Leaf notes: Nick Robertson had lost his goal touch, but not his faith

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After some glorious chances weren’t converted by Nick Robertson during his 12-game goal drought, he picked the top corner on one of the best goalies in the world on Saturday.

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“Just saw a little opening up on his shoulder, he sealed pretty good, I took my shot and luckily it went in,” a relieved Robertson told media in Tampa Bay of beating Andrei Vasilevskiy. “I was being patient, trying to stay confident when things aren’t going your way production-wise.

“But I’m still enjoying the NHL, being around a group of guys who help you not to think too much about (slumps).”

He recalled a long goal hiatus in junior with OHL’s Peterborough Petes, but in that case he had a few assists to sustain himself. Nothing was showing up on the board for him until Saturday, ironically after he took the morning skate off as he didn’t feel 100%. He usually never misses the warm-up.

“Maybe switch it up a bit. I was open to changing anything. Good to know I have this (experience) in my back pocket. I looked at my game to be the best effective I can (during his struggle).”

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PUCK STRUCK 

The Leafs could laugh off some dangerous projectiles fired their way on Saturday. The worst was Jake McCabe taking a puck in the side of his head when slot traffic left him in a vulnerable position in front of Joseph Woll.

McCabe didn’t return for the third period, but coach Craig Berube said it was just a precaution and he shouldn’t miss any game time. McCabe has blocked 46 shots so far, second on the team to fellow defenceman Chris Tanev.

“I was a little sick to my stomach,” Woll said of seeing McCabe go down, in his 600th NHL game no less. “He’s such a valuable player. I was happy to see him up and moving.”
Berube had to duck twice from friendly fire, once when Mitch Marner whipped a puck into Toronto’s bench.
“I’ll have to talk to Mitch, I don’t know if he’s pissed off at me or what,” Berube laughed. “I guess he needs more ice time.”

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CLIFFORD THRILLS THE KIDS 

Kyle Clifford got into his first game for the Marlies on Friday. The 33-year-old former Cup champion with Los Angeles, who played 41 games for the Leafs before taking a developmental role on the farm, recently made a nice gesture in a Faustina Hockey Club U-13 house league game between Browns Line Dental and Downs Industrial Plastics at the Ford Centre rink they share with the Leafs and Marlies.

“In the first period, this scruffy-looking guy in shorts walks behind our bench, hands me a stick and says ‘give this to your player of the game’, ” said Browns Line coach John McNeil. “He did the same at the other bench. I yelled over to the other coach ‘who was that?’, but he just shrugged.

“Then we looked at the stick stamped ‘Clifford’. We do everything fairly in our league, so I randomly drew a number of a kid on our team, Lucas. His eyes lit up when he learned the stick came from a Cup winner. A few weeks later, Lucas scored his first goal.”

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LOOSE LEAFS 

With Saturday’s win, the Leafs have now compiled a record of 73-32-8 in the month of November since 2016-17 when Matthews arrived. That includes 31-6-5 the past three years and 8-3-1 in 2024 … The Leafs have also improved to 12-0-0 when leading after two periods … Woll on being less than nine minutes away from a 4-0 shutout, then having to sweat out a one-goal game Saturday. “Sometimes it doesn’t go storybook ending in the third.”

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