LEAFS MAKING THEIR POINTS
Marner has four-point night as stars shine brighter than Stars
Auston Matthews and John Tavares each scored two goals as the Leafs outlasted the Stars 7-4 in Dallas on Tuesday night. Toronto also got goals from Ron Hainsey, Mitch Marner, and Connor Brown (into an empty net), and overwhelmed a Dallas team that had allowed just one goal over its previous two games. Offensive stars: Two goals for Matthews; two goals for Tavares. These two are easily the most dynamic goal-scoring duo of the early season so far. Leafs coach Mike Babcock, though, will remind everyone that the kind of hustle Zach Hyman showed in outracing Mark Methot on an icing call just prior to the Leafs’ sixth goal is vital to the success the goal scorers are enjoying so far. Tavares and/or Matthews have now been on the ice for 18 of the Leafs’ 19 goals so far this season. Oh, and Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly had four points each.
Defensive stars: Nazem Kadri had a great physical battle going with Radulov in the first period. Kadri has yet to score this season, and entered the game a minus-5. His road to improvement begins with defensive play. Turning point: Dallas took three penalties in short order in the second half of the middle period. Toronto scored two of their three goals in the frame on the power play, to jump out to a 5-2 lead. Talking point: Matthews. With seven goals in four games, he’s on fire in a historic way. He’s now one of six Leafs to score at least one goal in the team’s first four games of the season (joining Corb Denneny, 1921-22; Babe Dye, 1925-26; Sweeney Schriner, 1944-45; John Anderson, 1981-82; and Clarke MacArthur, 2010-11). He also has 81 goals since the start of the 2016-17 season; Only Alex Ovechkin (84) has more over that time span. Takeaways
1. Goaltender Frederik Andersen has been struggling with rebound control and puck track- ing to open the season and he didn’t show much improvement Tuesday night. He might be playing a shade too deep in his crease.
2. Tavares’s power-play goal in the second was the Leafs’ fifth with the man advantage. You almost expect that first unit to score every time they get an opportunity.
3. Kasperi Kapanen might be earning regular time with Matthews. He has two multi-point games in the two games he’s had first-line minutes.
They said it: “We want him to decide if he can play like (Zach) Hyman.” — Leafs coach Mike Babcock, on what he is looking for from Kapanen, who joined Matthews and Patrick Marleau on the top line.
“I’m still searching … I’ve got that one line (Tavares-HymanMarner) that looks like it’s going and the others are still works in progress.” — Babcock, on his line shuffling. Extras, extras: Auston Matthews second photo shoot, this one for Sharp Magazine, certainly has fans talking. Matthews appears in some funky coats that few people can rock, but he manages to do it. The magazine says No. 34 is about to “blow up” the NHL. It might be right. Who’s next: The Leafs stop in the Motor City on Thursday for a game against Detroit.