Auston Matthews sets new rookie goal record for Leafs

And such was the humility of Clark’s era, and of Clark, that after he led the Leafs to their first playoff-series win in seven years and the Leafs were eliminated in the second round, he returned to the family farm in Kelvington, Sask., where he helped his father with the spring seeding. For now, Andersen is day-to-day with a jaw injury and Curtis McElhinney will start tomorrow’s game against Florida.

Leafs coach Mike Babcock planned to discuss Andersen and the goaltending plans for Thursday with goalie coach Steve Briere on the ride to Nashville, but seemed confident his No. 1 would in fact return. Once our doctors see him (on Sunday), I will have a better handle on what is going on and I will be able to tell you. Don’t read anything into anything. When asked if it was concussion-related, Andersen said, “No, I don’t want to go too much into that stuff”. Berra has now played in four games this season but has only one start.

As for McElhinney, he said: “It’s no different than any of my other starts, outside of the fact it’s not a back-to-back”.

Babcock said he doesn’t think Andersen will be out long-term.

“This is all on us”. They won the first two but visibly struggled with their energy in the finale, ending a four-game point streak. If you make a mistake, why not just make it better?’ That’s what they did. They responded after we scored. They looked prepared. We didn’t. I was surprised about the whole thing.

“You just watch him every night and he just does thing you don’t expect anyone else to do”, Nylander said.

Minnesotas Mikael Granlund had a 12-game run that ended on February 4.

Eichel picked up his first goal of the evening on a blast from the left circle 25 seconds later.

His.906 save percentage since 2007 ranks 54th of the 62 goaltenders to play in at least 150 games (Andersen is tied for 13th).

“The results speak for themselves”, he said.

There was one unusual play near the end of the second period – referee Kevin Pollack reversed a penalty call on the Leafs. As a team, Toronto had been playing superbly in front of him – going into Saturday’s game they were 7-1-1 in their last nine.

The victory kept Toronto (87 points) one point up on the Boston Bruins (86) for the third playoff spot in the National Hockey League’s Atlantic Division and now four up on the Tampa Bay Lightning (83). Remember, this team had only six (!) in their previous five games. Few analysts would project a deep playoff run this year, as the youngsters get their first taste of the postseason, but to say the Leafs’ future looks bright is a gross understatement.

Auston Matthews has made Toronto Maple Leafs franchise history. The rookies that are the future of the team are playing out of this world.

“That didn’t have any impact on the game”.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Cam Atkinson scored his team-leading 34th goal and Sergei Bobrovsky made 41 saves to power Columbus past Buffalo. “They capitalized on their chances”. We don’t get all caught up in the race.

“We don’t know. It’s tough to predict”, Andersen said. If Andersen can’t return immediately, Garret Sparks would be the logical call-up.

The Maple Leafs were short on specifics regarding Andersen afterward.

Matthews beat James Reimer for his 35th goal of the season almost 12 minutes into the first period against the Florida Panthers, breaking Wendel Clark’s 31-year-old mark.

Matthews scored his 35th goal on Tuesday night, setting a Leafs record for most by a rookie in one season. Daniel Marois came close in 1988-89, scoring 31 as a Leafs rookie.

Clark added of Matthews: “He’s already big and strong at 19 and two, three years from now he’s going to be bigger and stronger once he fills out”. 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. I think I played pretty good year this year, but obviously I had that injury which was a bit of a set back. That’s what makes what has unfolded this season so, well, weird: the Leafs are really doing this? That opened the door for Josh Leivo to play the next night against the New Jersey Devils.

More to the point, they were lucky enough to be unlucky on the ice at precisely the right time. He was injured and Brendan Smith was penciled into the fourth line.