You can’t tell that much from one fame or two games.
Well, maybe you can.
The Toronto Maple Leafs won their second game of the season, 4-1, over the Blue Jackets in Columbus, on Friday night.
Mitchell Marner struck twice in the win.
For the Leafs, two games suggest they have balanced scoring to look forward.
For the Blue Jackets, it may be a long season.
“Our puck movement was good,” Marner said. “On breakouts, we didn’t rush it, we took our time and regrouped. When they got their rushes, we were coming back as a unit. That’s what we need to do.”
Frederik Andersen made 28 saves in the win for the Leafs.
Cam Atkinson was the only blemish on Andersen’s night.
“The first period our full team was trying to get our legs under us,” Atkinson said. “I thought 5-on-5 we started taking over the second half of the game, but it was a special-teams game for sure.”
The Leafs scored twice in five chances on the power play.
“You can’t take five penalties,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “But they took five also. I thought the important part of the game was we had opportunities to finish at really key times, to maybe change the momentum, and we didn’t.
“I have to watch the video, but I thought we had some good minutes through the game. But we don’t score at key times, they do and the game’s over.”
Cody Ceci and Auston Matthews scored single markers for the Leafs who improved to 2-0-0.
“I thought we were playing pretty good when we went up 2-0, got hurried and turned the puck over a number of times and they got some momentum, but we got ourselves reset in between the second and third and came out and played well,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the win.
[WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Blue Jackets highlights]
Joonas Korpisalo made 25 saves in the loss.
“Toronto was a great team last year. They’re a great team this year. It shows the speed we’ve got to play with. It’s only going to get faster from here. It’s just the first game of the season for us. We’ll get that feel back as a team and ramp it up,” Columbus’Â Seth Jones said after the home opener.
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