The Toronto Maple Leafs (9-9-2) entered Tuesday's matchup versus the St. Louis Blues on a five-game losing skid and without Auston Matthews or Matthew Knies. Plagued by injuries and stumbling through the first quarter of the 2025-26 season, this squad needed something to celebrate, and it needed to do so in front of the home crowd. William Nylander and John Tavares mercifully obliged.

While many fans understandably focus on Matthews, these two core players can still propel the Leafs to victory on any given night. And they did so in rather improbable fashion against the Blues. Fending off multiple St. Louis players along the boards, Tavares kicked the puck loose to Morgan Rielly who found Nylander, who used nifty stick work to score the decisive goal near the end of the first and

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