Toronto Maple Leafs centre Zach Hyman (11) celebrates a goal in front of New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) during first period NHL hockey action in Toronto on Saturday, October 7, 2017.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
The Toronto Maple Leafs took their fans on a roller-coaster ride in their home opener but managed to finish on a high.
After giving away a 5-1 lead, the Leafs came back to beat the New York Rangers 8-5 on Saturday night in an NHL game that was big on offence and mistakes. In the end, it was the Rangers who made the most mistakes, undoing themselves with some bad penalties in the third period.
It was almost as if there were two different Maple Leafs teams through the first two periods. The first one dominated the Rangers through the first period and chased goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to the bench with five goals. But the second one frittered away a 5-1 lead, leaving the scored tied 5-5 going into the third period.
The Leafs' penalty killing unit, a perfect eight-for-eight against the Winnipeg Jets in the season opener, was the most wobbly part of their game. It gave up a goal to the Rangers in the last 30 seconds of the first period and then coughed up another one early in the second period to allow two goals in three Ranger power plays. There was also a goal by Rangers defenceman Marc Staal late in the second period during a delayed penalty call on Leafs winger Mitch Marner. He redirected a feed from Mats Zuccarello.
Staal and Zuccarello combined again less than two minutes later to tie the score 5-5 at 14:06. This time Zuccarello deflected a long looping shot from the point by Staal past the glove of Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen.
Like the Jets game, where the Leafs managed to take a 3-0 first-period lead despite being outplayed by a wide margin, this one was strange as well. The Leafs made Lundqvist look ordinary in the first period on goals from Dominic Moore, Jake Gardiner, Nikita Zaitsev and Zach Hyman, who scored twice. Lundqvist, who surrendered the five goals on 17 shots, gave way to Ondrej Pavelej at the start of the second period.
It was Andersen and the Leafs who looked ordinary in the second period. Starting with Kevin Shattenkirk's goal in the last 30 seconds of the first period, Andersen let in a bunch of long shots, although he could argue two of them were tipped. Mika Zibanejad scored on a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle ahead of Staal and Zuccarello. J.T. Miller scored the first Rangers goal when he swatted a puck out of mid-air behind Andersen at 3:42 of the first period.
Perhaps the Leafs were a little discombobulated over the redesign of their boudoir at the Air Canada Centre. A high-tech mural was put on the wall outside the Leafs' dressing room, with the finishing touches still being administered a few hours before the game.
It is a silver sort of affair with blue lights and spells out the team's motto: Honour, Pride, Courage. Up close, a backdrop can be seen that spells out the names of the teams and players who won the Leafs' 13 Stanley Cups.
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said the credit for the new look goes to team president Brendan Shanahan, who also came up with the motto last season. Shanahan said the inspiration for the motto came from the Leafs' first owner, Conn Smythe.
"[Shanahan] does a real good job with that stuff," Babcock said. "Obviously, I think it's important. I think over the last while we've done a good job of trying to reconnect with our past. We're an original six team with a great, great history. We want to get back to our rightful place."
The first-period Leafs looked like that is exactly what they were trying to do. But the second-period Leafs bore more of a resemblance to the laughable Harold Ballard-era Leafs of the 1980s.
Babcock said before the game he was concerned about the Rangers' speed and their power play, which was two-for-three in the first 40 minutes.
"I thought they were real quick the other night [in a 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche] and had lots of opportunities off the rush," Babcock said. "I thought their power play was really dangerous the other night."
The third-period Leafs were back to their predatory side, as they took a two-goal lead by the halfway mark. But true to the tone of the game, there was a touch of the weird to it.
When Tyler Bozak scored at 7:17, Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault challenged the goal, saying it was offside. It was the first coach's challenge this season since the rule was changed to issue a delay-of-game penalty if the challenge failed.
The video review determined the goal was not offside and the Rangers were given the penalty. They they took another one five seconds before the first one expired, giving the Leafs a power play for almost four minutes. This resulted in the hosts' second power-play goal of the game for a 7-5 lead at 9:52 when Leo Komarov banged in a William Nylander rebound.
Nazem Kadri finished off the scoring with his second goal of the season on a power play.