Tampa Bay Lightning thrash Toronto 7-3

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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William Nylander recorded a power play goal at 19:03 of the second period to extend his point streak to four games. Nylander added an assist on Auston Matthews’ third period goal and now has 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists) in the last four games.

GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY
ON THE SCORESHEET

• William Nylander recorded a power play goal at 19:03 of the second period to extend his point streak to four games. Nylander added an assist on Auston Matthews’ third period goal and now has 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists) in the last four games.
• James van Riemsdyk scored a goal at 8:28 of the third period for the Maple Leafs. He has goals in two consecutive games and 3 goals this season.
• Auston Matthews extended his point streak to four games with an assist on Nylander’s second period goal.
• With a goal in the third period, Auston Matthews scored his first career goal on home ice. Matthews now has 6 goals this season and 6 points in his last four games (2 goals, 4 assists).
• Nazem Kadri recorded his second assist of the season on Nylander’s goal. He has four points in his last four games.
• Nikita Zaitsev registered an assist in the second period on James van Riemsdyk’s goal. Zaitsev has 4 points in six games to begin his NHL career.
• Morgan Rielly earned an assist in the third period. He is 4 points away from reaching the 100 career NHL point milestone.

SHOTS FIRED

• The Maple Leafs outshot the Lightning in tonight’s game by a 43-24 margin
• With 42 shots on goal, the Maple Leafs established a new season-high for 2016-17.
• The Maple Leafs outshot Tampa Bay 34-18 at 5-on-5.
• Toronto outshot Tampa Bay in the first period (14-9), second period (12-6) and third period (17-9)
• William Nylander led the Maple Leafs in shots (7) and shot attempts tonight (10).

HOME AGAIN

• The Maple Leafs are now 1-1-0 at home this season.
• Toronto is 27-13-1-3 at home all-time against Tampa Bay.
• Tonight’s attendance is 19,449.

OF NOTE…

• The Maple Leafs have scored power play goals in four consecutive games. Over the last four games, Toronto is 5-for-11 [45.4%] with the man advantage.
• Toronto had 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists) registered by rookies (Matthews (2), Nylander (2), Zaitsev) in tonight’s game. Maple Leafs’ rookies have now combined for 28 points (12 goals, 16 assists) in six games this season.
• At 19:03 of the second period in tonight’s game, Tampa Bay requested a Coach’s Challenge to review whether Toronto was off-side prior to William Nylander’s goal. Review was found to be inconclusive and Nylander’s goal was upheld.
• In the faceoff circle, Tyler Bozak led all Maple Leafs in faceoff wins (17) and won 77 percent of his faceoffs.
• Leo Komarov led all skaters in hits (6).
• Mitch Marner and Tyler Bozak led the Maple Leafs in PP TOI (4:05).
• Morgan Rielly had a team-high 28 shifts.
• Ben Smith led the Maple Leafs in SH TOI (3:08).
• Nikita Zaitsev led the Maple Leafs in ice time (22:13).

UPCOMING GAMES:

• Thursday, Oct. 27 vs. Florida Panthers, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)
• Saturday, Oct. 29 at Montreal Canadiens, 7:00 p.m. (HNIC, FAN 590)
• Sunday, Oct. 30 vs. New York Islanders, 6:00 p.m. (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)
• Tuesday, Nov. 1 vs. Edmonton Oilers, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)
• Thursday, Nov. 3 at Buffalo Sabres, 7:00 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, TSN 1050)

MIKE BABCOCK POSTGAME: OCTOBER 25, 2016

On Frederik Andersen:

Obviously we talked about it earlier today and it hasn’t gone as good as he would like it to go. We’re very confident in his ability. We do a lot of work in advance to know what he’s capable of doing, he’s done it for three years straight. It hasn’t gone very good for him. Tonight would be, I think, a point for him where he’d want to regroup from. He’s a proud guy and it’s very important that we support him, but he’s got to get to work too and do his part. It’s all part of being on a team. You’ve got to pick one another up. It didn’t bounce his way tonight for sure. He’s not feeling as good about himself as he should be. In order to do that you’ve got to earn the right to feel good by doing good work.

On if the team was too passive on chances that led to goals:

I think they scored one early on when we were looking at the puck for sure. The play by Stamkos around the back of the net where he missed his guy and it went through people — you could say that. It was a tough night for him.

On if he considered pulling the goaltender:

Yeah, but we also made it 4-1. The other thing about it is I want him to play. He’s my guy, I want him to play. So, I could pull him and say, ‘Okay, I showed you.’ What did I show him? To me – dig in with the rest of the guys, make the next save and give us a chance to come back and win the game. You can’t do that sitting on the bench. Part of it — what part is mental and what part is physical in anything you do? None of us really know. I just know that when you’re really strong mentally you tend to bounce back in a hurry, so that’s the challenge for [Andersen].

On how to support Andersen going forward:

That’s a real good question. By tomorrow morning I’ll have a plan for that.

On if the coaching staff is trying to change Andersen’s style of play:

No. You know, when you get a new goalie you almost leave him alone. You do shots and you do the stuff with him, but you leave him alone until you figure out who he is a little bit too. We’ve been with him for a bit – he was injured for quite a while – so we’ve been with him for a bit now and now we’ve got to help him help himself.

On keeping a young team positive when they’re not winning:

We’re going to go work tomorrow. There’s no sense feeling sorry for yourself. I came here today and I expected to win. So, I’m going to come here Thursday – whatever day today is, two days from now – and expect to win too. We’re going to have a good practice tomorrow, we’re going to work tomorrow in practice and we’re going to get ready to play right. When you play right and you do good things in life, good things happen. There’s no sense going home and feeling sorry for yourself, that’s a waste of time. Those people paid good money to watch our team play and we didn’t do a good enough job.

FREDERIK ANDERSEN POSTGAME: OCTOBER 25, 2016

On his play tonight:

I don’t know where to start. I didn’t feel good right away, I felt like everything bounced the wrong way and I wasn’t able to make any saves when we needed to.

On moving past tonight’s game:

You’ve just got to learn from it, that’s all it is. I’ve got to be better and got to go back and work harder.

On the biggest challenge for him to this point in the season:

I think getting used to the new faces – different players in front of you you’ve got to get to know better. I think you keep learning and keep building on it.

On how he works through rough patches:

You’ve got to challenge yourself to work harder. That’s the only thing to get out of it if you aren’t feeling like you’re being hit with the puck or seeing the puck. You’ve got to work hard to see it and I think that’s the only way to get out of it.

AUSTON MATTHEWS POSTGAME: OCTOBER 25, 2016

On maintaining a positive attitude going forward:

It’s frustrating for sure, but it’s a long season like I said. You’ve got to take it day-by-day, stay positive in this room. Guys in this room have gone through this before. There’s no doubt in our minds we’re going to get out of it.

On playing Tampa Bay:

It’s a really good challenge for us, the whole team and especially us young guys. It’s a veteran D core back there, they’ve got a lot of skill and speed up front. It’s definitely a challenge each and every game. It’s always fun going out there and playing against other good players.

JAMES van RIEMSDYK POSTGAME: OCTOBER 25, 2016

On Tampa Bay’s play:

They’re certainly a quick strike team and don’t need many chances to score. They capitalized on the chances they had. I thought we did some good things, but there are some things we can definitely work on for sure.

On the positives to be taken away from tonight’s game:

I thought we were skating pretty well, but a couple of mental lapses and they get a couple of point blank chances. Obviously teams like that are going to bury those. There are some good things we did also so we’ve got to build on those and be ready for Thursday.

On the response when trailing:

I liked that we kept playing until the end. We were pushing all the way through, so that’s a good sign because obviously, again, your bounces aren’t always going to go your way. You’ve got to respond the right way. I thought we responded pretty well as far as continuing to play and that sort of thing. Obviously tonight it wasn’t our night.