Energized Leafs continue their hot roll with impressive 7-2 win in Edmonton

Matthews said the atmosphere on the Leafs is incredible at the moment.

“I just think the energy in the locker room day in and day out has been great,” he said. “I think the guys, the environment that we’re in, it’s so much fun. It’s competitive, you know. Guys, a lot of joking around, a lot of chirping one another. It’s just been a lot of fun, and I think that emotion, that energy carries over in the games, and it doesn’t matter who scores, everybody’s excited, everybody’s happy.

“It’s just everything’s about the team, and the team’s been first all this time, and that’s what is most important. That’s what I feel like is kind of driving us right now.”

Matthews and Kirill Marchenko (two assists) both extended their season-opening road point streak to five games. Matthews now needs just one point to reach 800 in his career, which will make him the fastest player in franchise history to reach the milestone, in addition to the NHL’s third-quickest American skater to hit the mark.

When asked about trying to contain Oilers Connor McDavid, who had two assists to pad his season-starting points streak to 11 games and 33 points, and Leon Draisaitl who recorded his third consecutive two-goal game to give him a league-leading 12 on the season, Matthews said it took “all hands on deck.”

“You recognize the challenges that you’re going up against, and obviously you need everybody to meet that challenge, and you know it’s not pretty at times,” Matthews said. “But I thought we stuck with it. Penalty kill was great. Defence was great. (Goalie Anthony Stolarz) was great, and we were able to put the puck in the net when we needed to.”

Stolarz made 30 stops to earn the win for Toronto.

Toronto head coach Jim Hiller said everyone in his team’s locker room can hold their heads high.

“It’s not just Matthews. It’s not just Nylander. It’s not just (John) Tavares. It’s going through the lineup, and that gives you a chance to win every night,” Hiller said. “And so as much as I’m happy for those guys, I’m happy for our team that they can feel there’s other guys there to support, and that’s a pretty good feeling right now.”

Toronto got goals from a couple unlikely sources as MacEwen scored his first goal since Oct. 14, 2024, and Lettieri hadn’t found the back of the net since April 1, 2025.

Nylander hitting 300 goals was significant in a number of ways. He became the fourth fastest player in franchise history to the milestone as well as the fourth fastest Swedish player and passed Rick Vaive for sixth in Maple Leafs history. It was also his 45th career multi-goal game, putting him 10th on the Toronto all-time list.

The Maple Leafs have been superb this season on the penalty kill. They had killed off 40 of 41 opposition power plays and 30 in a row until Edmonton got one late in the game.

The Oilers (8-2-1) had a three-game winning streak halted.

“They were just better than us. They were more competitive and won more battles,” said Oilers forward Zach Hyman. “They just beat us in every area today.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2026.

Shane Jones, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Energized Leafs continue their hot roll with impressive 7-2 win in Edmonton

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