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People can blather on about replacing Sheldon Keefe as coach with his NHL-best regular season .600-plus winning percentage, but let the club keep his eyes in the sky.
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Video assistants Jordan Bean and Sam Kim got a huge assist in ending the club’s four-game losing streak, even with another Auston Matthews’ hat trick and his four-point game on Thursday.
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With collars tightening on Toronto’s bench after Connor Zary scored to erase what would’ve been a fifth-straight Toronto late-game lead and potential season-high losing streak of the same length, a call came down to Toronto’s bench to ask for a 30-second timeout.
Bean and Kim thought they detected an ever-so-slight fingertip by Blake Coleman on the puck before the goal to negate it on a hand pass, verified by the officials. The Leafs nail-bit their way through the final 8:30 for the 4-3 win to take some pressure off of themselves and their headmaster.
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“Unbelievable job by the guys in the room to find that,” Matthews told TSN of the techies’ detective skills. “They’re great, they’re the guys doing the work behind the scenes and watching every little detail.”
Keefe has won 18 of 19 coach’s challenges since replacing Mike Babcock, with Bean and Kim on the rewind buttons, 4-for-4 this season with a minor penalty always looming over any miscalculation.
It took Keefe an excruciating eight days to get his milestone 188th win to pass Ted Nolan and Johnny Wilson (uncle of former Leaf coach Ron), for 91st in NHL victories, now three back of his current assistant, Guy Boucher, who worked 113 more games.
Boucher is just one of the names bantered as possible replacements if general manager Brad Treliving really is contemplating a change. Thursday’s result provided some breathing room, though this trip still has two tough stops in Vancouver and Seattle this weekend with a back-to-back versus Winnipeg before the all-star game break.
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“We did a good job trying to drive play,” Matthews said of a key weakness in the Leafs letting foes back in the game. “Unbelievable job from everybody regrouping after the first period (with Calgary up two on goals by Yegor Sharangovich and ex-Leaf Nazem Kadri, who said he intended to disappoint the many Toronto fans at the Saddledome).”
Matthews bit into that lead before the frame ended on a line change that put him out with William Nylander and fourth liner Bobby McMann. With another assist by new linemate Pontus Holmberg, Matthews tied it on a well-executed 6-on-5 delayed penalty in the middle period, then aided Mitch Marner’s power play goal, before completing his trick with help from ‘old’ linemate Matthew Knies.
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Matthews, now at a league-high 37 goals, heard some “MVP” chants from Toronto supporters, recorded his 11th career hat trick (fourth-most in team history), tying Darryl Sittler at 71 multi-goal games. The most satisfying was his eventual game winner, passing Frank Mahovlich for third behind Mats Sundin (79) and Dave Keon (63).
“Nice to get back the winning feeling,” said goaltender Martin Jones, another key to victory with 23 saves. “Our process was really good and I thought in the third period we really shut them down (five shots).”
Reversal of what would have been the tying goal evened up the video review scorecard after Andrew Mangiapane’s late second period goal stood up after he kicked it in off of Toronto defenceman Timothy Liljegren’s stick on the goal line. Liljegren also took a late penalty for closing his hand on the puck, but after their sordid series of late-game collapses, the Leafs killed that and hung on.
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They won both ends of the Treliving Bowl in the Toronto general manager’s first two games in Cowtown since parting ways with the Flames last spring.
The post-Treliving Flames won just two of their first nine games, but came in with a four-game win streak, their longest of the year.
A win was vital for the Leafs after glancing at the out-of-town board to see five other Eastern Conference teams top Western opponents on Thursday as their game got underway.
Jones, expected to start against the home-town Canucks on Saturday, had to be sharp early despite the two strikes against him.
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Captain John Tavares was blanked for a sixth straight game, his longest points’ slump as a Leaf, while Nylander’s frustrations after signing his eight-year, US$92-million extension was signed, ended with two assists.
“We could’ve grown our lead significantly, but that would’ve been too easy,” Keefe said, allowing for some much-needed levity. “I like in the third period we didn’t panic. We’re supposed to find our way through (tight games). It was one of the best third periods all season.”
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