Knee Jerk Reaction: When Toronto sports needed it most, the Leafs delivered a perfect effort

If you’re a Toronto sports fan, as in, a fan of the Blue Jays as well as the Maple Leafs, you just had an insane 36 hours on social media. And, like things normally do for Toronto sports fans, it ended in heartbreak. After the now infamous Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes brought Jays faithful from no belief, to some belief, to every shred of belief imaginable only to have it end in a lucrative $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, fans of Toronto teams were left in a sad, confused, vulnerable state. The only thing that could have somewhat salvaged the day was a Leafs win, and lord knows the Leafs aren’t a reliable source of happiness. 

But, today, they were. 

The Nashville Predators came into Toronto having won nine of their last 11 games, and with former Leaf Ryan O’Reilly looking to prove something. It easily could have been a typical Leafs night, getting lit up by a few former players and crumbling like they’ve been known to do in the past, but it wasn’t. The Leafs won 4-0, doubling Nashville’s shot total by a margin of 36-18 in the process, and playing what I would say was easily their best game of the season. 

While a pair of Auston Matthews goals will likely take most of the headlines, I think Ilya Samsonov deserves some serious credit before anyone else here. He may not have had the busiest night, facing only 18 shots, but he turned away each of those 18 shots when the Leafs needed it the most for his first shutout of the season. 

It was a sombre start to the day for the club, with the announcement of Joseph Woll’s high ankle sprain, and with Samsonov coming off of a sickness and not having played since Nov 24 in Chicago, the expectations weren’t high for him. But, he showed us flashes of what he was able to bring more often than not in 2022-23, and if it’s a sign of things to come in the wake of Woll’s injury, the Leafs will be just fine until he gets back.