Welcome back, SCPN fans, hockey fans, ladies and gentlemen, children and people of all ages. To game over, Toronto. Unexpectedly, the Leafs completely dominated the Penguins from the moment the buzzer went to start the game, ending the whole game, seven goals to nothing. Arguably could have been eight, but let's not nitty pick. I have a fresh, freezing cold bottle of pens. Tears straight out of the Pittsburgh bench. Bucket, actually. So welcome to game over. My name is Lauren Williamson. On the other hand side of the screen we have harnish Patel. We are happy to have you here. If you are here for the first time. Welcome to game over. If you are here for the hundredth time, we are happy to have you back, harnish. Even though this is the second Leaf shutout in two weeks, is this the most statement game by the Leaf so far? Especially considering that our best players out for the game?

100%. Yeah, today was an absolute statement. The whole league has to be on watch for this team at this point. A 70 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Obviously they're not a fantastic team, right? But still, 70? They got a shutout with their third line goal. Their third line goaltender, Martin Jones, remember he passed through waivers. Okay, let's not forget about this. That's insane. They were missing Austin Matthews. They've had sickness issues like flu that's been going around the entire roster and they come out today and they get seven oh, doesn't that sound good to. Didn't. They didn't bottle it. They didn't let one go in at all. They stood tall and they helped their goaltender keep a clean sheet as well. At the end of the day, I love it. I love it.

It's pretty good to not only score a touchdown, but to get the extra point with the field goal as well. Definitely. Especially considering the last three game overs that I've been on have been overtime losses. Don't get me wrong, I was hoping that the Leafs were going to pull out a win. I didn't think that they were going to show up the way that they did, but they wasted no time. Despite the fact that not only is Austin Matthews out, but TJ Brody also out, although he's had a rough couple games lately. But also on a more positive note, returning to the team tonight, Matthew Nyes and Timothy Lilligren finally laces up his skates and attends the game and plays for the first time in what feels like six weeks. Which I guess gives us a pretty good idea for a time loan for Joseph Wall. Right? Like Timothy Ligrin was out similar ages. Six weeks high ankle sprain. So I guess we will see Joseph wall about halfway through January. But let's talk about the fact that Matthew nice starts the game a minute and 52 seconds in with a goal. Top glove. Top shelf glove.

The Leafs capitalized on that spot multiple times tonight, and boy, did he just look fired up. Just so fired up. And the nice fight immediately following that after Domi gets hit five minutes later, it was just a really good start to the game, especially for someone that hasn't played the last two games.

Yeah, I mean, five minutes in, he's two thirds of the way on the Gordy Howe hat trick. Spoiler alert. He achieves it a little bit later on in the game. Yeah. Matthew Nysek, he's had two games off, and he comes out today with a new center. Right, Domi. He's centering him on that top line with Marner, and he looks like he didn't skip a single beat, right. That goal. First of all, great play by Domi as well. He's the one who makes that play. On that, Matthew Nye is the backhand. He's so good with using his body and just getting himself in the perfect position. He was able to defend the puck as he skated in real hard and then gets the backhand. Fantastic finish. But what really impressed me the most was him dropping the gloves against Ludwig. Right? Because we saw Ludwig, he cross checked Domi on the boards. Domi clearly looked like he was in pain. He was on the ground for a little bit, and Nyes does not skip a beat. He goes straight after him and he's like, listen, that's my guy. You are not doing this. I am not going to let you get away with this.

There are repercussions that have to be made. And that's exactly what you want to see, right? You don't want to see Ryan Reeves having to make up for it on another shift or whatnot. You want to see everyone being aggressive and showing that passion. And that's exactly what he showed today. Now, ideally, you don't want him to have to fight more often than not, right?

Right.

But the fact that he threw down the gloves and stood up for his guy, that was beautiful. Beautiful. And that's exactly the type of hockey, that's exactly the type of mentality that's going to make you go far in the playoffs.

Oh, 100%. And we're going to talk about Domi later on. Lots of people in the chat, and you and I are pretty much agreeing. That was Max Domi's best game as a leaf, 100% Matthew Nyes. It's funny to begin the season. He played a couple of games last season, but there was so much hype surrounding him that I feel like to some degree, we're all kind of waiting for the shoe to drop and for him to fall short of what we thought we were going to get. And he has somehow this player, this rookie, this kid, this child, for all intents and purposes, has come in and blown the doors off in so many more ways than we expected. Like, don't get me wrong, we all knew he had a good shot and that he has the ability to make really good plays. He got an assist on the series winning goal last year, right? That's not a quiet fact. But for him to have come in and somehow be bigger and larger and play larger than life and larger than he is, even though he's a huge player, for him to not only get the gordy howe hat trick in the game, which he does, for him to be able to gain the position that he is at such a young age is so good to see.

And so for some of this grit, the sandpaper to be rubbing off on him, and for him to now suddenly start deciding that he's ready to drop the gloves on another team is like all of our Christmas wishes are all coming true early. You know what I mean? Don't get me wrong, I think we were all excited and anticipating that he was going to play well, but I don't think any of us had it in the cards except other than like a joking way or just a fantasy land sugar bubble way of thinking he was going to be this way. But he has come and he has delivered and this kid has arrived. And holy shit, did him and Max Domi have a game of their lives tonight. The Leafs got multiple four on four opportunities tonight, which is something that's uncommon. They also finally get their first five on three of the season. But Mitch Marner gets the next goal. Max Domi again getting assist and Nikki Bobby as well. Top glove side once again on Tristan jury. That's Marner's 8th goal and 13th point in his last eight games. Safe to say he has bumped the slump from earlier this season.

And we're not worried about Mitch Marner at this point, right?

100%. Honestly, the criticism that these guys get when they're in their slumps, it's purely from the fact that we know that they can be better and they are better players right now. We never expect that that slump is going to continue. We just know that it's just a matter of time before they start playing back to normal. And when they do, it's just insane. It looks like they can just take over the entire game and just win it by themselves alone. And Marner, the amount of skill that this guy possesses. Thank God we did not trade him.

Oh, my gosh.

It's moments like these where you're just like, holy crap. We'll talk about the next goal as well. I think he assisted on one of the goals where it was like a between the legs pass as well. Oh, man, that's the second in between the pass play that he made the last game. He got a goal through shooting in between the legs and then the in between legs pass over here. He's just so, so skilled. And yeah, he's been playing really well as of late, but honestly, like today, everyone played well, even Bertuzzi, who had some complaints. Yeah, he stepped up, too. So it's good to see Marner having a great game. One thing I do want to mention on that play, though, Domi stripping the puck as the pens were trying to get out of the neutral zone. The only reason we have a chance, the only reason we have a play, is because Domi strips them right. That play is completely because of Domi, and you love to see it. And even that, I think they showed ty on the screen as well afterwards. He was loving it. Domi had had so much passion on that Marner.

You could see it. They're just playing really well. Domi, oh, I wish he could play like this every single game because this is exactly what we want out of him. Three points today, man, he looks so good. He looks so good.

Yeah, him and Bertuzzi leading the way with three points. Know, we got these players anticipating that they were going to be factors, hopefully in the playoffs. And this is the first game where they have both led the charge. Like, don't get me wrong, Marner, Neelander and Gregor and Nyes, all with multiple points as well. But for Bertuzzi and Domi to be the ones to step up in a game where Austin Matthews is out, it fills my boots with a little more confidence. You know what I mean? Like, they're a little bit heavier and a little bit more ready to kick the snot out of the other team. And so let's talk about what finishes the first period off. Who got his first goal in the NHL harness?

Bobby McMahon. Let's go.

Yes. Beautiful goal with a minute and 34 to go. And boy, did he just look so jacked for that. The whole team. It looked like they were all sitting on Tesla coils on the bench when he scored that goal. And so to end the first period, the Leafs are up three nothing. Very inspiring considering the last game that they played, they were down two nothing at the end of the first period. So for the shoe to be on the other foot, boy, did it feel good. I felt awful good eating my dinner in the first intermission there. Martin Jones. Not Martin Jones. Yeah, Martin Jones starting the second period with a really good save. A minute and 12 seconds in, keeping the Leafs up three nothing. Pittsburgh iced it, and then Max Domi with just an absurd reception of the pass from Mitch Marner. Domi with the ridiculous patience to get it around when Jari falls. And that play actually is the one that has Tristan Jari pulled. And Alex Nadelkovic comes in in relief. Matthew Nyes getting the assist on that play and completing the Gordy howe hat trick. It felt kind of like a fever dream.

It felt like the second period was about to happen, and I was kind of anticipating the Pittsburgh Penguins scoring two goals right away just because it felt like that's what was going to happen a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, it happened. What was it against the Rangers as well, where they were up and then the second period, they had downturn and come back in the third? Yeah, but, no, they completely shut the gates and they said, listen, this is our game and we'll talk more about the different goals, but I just want to get a quick bin in. Despite the Penguins, like, I guess, outshooting the leaves in the first period, it was like 1111. The second period was 1420 in favor of the pens. They did not look like they had a lot of high scoring chances at all.

No.

Right.

No, it did not feel like that. The Penguins were winning on the shot clock in any way, shape or form. I was stunned that they had more shots than the Leafs did.

Isn't that crazy? Yeah, I guess it makes sense. It makes sense. We'll get into it more afterwards anyways. But, yeah, it was just a really interesting fact that the Leafs, despite getting outshot, they definitely controlled most of the high scoring chancellor opportunities.

Yeah. And I think this. Tonight's game was a perfect example of the fact that the Leafs don't necessarily need out of this world goaltending. They need, like, mediocre, solid, just great middle of the pack goaltending. And even though he got the shutout tonight, he played 48 games last year. So Martin Jones is definitely someone that's used to a heavier workload. So for him to be able to come in having only played one other game this season as a Leaf, really, it was very good to see him play so well and I feel like to some degree they're going to be people that are saying, oh, well, now he has the second spot on the Leafs goalie roster and while that might not be completely untrue, it's also still very early. He's only played a couple of games, so let's not ship Sammy out to the AHL any sooner than we have to, but definitely a great game by him. And you know what's funny? You and I did the game over on Thursday night and one of the things that we talked about with Samsung was the fact that he has a really hard time closing his post gaps.

And tonight was a perfect example of what just steady, calm, patient, just rock solid, just good positioning, goaltending can do and how much confidence it gives the team to play in front of someone that's playing that well with his rebound control, with his decision making, with moving left and right, the way he was able to temper all of the rebounds and stop as many of the juicy rebounds as possible. I mean, I know we started the stream with saying it didn't feel like Pittsburgh got goalied, but did they kind of a little bit or was it they got decent goaltending and they just played really good defensively?

I think it's a mixture of both when you have 38 saves in the night with Jones, obviously, he obviously played fantastic, right? There was quite a few chances where, hey, Pittsburgh could have netted a couple, right. I'm looking at the expected goals and Pittsburgh is sitting at a 2.9, so almost a three right. So clearly he had a great game. Clearly there were chances that he was able to stop and whatnot, which is important. And it's interesting looking at Martin Jones because if you look at his last couple of seasons, especially last year, I know he had a decent season. I guess for Seattle he had, I believe, 27 wins. But if you look at the actual stats under that season, he actually had a pretty bad goals against and his ranking for his expected goals above was actually pretty low. He was like one of the worst goaltenders in the league and that stat, right? So it's interesting how he had a fantastic game today. I hope that this continues. I know he has been working really hard in the offseason with his coaches and whatnot on his goaltendon, and clearly it's paying dividends for the Leafs and for him right now.

Do I expect him to be like this and show the same consistency? Probably not. He's probably going to come back down to normal, but for this game, he was fantastic. He looked like he controlled every single moment of the game. And honestly, I can't remember a single time this game where he had maybe a desperation play or anything like that. It looked like he was in control through and throughout. Right?

Yeah, I totally agree. He just looked real calm. He looked real cool and real collected in the crease every time he got out of the net to make a play. I wasn't nervous about it. He had really just sound decision making. He wasn't taking too many risks. Now, maybe part of that was because there was so much defensive support in front of him that he had. I think it's kind of like a quid pro quo, right? Like, because the Leafs are getting a solid goaltending. They play with more confidence, they play better defense, they play more man to man. They're able to close the gap a little bit more and cover instead of fantasizing about the fact that they have to maybe try and block shots more. Like, don't get me wrong, I'm looking at the box score now, and the Leafs actually led the game in block shots with 19 over Pittsburgh's 14. But the Penguins led with hits. Guess how many hits the Leafs had compared to the Penguins. Have you seen this yet?

I haven't.

More than double.

Oh, really?

Yeah. The Leafs had 15 hits to the Penguins 34. So definitely a crushing night for the Leafs on the receiving end. But the Leafs do the opposite and take advantage of the opportunities that they have on the power play in the second period. Getting two big power play goals. John Tavares leading the way, getting the goal that puts them up five nothing from. Not Austin Matthews from William Neelander and Morgan Riley. Four minutes and 25 seconds in only two minutes after Max Domi put them up. Four nothing. And it really, at that point, it really felt just like a flurry. At no point did it feel like it was going to be the complete opposite of the game. The other night against the Blue Jackets, where we felt like the Penguins were going to come back in the third period. It really felt like the Leafs were just going to kind of run the show and it was more of a matter of if they were going to get a shutout or not. But the PK was so good all night as well. The Penguins were held without a power play goal, which was very nice to see.

The penalty minutes. 33 penalty minutes for the Penguins for the 15 penalty minutes for the Leafs. And then to finish off the third period. Noah Gregor with another power play goal with 1 second to go. Another example of just a great pass from Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi can continue to make passes the way that he did tonight and for the Leafs to be able to capitalize on them the way they are. I greatly look forward to the Leafs having him in the playoffs, because don't get me wrong, it's nice to see the Leafs play sound defensively. But in the playoffs the last couple of years, the problem has been goal scoring. So for secondary scoring, to be able to step up the way that he has, and he just seems to be getting better with every game that he plays in the blue jersey.

Exactly. He just had like a very bad start of the season. Ten games were egregious. And yeah, the way he's turned it around so far has been really good to see. There's still a lot more that I think that he can give, especially in terms of scoring. I can't remember how long it's been since he's had a goal, but I think it's been a couple of games. So, yeah, he definitely has more to give in terms of his scoring. But for all of his playmaking, his assists and whatnot today, he had two great ones, right? That Noah Gregor. One fantastic. What a great pass. And then Neelander as well to finish off in the third, right. Bertuzzi could have taken the shot, but he ends up going for the higher scoring chance option or whatever with Kneelander and instead choosing to pass to him. And that just shows me that he's a guy that doesn't care about stat pattern. He wants to win, he wants to set his team up, and he wants to do essentially what's best to get this team some w's and put the team in the best position possible to win.

Right? That's exactly what you need in the playoffs. And it's great to see that he's showing this aspect of his game, right. And he's getting this going.

Yeah, honestly, the notes that I have on that Neelander goal with five minutes to go in the third period, Neelander from Bertuzzi. Just literally, I put the word patience with Arrows pointing from Bertuzzi and Neelander. Because even though Bertuzzi has gone several games without a goal, the selfish play, and maybe other players that the Leafs have had in the past, they would try to score a goal there instead of getting the best opportunity for the team. And so for him to wait as long as he did, and for Neelander to just pump the brakes just enough to keep moving but a little bit slower before getting over the red line. It was a beautiful read by Bertuzzi and it was a great reception of the pass and a great goal by. And like, to some degree I almost feel bad for Pittsburgh fans because I think that they thought tonight's game was going to be a little bit more competitive from the Penn side and the Leafs just ran their show. Like, I don't get me wrong, I really loved Kyle dupes when he was here. I imagine that was probably a tough loss for him to have to swallow.

Oh, yeah. I mean, every time they panned up to him, it looked like he was in absolute despair and he wanted to get the hell out of there. And especially today was a father's day or Father's road trip for the Penguins, right? Not a lot of happy fathers, I'd assume. Nobody's getting some Timmy's, nobody's getting some timbits or some coffee after the game, that's for sure. It's probably going to be a lot of lecturing. Yeah. You expected them to play a lot better and that third, was I mistaken? I'm pretty sure I saw a Penguins hat again thrown onto the ice or whatever. Right? That kind of sums it up. The pence just had a pretty bad game, but it's kind of been their season so far. I mean, other than the two wins that they got last week, they've lost four in a row. And it was so bad to the point where Dubas had to come out and be like, hey, I got to instill some more confidence or I got to show the fans that I still have confidence in Mike Sullivan after the game today, maybe that dwindles a little bit.

A little bit. I feel like if we can just remove ourselves as Leaf fans for just a quick second and play imagination land. I imagine that the Penguins looking at the lineup and seeing that one of their top defensemen in TJ Brody and most consistent, even though he hasn't played great this season, for one of their top 4d men to be out and their top goal scoring, Hart winning, Richard winning mvp of the team out, you have to imagine that the pens were probably licking at their chops to have an opportunity to maybe write the ship and have a big win against the Leafs. And so for the Leafs to kind of rise to the occasion and do the opposite of what we might have been expecting, hearing that Austin Matthews was out, don't get me. I in games where the Leafs haven't had Austin Matthews, they have more often than not risen to the occasion. But just because of how the season has kind of gone the last couple of weeks was forcing overtime and everything. There was. I'm not going to lie, there was an itty little bit of seed of doubt when I heard Austin Matthews was out, that maybe the game was going to swing the other way tonight and that it was going to be a lot closer than it was.

So I couldn't be happier to be wrong. If I can be totally honest. It was a breath of fresh air the whole game. Just. I don't know if I felt more relaxed watching a game all season.

Oh, yeah, 100%. And we got to focus on the depth, scoring a little bit because. Yeah, the reason why we won today was not because of Tavares, knee lander, Marner. It wasn't because of our top guys. It was definitely because of our depth. Right. Nias gets one, Marner obviously gets on the board. Tavares. But we get contributions from Bobby McMahon, Max Domi, Noah Greger. As.

Played not only five skaters that played tonight didn't get a point. Everybody else.

Yeah, that's insane. And it was also the trust that Keith had in the rest of the lineup. Right now, the Leafs generally are a team that obviously likes to rely heavily on their top two lines. I'm looking at the time on ice, and a lot of these other guys have got a ton of minutes.

Right?

David camp was the lead in forward or skater. Yeah, exactly. That had the most time on ice.

Right?

And then another guy, Timothy Lilligan, I mean, the guy's been out for God knows how long, hasn't had a practice under his belt. The Leafs yesterday chose to give a day off, which is probably the right option considering how many games they played as of late. And he comes in, gets paired up with Riley and posts the most amount of time on the ice. Right. And he looked pretty good, honestly, when he was on today as well. Didn't look like he skipped too much of a beat. No, he.

Two minute and 40 1 second shift. Right? That whole PK, he killed the whole thing.

And he blocked a shot on that as well. He had a tough assignment today and he rose to the occasion, which is exactly what you want to see. It was hilarious that he essentially got thrown trial by fire, but it was good to see that he rose up. And another thing you mentioned as well, the commitment to defense from the rest of our skaters, that was absolutely the case. And that's something that Keith also mentioned, or. Sorry. Today, pregame, he was asked about Sammy and he said he doesn't want to put too much emphasis on Sammy. Obviously he should have had a couple saves, but the big onus was on the lack of defensive minded plays or whatever from the forwards. Right? The first two goals from two games ago were because of turnovers.

Right?

So he was quick to blame that the forwards were not playing well and they didn't give Sammy any help. Today was the opposite. The Leaps absolutely helped the crap out of Martin Jones and despite him having to take 38 saves or having to make 38 saves, it really didn't look like he got completely shelled. It looked like there were a lot of low scoring chances and yeah, overall, just an insane performance through and through from every single person on beliefs.

Yeah, and we talk about defensive performances. Mitch Marner only played 15 minutes and 35 seconds tonight. William Neelander and Tyler Bertuzzi both had more time on the ice than Mitch Marner, which concerning Mitch Marner plays on the PK is surprising. So, as you said, the stats are backing up your truth here. The fact that the whole team was playing really well defensively. They weren't just relying on their top guys. It was probably the most solid team win that we've seen so far from the Buds this season and it was. I mean, what a Christmas gift, right? Like a couple weeks early, but it's my last game actually, before the Christmas, so merry Christmas to me. It was just a good game, man. And the Leafs fans were feeling just as good as we are right now because five minutes into the third period all you hear is Dubas. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of trolling, but you have to imagine he was probably loosening his tie a little bit by the end of the third period there.

He wanted to get the hell out of there as soon as possible.

Probably not the return to Toronto that he would have been hoping for for himself as the GM and president of the Penguins. I can't imagine they're going to kick him out, but not a great showing from Pittsburgh tonight. So we have 132 people watching right now and one like. So if you could all just do us a quick favor, just scroll down, hit that thumbs up button, share the stream with a friend. It would really help us out. Make sure you subscribe as well, and make sure you get your questions in because we're going to be doing the press conference in just a quick second. Now, we touched on it a little bit earlier. Should we maybe talk a little bit more about how well Martin Jones played tonight and the fact that he's making a pretty solid argument that if a goaltending change needs to happen, that it might not be Jonesy that gets it. And let me ask you a question to start before you answer that. Who do you have start on Tuesday against the Rangers?

Martin Jones. It's the same thing I said last. Yeah, the same thing I said last game. Play your hot hand.

Right?

Martin Jones. He had a fantastic game against the Rangers and now he posts a shutout. Yeah. We are so lucky that he passed through waivers and we were able to retain him because think about it, if we didn't, he would have been an oiler. Yeah. We'd be in a tough spot right now. It just instills so much confidence. Having a guy out there that clearly is playing with poise, playing with a lot of confidence, and you kind of got to back him in that situation. Right? If he has a fantastic game, which he did today, give him a chance to really play for that second spot.

Right?

Sammy obviously has not played great throughout the season. Now, obviously I would prefer Sammy to get back to his normal self. But if that's not the case, then you got to play with the guy who's getting you some wins, who's giving you some confidence. And right now, that's Martin Jones.

I think Jonesy definitely gets the belt again. Like he didn't make any world beater saves. I don't think there was a single highlight, real save that he made tonight. It was just solid goaltending behind, solid defense, like straight up. And he earned the belt because he does make the saves when they need to. And that's why you bring in veteran goaltending, right? That's why even though we all want to see like the six foot nine Hilda beast in net at some point in the Leafs, and we are going to get there for the Leafs who have brought in a veteran defenseman who has over 450 games in the league. He's been around the block a couple of times. He's been on a couple of teams. He knows what his job is. For him to come in and perform and be a solid third stringer that isn't named Michael Hutchinson is a breath of relief. I'm sure everybody in chat, if you could just do the exhalation emoji in the chat, if you feel the same way, because it really does feel like a breath of fresh air going through the Leafs locker room with a veteran goaltender that is going to challenge for the second spot.

It's good to see and a little bit more internal competition, even though wall is going to be out for six weeks. It's nice to see that the battle is going to continue and that it might be won by someone. That was our third stringer making league men that passed through waivers earlier this year. I didn't have that on my bingo card. My goodness.

But this is the same situation that we saw with wall last season, right? Last season we expected Murray and Samsunov and towards the end it ended up being sammy and Wall.

Right.

A guy that we did not really expect to be playing in that. Right. So it's a game of inches. Whoever has been performing well, you stick with them. And yeah, to your point, having some kind of competition is absolutely important, right. Because this gives the lease a little bit more of an option to say, hey, we aren't forced to look for another goaltender instantly, right. It gives them some leeway, it gives them some headroom. It gives them some options, which is always what you want, that you want for your organization.

Right? Yeah. Music for Al in the chat. He passed through waivers because of the $100,000 poison pill added to the contract. That's a hell of an addition. And you're totally right, Al. Hell of an addition to a contract stipulation. And if that's the reason that he passed through, then I think I give Brandon Prittib an extra double pat on the back because. Thank you, Brandon. You're the reason for that. I know that Brad for living didn't come up with that idea. I know that was all you. So let's get to some questions, shall we? Matthew, in the chat, if we put Sammy on waivers, do you think he gets claimed? Probably. I mean, Auntie Red has went through waivers today. We'll see if he gets claimed from the Carolina Hurricanes, who we are going to be facing again at the end of the month. I would imagine that someone would claim him, but maybe not. Man's like an 864 right now.

Yeah, it's not hot. But Martin Jones was when we picked him up, I think, last season. What did he have? Like a zero point 87 or zero point 88 or something like that? And obviously Samsonov is making a ton, a lot more than Martin Jones. Right. But I think someone, there's bound to be a team that might be like, hey, this is a guy that maybe we can try to fix up. He had a bad start of the season. Maybe we can get him going in a different situation and in a different environment and with some different bodies up front and obviously not the insane pressure of Toronto media barreling down on him and just staring at him, right?

I guess it would depend on what team claimed him, right? Like if it's any other canadian team, the spotlight does not really change size. It may change size. It doesn't change in intensity. Let me rephrase.

One quick thing, Curtis of Joseph on the chat, he said the Oilers would claim Sammy. That would be hilarious.

It's true.

Oilers just get in more secondary, more.

And more of last year's Leafs because that's their identity, actually. Don't tell them I said that, though. Luke Venables frequent flyer. Luke, what's up, buddy? Where do you think the Leafs rank on other coaches teams to fear list? That's a good question. I think depending on where those teams play in the league, I feel like the Leafs are an out of sight, out of mind. But what I do think is other teams think the same thing that most Leaf fans do in that it doesn't really matter how good they are because they're going to flip in the playoffs. And until the Leafs do more than just win a single round. See how I rephrase that? As soon as they do more than just win a single round, then they're going to be considered more of a threat. But I think so far, what the Leafs have been able to do this year is they have kind of the Oilers esque, and we said this last stream as well, the Oilers esque never say die, never give up, kind of give a shit this season. Although I will say tonight was a way scrappier game against Pittsburgh just in general than I was expecting it to be after whistles.

I mean, we had a fight. I was kind of expecting Max Domi to also get a Gordy Howe hat trick because it seemed like every time the whistles blew in front of the Leafs goaltender or in front of Ndelkovich, there were some stinky gloves being exchanged. And so it was a little bit more competitive in terms of grit and snot and just pushback, which was a little bit nice to see, but it was as complete a win as you could have hoped for, I think. Right. So for that reason, I think that maybe they're only in top five on a lot of teams, but I think it might not be like the teams to fear list, but the teams to fear, if you have the lead over them list, it might be the more accurate. And in that case, I think they're top of the list in terms of comebacks, although the Oilers are now fighting for that because they have decided that they're decent again. So I think that they probably make most teams top three. I don't want to have a lead against this team. What do you think?

Yeah, 100% I agree. Yeah. The Oilers are just on something else right now. They lost yesterday, but other than that, they're eight and two. Holy crap. This team is insane. So that's definitely number one, in my opinion, of the scariest teams right now. But the Leafs, yeah, they got to be top three. Maybe it could be even number two because, hey, this is a team that clearly shows no quit. Right? No matter how far down they are, they are willing and they are capable of making a comeback. As we saw the last game, right, where they got five goals in that third period. Add on to the fact that right now we are getting some scoring from our depth. I think a lot of other teams could have looked to, I guess, plan or strategize of trying to shut down our top guys and say, hey, if we can shut down these two lines, then that's going to put the Leafs down a lot. Now we finally have some more secondary scoring coming out from our 3rd, 4th line and whatnot. It's good to see. And I think it just gives a lot more options for the Leafs and just makes it harder to strategize and plan against them.

Right. So, yeah, they got to be a top team out there. And remember, we are still missing a ton of our guys. When this team gets back to their full roster, we're definitely going to be better. Right? I have a lot of hope for this team, and maybe that's just like the Leaf spin inside of me where I'll never give up on this team, but I don't know. I love this team. I think this is a really strong team. Obviously, we're not fully healthy and there are going to be trades and there are going to be different pickups that we do get. I don't think this is the team that we play in the playoffs. It's going to be a fun season, and I definitely think that this is a team that's scaring a lot of the other teams in the league.

Getting points when they probably don't deserve to, sometimes winning games when they don't deserve to, sometimes forcing overtime when they have only played ten minutes of a 60 minutes game. They haven't won any game really reasonably this year, but they did win handily tonight over the Penguins and it was just.

Yeah. And in the last 15 games, I think 14 of them they've gotten points on.

Right.

So that's still something that does count.

Right?

Just crazy. Yeah. Especially when they're chasing down the Bruins for number one in the division, right?

Yeah.

All those points matter.

Yeah, absolutely. And at the end of the season, even though we've said it all season, you don't look at it and go, oh, but that one overtime loss doesn't count like a point is a point. And at the end of the season, we just hope that we have more than the next best team. Question from Icarus above. Excellent name, Icarus. Does tonight's performance without Matthews add to the argument that he is not as essential as some think? Overpaid? Overpaid? No.

That's a hot take.

I would almost argue that's a cold take. It's almost like a lukewarm take. I guess there is some life to it, but it's sort of been dead for a little while. I think that it's inspiring to see the Leafs can play that well without Matthews. But the only reason that the Leafs even had a conversation about getting a point last game was single handedly because of Matthews. So I don't think that he is overpaid. And I think that even though the cap is only supposed to go up by a couple million dollars, I think it is well worth the money to know that he is going to be in our blue and white, not Tampa blue and white, for at least another five years. How about you harness? What do you think?

Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, you win and die by your top guys, right? Today we had some great secondary scoring, but we got to remember this is the Pittsburgh Penguins. They are the bottom of our conference. Right. I think they're the second worst team in the conference, right above the Blue Jackets.

Right. Which means they should have lost. The Leafs should have lost tonight because the Leafs don't play well against teams that suck. That's why I said this last stream was, if the Leafs were in the metro, they would be losing right now because they suck against teams that aren't good. So for the Leafs, this is the first. Be careful.

The trend today though.

Yes. This is the first game where the Leafs are on paper and statistically across the league supposed to completely dummy the Penguins and they did not actually do the Leaf thing and completely get caved in by a team that is at.

The bottom of the standings. Exactly.

Right. Like that was a breath of fresh air.

Oh, 100%. Yeah. Because if they came out today and they lost, oh my God. Can you imagine the booze?

Yeah. It would have been the fourth game in a row with booze that existed. A Leafs game. And that's not a good trend.

Duvus would be having a field day today.

Oh my God. I don't even want to think about it. I'm so glad that I don't have to live in that timeline. My freaking.

Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. Just quickly to finish off. Yeah. Matthews is completely like you need him to go far and there's a reason why he is topping the goal scoring leaderboard right now. He is a top tier player, one of the best players in the league, and you cannot say that he's overpaid or he's unnecessary to this team. That is a crazy.

Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely against the trend of what the Leafs have done this season and last season in terms of punching down to opponents. They definitely showed up and decided that they were going to just completely dummy the Penguins tonight. And I hope that Carlton enjoys feasting on the bones of penguins because they were served on a silver platter tonight, courtesy of Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzi and a shutout win by Martin Jones. Do you have anything else we got to talk about? If anybody else has any questions, this is your last opportunity. You got like 25 seconds, essentially the least. Next play against the New York Rangers for a second Tuesday in a row on Tuesday. Rumor has it that that is going to be the John Tavares 1000 points presentation game. So make sure you check out game over on that day. Thank you for watching us. If you have watched us up until this point, you can find both of us on Twitter and make sure you follow SDPN. If you don't already, you can find me on Twitter at Lauren at the six harnish. Tell everybody where they can find you as well.

Yeah, you can find me. Harness underscore Patel 98 on Twitter and.

Make sure that after tonight's show you finish watching the Oilers game. And I believe there's a Jets game on, too. And if you are still awake, please do what you can to check out the other streams. We have some of the best people in terms of all stars in terms of talking about their teams here on SDPN and game over. Even though I'm not a fan of any other canadian team, you will most likely catch me on other teams game our streams because it's just too much fun to hang out with y'all. So if you have been here the whole time, thank you. If it is your first time, please make sure you hit like and hit subscribe. If you had a good time tonight, please make sure you come back on Tuesday because we have had a hell of a time having you here. That is it for game over for Toronto for tonight. Leafs win dominantly over the Pittsburgh Penguins and Kyle Dubas is booed out of town. We will see you all on Tuesday night. Have a great night, everybody.

Game over.