A 'Sharp' Anthony Stolarz, Easton Cowan In The Spotlight, And More Takeaways From Maple Leafs' First Win Of 2026-27 Against Islanders

The Toronto Maple Leafs earned their first win of the 2026-27 season with a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Wednesday. This result on the second night of a back-to-back at Scotiabank Arena is Jim Hiller's first win as the Maple Leafs' head coach.

It was a much cleaner performance compared to Toronto's season opener against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, when they lost 3-2 at home.

With that said, here are the four main takeaways from the Maple Leafs' first win of the campaign.

Goaltender Anthony Stolarz made his first start of the season for the Maple Leafs on Wednesday. 

There was a lot for him to prove going into this season, given the numbers he produced last year. He posted an .893 save percentage and a 3.28 goals-against average, which was a significant decrease from the .926 SP and 2.14 GAA he registered in his first year with the team, 2024-25.

Against the Islanders, Stolarz stopped 26 of 27 shots, getting a .963 SP. That's the best the 32-year-old has performed, statistically, since recording a .966 on Oct. 16 of last year.

"It was good," Stolarz said of his first performance of the season. "I think it's a great feeling and something for our team to grow on and expand on, and continue to work forward. Obviously, you want to win the first one last night, but to come out the way we did and respond the way we did was extremely encouraging for sure.

"The guys did a great job of boxing guys out. Let me see the first shot. Obviously, we knew that they have a lot of skilled defensemen who they like to pound the puck. So it's kind of up to me just to smother that rebound. And obviously, we did a great job blocking shots, getting sticks in lanes. And if you do that consistently as a team, you're going to come out on top most times," he added.

If it wasn't for Stolarz's spectacular outing, Easton Cowan certainly would've been the star of this contest. The 21-year-old was noticeable all game long and contributed to both of Toronto's goals. He recorded an assist on Colton Sisson's first goal of the game and scored on the power play, which turned out to be the game-winning goal for the Leafs.

"He was feeling it tonight," Sissons said of Cowan. "Just a dynamic player. He has the puck on his stick a lot and makes a lot of good plays. So really blessed to be playing with him right now.

Cowan and the third line with Sissons and Nick Paul were arguably the best line in the game against the Islanders, and probably for the Leafs against the Canadiens in the first game, too. There's lots of positivity surrounding that trio in terms of their play, effectiveness, and early chemistry.

"Sky's the limit with that kid," Sissons said. "Yeah, he's got all the potential in the world."

Aside from Jack Roslovic's power-play assist on Cowan's goal, among Maple Leafs forwards, the third-liners were the only ones on the scoresheet, with Cowan's two points, Sissons' goal, and an assist from Paul.

Outside of producing offense, that trio were great at keeping possession in the offensive zone, executing low cycles, and they were very responsible in their own zone as well.

The defense pairing of Darren Raddysh and Morgan Rielly didn't start off so hot in the season opener against the Habs. But against the Isles, they looked a little more composed, especially Raddysh.

The right-handed blueliner was all over the place on Tuesday, giving the puck away five times on his own, and was on the ice for all three goals. On Wednesday, it was a much cleaner performance from him, Rielly, and the D-corps as a whole. 

The entire Maple Leafs defense only gave up the puck a collective four times against New York, and not one Toronto D-man had more than one giveaway.

That pair didn't set the game on fire and dominate, but it was good that they were a little quieter. That means there was less of an issue breaking out the puck, and very few breakdowns in their own zone.

And to add to that, Rielly got an assist on a pretty impressive play on the power play.

"What a play by Morgan," Hiller recalled of Toronto's second goal of the night. The 32-year-old picked off a clearance from the Islanders' penalty kill, controlled it at the blueline, and was able to make a play that led to Cowan's goal.

The Maple Leafs killed all four power plays that came the Islanders' way. Toronto did a great job of obviously keeping the puck out of the net, but also limiting dangerous chances when New York had the man-advantage.

The Isles were held to just three high-danger chances on the power play, according to Natural Stat Trick. Among the forwards, the Leafs' penalty kill was led by Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime, playing 3:52 and 3:43 of ice time shorthanded, respectively. Duhaime had three blocks in this game, more than any Islander.

"When you kill them all off, you give yourselves a pretty good chance to win a hockey game," Sissons said, who had 2:33 of ice time on the PK. "And yeah, it was sharp. Obviously, not a lot of time to kind of work out your system and work out some of the kinks. So it's been big thus far."

The efforts of defensemen Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev can't be ignored either, as they combined for a total of eight blocks, and each led the team in time on the penalty kill in this contest.

So far, Toronto is six-for-six in killing penalties after two games this season.

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