Thursday’s win in Glendale was a gratifying victory for the team and fan base. It’s not the first time a team has rallied together after a mid-season coaching change and won their first game under the new boss on the back of renewed energy — that was almost expected. Nevertheless, it was hard not to feel optimistic about how confident, energetic, and loose (in a good way) the Maple Leafs looked against Arizona. The coaching change and their rejuvenated play on Thursday make made tonight’s circled-on-the-calendar matchup against an exciting Colorado team even more highly anticipated.
It’d be one thing for fans to overhype one game if this was a Leafs team that hadn’t proven it can be a dynamic offensive team in recent history; it’s the fact that the group was suddenly generating the quality scoring chances fans became accustomed to over the past three seasons (and very early on in 2019-20) but had dried up in the last month or so under the previous coach.