The Toronto Maple Leafs scored seven unanswered goals to overcome a three-goal first-period deficit for a 7-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

You can look to John Tavares and Matthew Knies’ imminent returns and hope they can spark the lineup, but this is still a team with Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner. Offence should not be this difficult and they have the raw talent to at least make games interesting. Tonight was far from it.

Toronto Maple Leafs’ William Nylander, right ... keeps his eye on the puck through traffic as Oliver Ekman-Larsson (95) battles with New Jersey Devils’ Timo Meier (28) during the second period of an NHL hockey match in Toronto on Thursday, Jan ...

William Nylander scored his second goal of the game at 1:10 of overtime and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting New Jersey Devils 4-3 on Thursday night.

Bobby McMann, Nicholas Robertson, William Nylander, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Steven Lorentz, Auston Matthews and David Kampf found the back of the net for Toronto. Joseph Woll made 32 saves.

Filip Gustavsson made 32 saves for the Minnesota Wild in a 3-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday. “We had really strong work ethic,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said.

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly has shared his thoughts on his low offensive production this season. Rielly has been a strong offensive defenseman in past years.

It seems inevitable that the Canucks will end up with a franchise-changing trade in the coming weeks. Can the Leafs take advantage of it?

Rielly is the only Leafs defenceman to play in all 51 games and he has 22 points. He’s on pace for 35 points in 82 games, a far cry from the 58 points he had in 72 games in 2023-24. And being taken off the top power play has to be a blow to his pride.

The Minnesota Wild survived without Kirill Kaprizov the first time, and they can do it again. That’s the message they sent Wednesday, when they upended the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 at Scotiabank Arena to kick off Kaprizov’s second hiatus with their most convincing victory in weeks.

Joseph Woll will start for the Maple Leafs. The Wild are on the front end of a back-to-back tonight. They play the Montreal Canad

The Minnesota Wild last played away on January 26 against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Wild won by a score of 4-2 in regulation, and their current league record is 29-17-4 for a 0.620 Points %. Tied with the Leafs in Points %, the Wild are third in the central with a goal differential even more slight than the Leafs at +3.