark who was starting his fifth straight game in the absence of Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll — continues to stabilize Toronto’s crease. He entered this contest with a .964 save percentage in his past four starts, which helps explain why he was just named the NHL’s second star of the week that was on Monday. He may not have been very busy against his old team — San Jose managed just 13 shots through 40 minutes — but the guy who turns 34 on Wednesday continued to do everything you could ask of him.
That’s basically true of every Leaf right now, as the club has allowed just four total goals in its past four outings.
“We spent way less time in our zone here in this last stretch, way less time,” said Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe. “We’ve moved [the puck]out way more efficiently. But I just like we’ve defended hard and we just we haven’t made the big mistake.
“And then when we do make mistakes, we’ve been getting saves. And that just settles the team, too. To me, that’s why it’s been so important for us to keep Jones going here because he’s a part of this. It’s not just the team in front him, it has all fit [together]and everybody’s done their job.”
That’s going to get tougher in the coming days and weeks, as the Leafs start a three-in-four stretch versus the Islanders in New York on Thursday, ahead of the high-flying Colorado Avalanche coming to Toronto Saturday and Detroit visiting Sunday. After that, it’s a four-game roadie out west that brings tilts versus Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers and the impressive Vancouver Canucks.
In short, they’ve played their last Sharks gimmie for a while.
“Right now we’re in a good groove and feeling good about how we perform here of late,” Keefe said. “[But] the schedule is going to get busier and more difficult the rest of this month, so we’ve got to keep building on this.”
