McMann had three points on Saturday night — for the third time this season — against the team he grew up watching as a kid.
McMann had three points on Saturday night — for the third time this season — against the team he grew up watching as a kid.
The stories of Bobby McMann and Pontus Holmberg continue to get better and better.
Entering Saturday night's contest against the Edmonton Oilers, it felt as though all anyone could talk about was the head-to-head matchup of Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews.
Even the storyline of Zach Hyman reaching 50 goals against his former team had a lot of eyes on it. However, all anyone could talk about after the game was the production of McMann and Holmberg.
This time last year, McMann was nursing a knee injury after playing just two NHL games following a call-up from the Marlies. Holmberg was down in the AHL after bouncing up and down between leagues throughout the season.
I'm not sure how many people outside of the Maple Leafs organization expected the rise of these two players, but I'll say it wasn't many. Here they were, though — on a Saturday night, against a potential Stanley Cup contender in the Oilers — on hat trick watch.
McMann opened the scoring off a great pass from below the goal line by John Tavares. It was the 27-year-old's second straight game with his name in the goal column.
"We almost locked eyes there," McMann said on Saturday night. "He looked over his shoulder. He's got vision all over the ice and was able to make a great pass and I just tapped it in."
His second goal — which came in the second period to put Toronto up 5-0 over Edmonton — highlighted one of McMann's most underrated traits: his shot.
"I mean, what a feed by Willy (Nylander)," McMann said. "Everybody in the building thought he was shooting on that one. (He) fed me backdoor and I just kind of tried to get it in the top right corner. Didn't really look at it too much, just sensed where the net was."
Holmberg added two goals of his own within three minutes of each other. First, it was a smooth tic-tac-toe play between the three of Matthews, Max Domi, and Holmberg, with the Swedish forward finishing it.
A similar sequence occurred later, but with two different players in Morgan Rielly and McMann being the setup men for Holmberg, who put the Maple Leafs up 4-0 over the Oilers.
"It was nice (to score two goals). It was fun," Holmberg said with a gleaming smile on Saturday night. "I don't score so much this year, but it was fun."
Nylander and Matthews also scored, adding to what looks like career-high totals for them this season.
"I felt Holmberg had some good things going on which is why I moved him up to play with Auston, and that paid dividends right away," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after Toronto's 6-3 win over Edmonton.
"Bobby, as we know, has been excellent here. He finishes some great plays again tonight."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKA4T1o-kUo[/embed]
As big of a game as it was for the entire Maple Leafs team showing that they can make life difficult on the Oilers, McMann's performance — against the team he grew up watching — was the most significant part of the evening.
"I'm sure some (friends), I hope they're happy for me and not too worried about the Oilers losing that one," he said dawning a huge grin.
Before stepping in front of the media, McMann did another interview, where he received the illustrious Hockey Night in Canada towel. It was a night that'll be etched in his memory for a long time.
But it'll also be a game that proved just how important Holmberg and McMann can be for the Maple Leafs night in and night out.
"I think we (the team) came out with an attitude that we know we're a better team and we want to dictate the play from the start. I think we did that and (I'm) proud of us for that," McMann said.
"(Edmonton) has some skilled players and they push back a little bit. But we took it to them enough that it didn't matter."
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