The Maple Leafs came to play on Saturday night, from top to bottom.
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The Leafs’ 6-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at Scotiabank Arena was the result of a whole team effort.
The Leafs, however, did not finish the game with goaltender Auston Matthews in net. Samsonov was injured when he strained to stop Leon Draisaitl late in the third period. Draisaitl scored, and Samsonov left the game in obvious pain.
Martin Jones came on in relief with 3:39 left and, despite having not seen live game action since February 22 in Las Vegas, stopped all five shots he faced.
Coach Sheldon Keefe provided an encouraging update on Samsonov following the game.
“Looks like he’ll be fine,” Keefe added. “He sustained an injury…” It’s not what it appeared to be or what I expected. I won’t go into too many details, but it appears that he will be
The Oilers scored in the third period after Toronto built a 5-0 lead, chasing goalkeeper Stuart Skinner, but the visitors were not given a chance to stage a genuine comeback.
As prolific as the Leafs were offensively through two periods, they were equally strong defensively in five-on-five.
Given the talent on the other side, the triumph was even more astounding.
It was the Leafs’ final regular-season game against a Western Conference team, and they finished with an impressive record of 24-6-2.
Our takeaways after the Leafs’ 19th home win in 2023-24:
