In Toronto Friday night, six different skaters struck for the Maple Leafs in a 6-1 thumping of the New Jersey Devils.
“The more you can spread out the scoring, the better,” Toronto forward Patrick Marleau said. “I think guys are starting to feel better about themselves, and we’re scoring the right way by playing the system, so we just want to build off that.”
Morgan Rielly, Nazem Kadri, John Tavares, Connor Brown, Andreas Johnsson, and Tyler Ennis all scored for the Leafs who improved to 11-5-0.
“I thought it was a great win,” Ennis said. “Everybody from the defense to all four lines to Freddie, everyone contributed. It was a solid 60 minutes.”
Frederik Andersen made 38 saves to pick up the win.
“It was great. The first period was unbelievable,” Andersen said. “I think we limited their chances to barely any, actually. Obviously, they came out a little bit harder in the second and third chasing the game, but I thought we did a good job.”
Travis Zajac scored the lone Devils’ goal after the Male Leafs had taken a 3-0 lead.
“We’ve got to play the game that’s dictated; we can’t sit there and try to force a game,” Devils captain Andy Greene said. “Each game is a different game in how we have to play to win. Some days it’s a grind it out game, others it’s north-south, some nights it’ll be more possession. We have to battle through it and pick each other up.”
After a quick start to the season, the Devils are now 2-7-1 in their 10- games.
“It’s tough,” Devils forward Brian Boyle said. “6-1 is 6-1, so it’s really disappointing, but we have to right the ship here very soon. We have a group in here that certainly cares a lot, that’s never an issue. We have character in here, that’s never an issue. We need to trust that.”
[WATCH: All Devils vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Keith Kinkaid made 26 saves in the loss.
“Our execution with the puck has to be better than what it was. I think if we do that, we’ll be able to get to our game,” Devils head coach John Hynes said. “It’s about what we do. We have to continue to dig in and work and get better. For us to get out of it, the bottom line is, you can’t dwell on what happened. You have to learn from it and dig in tomorrow and play a better game against [the Winnipeg Jets].”
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