The Leafs defeat the Blues 4-1, as Bobby McMann records his first NHL hat trick.
TORONTO — Tuesday night’s 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues by the undermanned Toronto Maple Leafs featured Bobby McMann’s first NHL hat trick.
For Toronto, William Nylander scored the other goal. 14 saves were made by Ilya Samsonov.
Shortly before the first faceoff, the NHL’s player safety department declared that it had given Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly a five-game suspension for crossing the line and hitting Ridly Greig in the head after the Ottawa centre scored an empty-net slapshot goal in the closing seconds of the Senators’ 5-3 victory on Saturday.
Sheldon Keefe, coach of the Maple Leafs, stated, “We needed guys to step up in different ways.” “We made a tonne of fantastic efforts.”
Star forwards John Tavares and Mitch Marner were both absent for the Leafs since they were declared out of the game just before warm-ups.
“Knew from the lineup at (Monday’s) practice that I was going to be out tonight,” McMann stated. “You never know when you’ll need to step up.”
The 27-year-old winger, who was not selected in the draft, has demonstrated offensive skill in lower levels of competition, but in his first 36 NHL games, he has struggled offensively, particularly on a club where he is fighting for playing time deeper down the order.
McMann, who had scored twice in the NHL prior to Tuesday, said of his career, “You gotta enjoy the moments as they come, whether it’s your first goal or your first game.” “You can try more things as you get more at ease. You get a little bit more confidence in the coach and more ice time.
“And you just keep working after that.”
For St. Louis, which came in 7-1-0 over its previous eight games, Alexey Toropchenko scored. In the loss, Jordan Binnington made 28 saves.
Brayden Schenn, the captain of the Blues, said, “We just weren’t skating and supporting each other enough.” “We are aware that we need to improve greatly.”
