Call it a Gordie Howe hat trick for today’s NHL.
Jake Muzzin got the goal and an assist but instead of the fight that used to complete the Howe trifecta, he had a big hit on Anaheim Ducks forward Corey Perry. In any event, it was still a great show for the newest Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman as he wowed the crowd with three points plus the crushing body check in a 6-1 win Monday night over the Ducks.
It was the Leafs' second win in a row and third in their last four games. For the Ducks, who are doing little to save head coach Randy Carlyle’s job, it was their second embarrassing loss in a row, as they came to Toronto off a 9-3 shellacking at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, dropping their record to 21-23-9.
Front and centre for the Leafs was Muzzin, playing in his second home game since arriving in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings last week. He picked up his first goal as a Leaf and added two assists. Right there with him was winger Andreas Johnsson, who had two goals and two assists, showing his second half of the season is going to be much better than his first. John Tavares, with his 31st of the season, Connor Brown and William Nylander scored the other Toronto goals. Rickard Rakell scored for the Ducks.
“It’s been awesome,” Muzzin said of his first week as a Maple Leaf. “I couldn’t imagine a welcome like this. Coming here, I didn’t know what to expect with media and hockey in general. I’m very pleased with how it’s going.”
After a boring first half of the game that drew a lot of comparisons to the stultifying Super Bowl on Twitter, it became the Muzzin show, much to the delight of the fans. He started unloading bombs from the point in the last half of the second period and by intermission he had his first assist and first goal as a Maple Leaf and his new team had a 3-0 lead.
The bombardment started when Ducks defenceman Hampus Lindholm took a holding penalty at 11:30. The Leafs power play, which has been struggling mightily for more than a month, quickly took charge and created a couple of scoring chances, with Auston Matthews getting the best one. But Ducks goaltender John Gibson managed to grab the puck with his blocker glove at the goal line.
When the penalty expired, the Leafs’ second power-play unit, with Muzzin on the point, stayed on the ice as play continued. He sent in a couple of drives from the point and on the second one, Patrick Marleau grabbed the rebound and fed Johnsson in the slot at 13:40 to put the Leafs ahead 2-0.
The crowd did not seem to notice Muzzin’s first point as a Leaf but they sure noticed his next move.
Perry, playing in just his second game of the season due to knee surgery, carried the puck down the right side on a rush in the dying seconds of the period. But as he entered Leafs territory, Muzzin sent him into the boards with a crushing body check. This drew a big roar from the crowd.
It also drew the ire of the Ducks, and forward Nick Ritchie cross-checked Muzzin with seven seconds left in the period, drawing a penalty. This left enough time for a faceoff in the Ducks zone and the puck, in a display of poetic justice, went to Muzzin at the point.
He unloaded another bomb and this one hit the top corner with three seconds left for his fifth goal of the season and first one as a Maple Leaf. Not a bad sequence for a fellow in his second game in front of the new fans.
“It’s just another hit,” Muzzin said of the check on Perry. “I just kind of close and force the play before the blue line, really. Sometimes the hits are there, sometimes they’re not. If they’re there I try and make them. When they’re not I don’t try and force it.”
Muzzin had more than his share of hostile encounters with the Ducks during his eight seasons with the Kings. He exchanged a few words with Perry in the third period.
“Yeah, I was just making sure he was okay,” Muzzin said with just a trace of sarcasm. But he did express some sympathy for the Ducks’ struggles, which are similar to those of his former team. The Kings are currently last in the Pacific Division while the Ducks are in a fight for seventh.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Muzzin said. “I think the game of hockey is transitioning to a skilled, fast game like we have here. Over there it’s tough. The big guys, sometimes they can’t handle the speed and skill some of these Eastern teams have.”
The extended rest Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen has had for the past few weeks thanks to a groin injury followed by the all-star and five-day breaks seems to have agreed with him. He was sharp against his former team and even enjoyed a few exchanges with his ex-teammates after whistles.
Andersen’s bid for a shutout was lost early in the third period when Rakell beat him with a nicely placed shot just under the crossbar.
The Leafs came right back with Nylander doing the damage. He set up Brown in front of the net for his fifth goal of the season at 3:16 and then scored just his second goal of the season a few minutes later to chase Gibson from the net. Oh, and Muzzin wasn’t finished either. He drew the second assist on Brown’s goal for his third point.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated the game was defenceman Jake Muzzin's home debut. In fact, it was his second home game as a member of the Maple Leafs. This version has been corrected.