Todd McLellan couldn’t have imagined a worse start as head coach of the Detroit Red Wings.
Led by a hat trick from Mitch Marner, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Wings 5-2 at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night.
McLellan was behind the team’s bench as head coach for the first time since being hired following the firing of Derek Lalonde on Thursday.
In his 500th NHL game, David Kampf opened the scoring quickly in the first period. After just 2:29 of play, Kampf accepted Steven Lorentz’s pass to score his first goal of the season.
The Marner show then opened in Detroit. Marner first took advantage of a superb pass from John Tavares to find the back of the net for the first time in the match. Marner did it again before the end of the first period before completing his natural hat trick in the second. The star forward scored the third hat trick of his NHL career.
Nicholas Robertson delivered a real sledgehammer to the Wings at the very end of the second period. Robertson found the back of the net with less than two seconds left to give the Leafs a 5-0 lead.
The Wings showed signs of life in the third period. Lucas Raymond first scored his team during a massive attack, then Simon Edvinsson added a second goal less than four minutes later.
Captain Dylan Larkin, who met the media with general manager Steve Yzerman earlier Friday, was unable to help revive his team. He finished the game with an assist and seven shots on goal, but a minus-3 record.
Joseph Woll signed the victory with a performance of 23 saves.
Cam Talbot allowed five goals on 21 shots before giving way to Alex Lyon for the final period. Lyon was not busy and stopped the two shots aimed at him.
The Leafs were without their captain Auston Matthews for a second straight game. Matthews will also miss the scheduled meeting against the Washington Capitals. He’s dealing with the same upper-body injury that caused him to miss nearly a month of activity earlier this season.
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