In Toronto, the Maple Leafs faced off against the visiting St Louis Blues on Tuesday night absent three forwards. 
John Tavares, Mitchell Marner, and Morgan Reilly were all sidelined for one reason or another. That included Reilly being suspended five games by the NHL.
The Maple Leafs got a much needed effort from Bobby McMann who hit for his first NHL hat trick in a 4- win over the Blues.
Ilya Samsonov made 14 saves in the win.
The Maple Leafs moved to 27-16-8.
“I thought guys played well,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Played a pretty simple game, which was required especially once we got the lead. We needed guys to step up in different ways. I thought we got a lot of great efforts tonight, and then Bobby, two huge goals for us and a cool empty netter to finish it off. Terrific end to kind of a strange day for us quite honestly with our lineup uncertainy. Bobby himself really didn’t know he was going to play until he got to the rink.”
Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the opening stanza.
McMann hit for his first of the night at 5:33 of the first. His goal came off a shot from the edge crease on the right side.
“I think we worked hard and we battled hard,” Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman said. “We knew they were going to push after last game (Boston lost 3-0 to the Washington Capitals on Saturday). A special game, too, so we knew they were going to give us their best, and we were able to withstand them and come away with two points.”
William Nylander pushed the advantage to 209 midway through the first off a deflection of his centering pass off Blues defenseman Matthew Kessel.
The Blues dropped to 28-22-2.
“I just think we weren’t skating enough and supporting each other enough and winning battles and being committed to the forecheck,” St. Louis’ Brayden Schenn said. “We know we have to be a whole lot better than we were tonight.
“We relied on our goalie to make saves, and he kept us in the game, but at the end of the day, we just didn’t have enough guys, pretty much everyone I should say, that were willing to play the right way tonight.”
Alexey Toropchenko was the lone striker for the Blues, his goal 5:36 of the middle frame trimmed the deficit to 2-1.
McMann collected his hats in the third period with a pair of goals.
His first came at 8:02 of the third period.
“We couldn’t find a lot of energy in our game,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “We weren’t moving our feet, and with that we weren’t able to recover any pucks. We lost every race to pucks, which forced us to defend more and we couldn’t get on offense.”
The strike was off a puck that was deflected and dropped to his skates for an easy lift and a 3-1 lead to Toronto.
“I basically anticipated that I was going to be out tonight based on the lineup at practice (on Monday) but still tried to take care of business, take care of the body. You never know when you are going to be called upon,” McMann said. “I felt like I was ready this morning, and (coach Sheldon) Keefe let me know some guys were sick and I would likely be playing, so at that point I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to go through my regular routine,’ and did just that.”
His hat trick came on an empty-net strike at 18:21 of the third on a bank shot off the boards for the 4-1 final count on the scoreboard.
Jordan Binnington made 28 saves in the loss.
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