At nine seconds into the first period, William Nylander scored the fourth-fastest game-opening goal in team history
William Nylander scored the fourth-fastest game-opening goal in team history and the Toronto Maple Leafs rarely took their foot off the gas after that, cruising to a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
With scouts from 12 other NHL teams in attendance to pick over the bones of a Chicago roster that had won just 16 games all season ahead of the March 3 trade deadline, expectations were high for the Leafs, even against a team that had gone 8-3-1 in its past 12 trips to Toronto. Chicago was also missing captain Jonathan Toews, who missed the game through non-COVID illness.
Nylander got the party started just nine seconds in, taking a pass from Morgan Rielly at the Chicago blueline, splitting Seth Jones and a stumbling Jake McCabe before banking the puck in off the back of former Leafs goaltender Petr Mrazek’s pad. The goal was just two seconds shy of the franchise record, jointly held by Charlie Conacher and Mitch Marner, and one second slower than Ted Kennedy, and was the Swede’s 30th of the season.
And just 15 seconds later, the home side appeared to be pulling away after Alex Kerfoot one-timed a pass from Mitch Marner into the roof of the net, but after a challenge from Chicago head coach Luke Richardson, the goal was chalked off for offsides. The scoring binge continued where it had left off in the second period. Max Domi, who entered the game as Chicago’s joint leading scorer, pulled the puck back for Philipp Kurashev, who showed no hesitation in winding up and rifling it past Samsonov just 46 seconds in.
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