The Toronto Maple Leafs closed out 2024 with a win and carried that momentum into 2025, winning their next three games to close out week 13. They got off to a winning start in week 14, extending their unbeaten streak to five games, but ran into some serious trouble to close out the week with two rough outings against the Hurricanes and Canucks.
3rd Star: Mitch Marner
Week 14 stats: 3 GP – 0 G – 3 A – 3 PTS
Season stats: 44 GP – 14 G – 45 A – 59 PTS
Mitch Marner and his linemates, Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies, didn’t quite have the same dominance last week as they did in week 13 when the three of them combined for 17 points (six goals and 11 assists in four games). Still, they found their way on the scoresheet amidst a very underwhelming week of hockey for the team, as they scored just six goals in three games.
Heading into week 14, Marner was among the league leaders in points and assists, ranking in each category’s top five. Although he and his teammates were shutout on Saturday night against the Canucks and were dominated against the Hurricanes last Thursday, he added three more assists to his season totals, including a two-assist night against the Flyers, giving himself a 15-point lead over William Nylander, the next highest point-getter on the Maple Leafs, in what has been an MVP-type season for the pending UFA.
2nd Star: Auston Matthews
Week 14 stats: 3 GP – 2 G – 1 A – 3 PTS
Season stats: 29 GP – 14 G – 17 A – 31 PTS
It’s been a weird season for Auston Matthews. Between the on-and-off absences from the lineup due to his lingering injury to him not producing at the same rate as last season, the newly-minted captain has had flashes of brilliance this season, but they just haven’t been as often as fans would like.
Last week, however, fans were treated to two goals from Matthews, one against the Flyers and one against the Hurricanes, despite the overall night of frustration that was the game in Carolina last Thursday night. A three-point, two-goal week has Matthews as week 14’s second-star during a stretch of three games where not many players on the team stood out positively.
Matthews’ three-point effort in week 14 has improved his season totals to 31 points (14 goals and 17 assists) in 29 games, which puts the 27-year-old on pace to finish the 2024-25 campaign with 72 points, 32 of them being goals, in 67 games due to him missing 15 games already.
1st Star: John Tavares
Week 14 stats: 3 GP – 1 G – 1 A – 2 PTS
Season stats: 43 GP – 20 G – 22 A – 42 PTS
Despite just a two-point week, John Tavares has earned the 1st Star of the Week for his performance against the Flyers. That and the fact that Marner and Matthews struggled mightily against the Hurricanes, combining for a minus-12, dropping them in this week’s review.
The 34-year-old is having one of his most productive seasons as a Maple Leaf, dating back to his 2018-19 debut with the organization when he scored 47 goals and 88 points. His 42 points in 43 games this season may get overlooked by some fans because of the excellent season Marner is having as well as the goalies in Toronto, but the other big-name pending UFA from this team has gone about his business and has produced.
He may have only found the back of the net once during last week’s three-game slate, but that lone marker on the power play against Philadelphia was his 20th of the season, making him the 32nd player in NHL history to reach the 20-goal mark in a season 15 times, joining Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as the only other active players to achieve that mark.
The Maple Leafs look to get back in the win column on Tuesday night, as Toronto continues its three-game homestand. They will face the red-hot Dallas Stars, who have won seven of their last eight games.
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