Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Toronto Maple Leafs Continue To Put Up Big Offensive Numbers

10/12/2018 at 8:38am EDT

from Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,

Bobby Orr, move over.

Not that Morgan Rielly desires to give you a hard shove.

The Maple Leafs defenceman on Thursday night continued his white-hot pace to start the 2018-19 regular season, and in doing so, has broken a modern-day mark held by Orr.

In the Leafs’ 5-3 win over the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena, Rielly had a goal and an assist, giving him 12 points in his first five games.

With that output, Rielly, who has three goals and nine assists, has enjoyed the best five-game start by a National Hockey League defenceman in modern history. The previous high was 11 points, set by Orr with the Boston Bruins in 1973-74. Harry Cameron, with the 1917-18 Toronto Arenas, holds the NHL mark with 15.

“I’m not going to really talk about that, it’s not that important,” Rielly said. “I think it’s important that we move on. There’s lots of things going on with this team to be proud of when it comes to wins and when it comes to new players playing really well....

While respecting Rielly’s team-first mentality, there’s no doubt that it’s an impressive accomplishment. And as the Leafs improved to 4-1-0, Reilly kept pace with teammate Auston Matthews in the NHL scoring lead.

Matthews scored a pair of power-play goals, giving him nine goals on the season, and 12 points.

In fact, the Leafs hold the top four spots among NHL scoring leaders, as John Tavares had a career-high four assists, giving him 10 points while Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist, also putting him at 10 points.

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Watch Mike Babcock's post-game conference below.

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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