LEAFS TAKEAWAYS: Channeling anger in right direction pays

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A little late in the season for the Maple Leafs to start showing their angry side, but when they do in tandem with their still-lethal scoring, they can put on a show.

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So it was on Thursday in a 6-4 win, with 87 combined minutes in penalties, against the Anaheim Ducks, ending an eight-game losing streak. Though team captain Auston Matthews could be hurt for a while and the Leafs gave up 40 shots on Joseph Woll, they had the needed third-period response lacking in their tumble out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

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Our takeaways:

FIGHT OR FLIGHT

It was a disjointed evening of rough stuff with a fight at the opening faceoff — Michael Pezzetta, in his Leafs’ hometown debut, with Jeffrey Viel — Max Domi chasing young Beckett Sennecke around, rookie Easton Cowan dropped the gloves, and some tussling at the horn.

But the optics were bad when no one on the ice came to Matthews’ defence when Radko Gudas took him out with a knee-on-knee hit, the source of a major dressing-room meltdown in the second intermission hinted at by coach Craig Berube and plenty of talk among the players themselves.

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“That’s in the room, I’m not going to (reveal) that to everybody,” Berube said, adding “it shows that you need passion and emotion in this game. We all know that and we played with that in the third period.”

The presence of Pezzetta is certainly going to ensure Toronto’s next few games will have some life after he took Dakota Joshua’s role in the lineup. If the Leafs aren’t making the playoffs, why not show something for the home fans and whoever’s in charge upstairs next season.

NEW BLOOD FLOWING

While Pezzetta’s friends and family filled the seats, Bo Groulx scored his first NHL goal since Nov. 7, 2021 — the eventual game-winner.

“He played extremely well, I’m very happy with him,” Berube said of the 6-foot-2 centre. “He held himself extremely well out there (in a game against his former team) in key situations, penalty killing, power play, a lot of defensive zone faceoffs (6-for-13 overall).”

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The Marlies’ leading scorer is the third to be promoted in the last few games with Jacob Quillan, who performed well again, and now Pezzetta. Now if the Marlies could only send a couple of defencemen up the Gardiner Expressway, it would really create roster competition on Bay Street.

POWER HOUR

It was a rare special teams smorgasbord for the Leafs, as in 93 years.

According to NHL Stats, since 1933-34 when such records were kept, the Leafs had never buried three power play goals with a short-handed marker on top, all coming consecutively.

Their first three-goal night with the man advantage this season augmented a 5-for-5 penalty kill. Their power play was 21st in the league coming in and has struggled too often with basic entries and crispness.

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That included Matthews breaking an ugly 12-game overall goal slump that bracketed his gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics. His one-timer ate up Lukas Dostal and with the Toronto captain in the dressing room and Gudas ejected for his major foul, William Nylander and John Tavares scored first-unit goals as well.

“It was a big point for us in the game, considering what had happened, taking advantage of it,” Tavares said. “It got us back in the game, created some energy in the building.”

Nylander saw a simplified recipe.

“It’s been building, some nights better than others, but it’s moving pucks faster getting to the net and attacking with sustained pressure.”

Nylander and Tavares both reached their 80th career power-play goals on Thursday, passing Wendel Clark in franchise history, both now tied for fifth.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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