The Toronto Maple Leafs toughed out a win against the Minnesota Wild in their first game after the passing of legendary Swedish Hockey Hall-of-Famer Borje Salming
ST. Paul, Minn. — No excuses.
Playing with a depleted defense, the Toronto Maple Leafs edged out a 4-3 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Friday.
On a night when the Maple Leafs were mourning legendary Hockey Hall-of-Famer and alumnus Borje Salming, the Swedish ‘King’ was likely displaying his legendary smile from above as the Leafs toughed out a win with fellow countryman William Nylander scoring the game-winning goal.
“Obviously tough day all day yesterday,” Nylander admitted. “It was nice to get the win for him and get that goal for him.”
Salming passed away on Thursday after losing his battle with ALS, a rare neurological disease for which there is no cure.
The Maple Leafs wore a custom-made patch on their right shoulder to honour the legend. It consisted of a Leaf in the shape of their logo from the 70s but colored in a shade of blue that matches the Swedish flag. The top-center stem of the Leaf is wearing the Swedish Tre Kronor crown. The word BÖRJE is written across the Leaf in the same yellow of the Swedish flag
“I thought they were amazing,” Maple Leafs defenseman Justin Holl said of the patch. “I don’t know how they got them made up so quick but it was a really nice nod to him; For all the Swedish guys I know it means a lot to them and it was cool.”
Before the puck dropped, the Minnesota game ops flashed a graphic of Borje Salming as the crowd took a moment to pay their respects.
“It’s incredibly difficult, you see the impact that he had, especially on a bunch of Swedes in our room now,” Leafs goaltender Matt Murray said. “He obviously meant a lot to the organization and I thought it was really nice that we were able to honor him with a moment of silence tonight.”
Following the national anthems, the Leafs were right back at work. Although they were heavily out-chanced early in the game, Mitch Marner opened the scoring at 3:42 of the first period with his fifth goal of the season, extending his career-high point streak to 15 games. Although the Wild had an answer for Marner’s goal in the first and Zach Aston-Reese’s tally later in the game, it was Swedish players Calle Jarnkrok and Nylander who scored the third and fourth Toronto goals that allowed the team to hold the lead for good.
The Leafs blocked shots, 22 of them against the Wild on Friday. They haven’t been scoring in bunches. Their defense, without their top three defensemen and now Jordie Benn (upper-body injury) is as thin as it’s been in recent memory.
But they’re getting results.
“I think we’re just playing the way we wanted to, trying to be above people, trying to get it hard through the neutral zone,” Marner said. “We’re not scoring in the prettiest ways right now but we’re getting guys around that net.”
Salming was known for his skill, but he sacrificed his body and did whatever it took to win. That tenacity and will to push forward is what won him the adoration of his teammates.
The Maple Leafs may not be winning “pretty”, but they’re winning. And just as Salming had to adjust to the NHL game as the first European to do so, perhaps the Leafs are doing the same by learning more about themselves at a time where at this time last month they were mired in an identity crisis. Left with no choice, Toronto found another way to win instead of just scoring the lights out on their teammates.
“Guys are finding a way, it’s just what you have to do,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game.
Keefe noted that defenseman Rasmus Sandin, another Swede, had not been on the ice before to defend a 6-on-5 at the NHL level before, but there he was helping his team lock down a victory in the final seconds of the game as the Wild pressed for an equalizer.
The Maple Leafs played a rare weekday road game in the afternoon due to the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend holiday. While it was a work day for most Canadian fans of the team and that may have been an inconvenience for some, it did allow fans of Salming and the Maple Leafs to watch the game live at a decent hour (9 p.m. in Stockholm) compared to a typical 2 a.m. game for a traditional nighttime North American start.
Everything seemed to come into place, on what was otherwise a difficult couple of days of mourning.
The Maple Leafs will continue to wear the Salming patch for the remainder of their road trip for games against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday and Detroit Red Wings on Monday. Following those games, they’ll continue to discuss internally how to honor Salming into their first home game back on Wednesday when they host the San Jose Sharks at Scotiabank Arena.
Much like Salming worked to change the perception of Swedish and European players when he came to Toronto in 1973, The Leafs can use their efforts to change the perception of what people think are the limits of the current group of players.
“It just shows you that every game is winnable,” Keefe said of how his team won. “We have a good enough team and we’re deep enough that every game is winnable. Don’t make excuses. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Just go out and compete and play and adjust your game if you need to.”
That how Salming would have wanted it.