Tip of the Tower
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Maple Leafs Dominate Flames Behind Nazem Kadri’s Milestone Night

By Chris Okrainetz

Jan 23, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri (43) celebrates after scoring his second goal of the game in the third period against the Calgary Flames at Air Canada Centre. The Maple Leafs beat the Flames 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 23, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri (43) celebrates after scoring his second goal of the game in the third period against the Calgary Flames at Air Canada Centre. The Maple Leafs beat the Flames 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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Propelled by Nazem Kadri‘s milestone night, the Toronto Maple Leafs (22-14-9) dominated the Calgary Flames (24-23-3), 4-0.

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Thoughts and Observations

  • The Toronto Maple Leafs built an early lead on the Calgary Flames and added to their league leading first period goal total when Mitch Marner opened the scoring with a nice tip on Nikita Zaitsev‘s point shot. The goal was Toronto’s 51st first period goal this season.
  • Zaitsev was great again on Monday. The 25-year-old Russian played a team-high 22:44 and added an assist on Marner’s goal. He’s been steady all season long and has stepped up during Morgan Rielly‘s absence.

    • Nazem Kadri had a big night, scoring career goals No. 100 and 101. His 100th career goal was a beauty of a shot. The falling passes by

    Auston Matthews

    and

    William Nylander

    weren’t too shabby either.

  • Not related to this game, but how good does Kadri’s $4.5 million cap hit look over the next five seasons? An agitating second line centre who can score 25+ goals a season for under $5 million is fantastic when you consider similar players like Brandon Dubinsky are making $5.85 million a season.
    • Leo Komarov

    absolutely leveled

    Johnny Gaudreau

    midway through the second period. The hit was definitely a bit late, but I don’t know if it was malicious. Komarov is 5-foot-11, 210 pounds and Gaudreau is 5-foot-9, 157 pounds, so you could argue this was a late hit that looks worse because of the size differential. This hit, like a number of Uncle Leo’s hits, falls into the grey area, but I don’t think it was a dirty one. Here’s another look at the hit.

  • James van Riemsdyk‘s point streak ended at 10 games, falling one game short of Artemi Panarin‘s 11 game point streak, which was the longest point streak this season in the NHL.

    • With a goal and an assist tonight, Marner not only took over the team lead for points with 39, he also took over the rookie scoring race, surpassing Matthews.

  • Frederik Andersen stopped all 26 shots he saw, but the Flames didn’t test him too many times. The Leafs defence deserves a ton of credit for this. They did a good job blocking shots and allowed Andersen to make routine saves.
    • Martin Marincin

    limped off the ice at the end of the game after

    Matthew Tkachuk

    slew footed him. Here’s a look at the dirty play.

    Stat of the Night

    15

    The Leafs had 15 takeaways against the Flames and outworked Calgary all game. Connor Brown and Nikita Soshnikov led the way with three takeaways a piece, but the Leafs as a whole were aggressive with their forecheck and it paid dividends on Monday night.

    What’s Next

    The Maple Leafs will begin their six-game road trip by heading to the Motor City on Wednesday night to take on the Detroit Red Wings (20-19-8). The Wings have been inconsistent this year and are playing the Bruins in Boston on Tuesday, which doesn’t mean much for the Leafs since Detroit is 3-2 in the second game of a back-to-back this season.

    More from Toronto Maple Leafs

    Petr Mrazek and Jared Coreau have been splitting starts recently, but with Coreau confirmed to start on Tuesday, the Leafs should see Mrazek between the pipes on Wednesday. Mrazek has struggled this season, posting a 10-11-5 record with a 3.13 goals against and .895 save percentage, but the 24-year-old Czech did have success against the Leafs last season, posting a 1-1 record with a 0.99 goals against and .967 save percentage in two starts.

    With Jimmy Howard not expected to return this month, Mrazek has some time to figure things out, but he clearly needs to start playing better if he wants to supplant Coreau. I think we’ll see a motivated Mrazek in this game, but this year’s Leafs team is drastically different than the one he shutdown last season, so I don’t know if he’ll have similar success.

    Next: Leafs Trade Speculation Starting to Heat Up

    What did you think of the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-0 win over the Calgary Flames on Monday night? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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