Key Highlights: Matthews' Return, Nylanders' Milestone, and Wolf Shines Among Pacific's Top Rookies
An exciting day in the NHL featured lots of excitement and narratives to explore. Auston Matthews moved forward for the Maple Leafs by getting back on the ice, suggesting a possible comeback to Toronto’s roster. In the meantime, William and Alex Nylander became part of history as the 13th pair of siblings to play for the Leafs. In the Pacific Division, Dustin Wolf from the Calgary Flames is standing out and solidifying his position as one of the best newcomers. Delve into these top moments and beyond as we review the most important events from across the league.
Mitch Marner netted two goals for the Toronto Maple Leafs, securing their fourth consecutive victory with a 3-2 win over the Utah Hockey Club at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday.
Marner has accumulated a total of eight points, with four goals and four assists, throughout four consecutive games where he has registered multiple points. Marner evened the score at 1-1 in the second period at 5:15, scoring on a breakaway by outsmarting Vejmelka on the glove side after being sent a long pass by Tavares from the right corner below his goal line.
Marner proceeded to put the Maple Leafs ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal at 9:34. Fraser Minten missed the net with his redirection; however, Marner secured the puck below the goal line and quickly bounced a shot off Vejmelka’s pads. The second goal was scored during one of four penalty situations that Utah faced within 7 minutes and 7 seconds.
In the eight games that Matthews has been absent, Marner has scored six goals and provided eight assists. In seven out of his last eight games, he has had multiple points, bringing his total for the season to 11. Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov is the only player with more than 12 multipoint games.
In their NHL debut wearing the Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, William and Alex Nylander played together on the ice for the first time, helping secure a 3-2 win over the Utah Hockey Club on Sunday.
The brothers reached a significant achievement by becoming the 13th sibling pair to play for Toronto, the fifth to play together for the Maple Leafs, and the 48th to compete in NHL history.
“I mean, just the entire day was special, and seeing him out there, So, yeah, it was very special. And, of course, we got the win, which was nice.” William said after the game.
Alex, who recently played for the Toronto Marlies, the Leafs’ AHL affiliate, was just as thrilled about the occasion when he joined the Leafs’ roster.
During the match with the Hockey Club, William Nylander scored a goal and assisted a goal in 22 minutes of gameplay, while Alex played for 10 minutes and took two shots on goal.
By winning, the Maple Leafs extended their impressive performance to 7-1 in the absence of captain Auston Matthews, securing their position as the leaders of the Atlantic Division. They now hold a 13-6-2 record with 28 points, placing them third in the Eastern Conference.
Auston Matthews tested out his skating skills before practice on Saturday and didn’t completely rule out the possibility of making a comeback from his upper-body injury for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the upcoming week.
The center, who has been absent for the last seven games, just got back from a five-day visit to Germany for medical advice on his injury.
On Sunday, the Maple Leafs won against the Utah Hockey Club 3-2 and they will face the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. Matthews took part in a voluntary practice session in the morning before the Utah game.
“Today was a good day to get back on the ice, It’s been probably over a week since I’ve been on the ice, so we will take day to day, continue to try to progress in the ice and see how this week looks and feels. Obviously, I want to get out there. Tomorrow [is] not realistic but Wednesday [is] possible, but we will just see how the week goes.” : Auston Matthews said this Saturday.
Matthews, with 11 points (including five goals and six assists) in 13 games so far this season, was last in action on November 3 in a 2-1 overtime defeat against the Minnesota Wild. Toronto has achieved a record of 7 wins, 1 loss, and 0 ties when he is not playing.
“I just wanted to be proactive about it, not that it was getting worse, it just didn’t feel like I was progressing like I needed to or wanted to, I think the team and I just tried to collaborate and their support obviously meant a lot to get that done and go on the trip and just be proactive about the whole situation.” : Matthews said.
Matthews chose not to provide details about the injury other than it being an upper-body issue, despite Berube confirming it was unrelated to a previous wrist injury requiring surgery after the 2020-21 season.
Matthews topped the League charts with 69 goals last season, his career-best, and has consistently netted a minimum of 40 goals in each of the previous five seasons. Since his debut in the 2016-17 NHL season, he has scored the most goals in the league with 373, which is 30 more than Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals in second place.
On Sunday, the St. Louis Blues announced the hiring of Jim Montgomery as their new coach.
The 55-year-old takes over from Drew Bannister, who was dismissed. Five days after being dismissed as the Boston Bruins coach, Montgomery agreed to a five-year contract with the Blues.
“This was more an opportunity to get someone of Jim’s caliber more than anything else, We’ve had to deal with our situations off the ice with injuries and everyone deals with that, but this decision was based, I would say, 100 percent on having someone of Jim’s caliber becoming available when I didn’t know that was going to happen.” : Blues president of hockey operations and general manager Doug Armstrong said.
Montgomery had a record of 120-41-23 with the Bruins before being fired on Nov. 19 after an 8-9-3 start to the season. Joe Sacco took over as his replacement.
In Montgomery’s debut 2022-23 season, the Bruins achieved the best single-season record in NHL history with a 65-12-5 record, earning 135 points and an .823 points percentage. As a result, Montgomery was awarded the Jack Adams Award for being the League’s top coach.
“He certainly has a very positive demeanor, works well with the top players in the organizations that he’s been with, I think he has a wealth of experience and he’s at the prime of his coaching career now and we’re the benefactors of that. I just think he’s the full package, or at least we hope he’s the full package.” : Armstrong said.
Boston was defeated by the Florida Panthers in seven games during the 2023 Eastern Conference First Round, despite initially leading 3-1 in the series. Florida then advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. The Bruins were ahead 3-1 in the best-of-7 first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs last season, but ended up losing the following two games before finally winning 2-1 in overtime of Game 7. They were defeated by the Panthers, who went on to win the Stanley Cup, in the second round in six games.
The Blues failed to make the playoffs in the last two seasons. In 2019, they clinched the Stanley Cup after a seven-game victory over the Bruins.
Montgomery was the coach of the Dallas Stars from 2018 until his dismissal on Dec. 10, 2019, during which he had a record of 60-43-10 in 114 games, making his overall record 180-84-33 in 297 NHL games. After serving as an assistant under Craig Berube for two seasons (2020-22), he comes back to St. Louis.
Montgomery, who hails from Montreal, had a successful 12-year career as a player, playing in Germany, Russia, and North America. During his first season in the NHL, he participated in 122 regular-season games, with 67 of those being played with the Blues.
Image Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
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