As Maple Leafs captain John Tavares skated in his 1,000th National Hockey League game on Sunday, Morgan Rielly was happy to finally get his first.
Tavares marked his milestone game with two assists as the Leafs beat the Washington Capitals 5-1 at Scotiabank Arena, but the relief on Rielly’s face was clear when he scored his first goal of the season in the second period.
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The goal came in Rielly’s 36th game of 2022-23 and was the 70th of his career. As it turned out, Rielly was true to his word.
Following the Leafs’ Easter Seals skate on Saturday, Rielly said more than a few kids asked him when he was going to score. Jokingly, he said, his response was “tomorrow night, obviously.”
The Leafs feted Tavares in a pre-game ceremony with a video tribute that included words from former New York Islanders teammates Josh Bailey, Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Okposo, childhood teammate Sam Gagner, Leafs teammates Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and Rielly, and former teammate Jason Spezza.
Joining Tavares on the ice via blue carpet were his parents, Barb and Joe, wife Aryne and sons Jace and Axton.
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Tavares was presented with a Tiffany crystal piece by NHL executive Colin Campbell, and Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas presented Tavares with the traditional 1,000th game silver stick.
Tavares was expecting to have approximately 70 family members and friends in attendance.
The celebration got underway early on Sunday.
“The players organized a great moment for him and had his kids involved this morning as part of our meetings,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to acknowledge a great moment in our captain’s career. He has lots of hockey ahead of him, but certainly to get to 1,000 games, it’s not easy, especially with the quality of those games that he has put in.
“It was a great opportunity for us to spend some time with him and to have his boys involved was important to him and cool to see.”
The Leafs improved to 31-12-8, and 20-4-4 on home ice.
Ilya Samsonov, in his sixth consecutive start, made 23 saves to improve to 15-1-1 at home. Samsonov is bound to get the start on Wednesday against the Boston Bruins in the Leafs’ final game before the all-star break/bye week, as Matt Murray is on the sideline with an ankle injury. Before the game on Sunday, the Leafs recalled goalie Joseph Woll from the Toronto Marlies on an emergency basis.
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Zach Aston-Reese scored the only goal in the third period.
The Leafs scored four unanswered goals in the second period, none carrying more significance than Rielly’s.
Michael Bunting tapped a loose puck over the line at 1:29 during a Toronto power play. Tavares assisted on the goal.
Rielly’s goal was next at the seven-minute mark. He followed his instincts, came in from the point and fired a shot over goalie Darcy Kuemper’s glove. Bunting got the puck out from a scrum behind the net to feed Rielly, who had no Capitals near him.
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William Nylander scored his 28th on a backhand at 10:45 after it appeared the Leafs would get nothing from a 3-on-1 rush, and Pierre Engvall finished Kuemper’s night with a laser at 14:20. In came backup Charlie Lindgren, who relieved Kuemper after the latter gave up four goals on 20 Leafs shots.
From the opening faceoff, the Leafs appeared bent on leaving their terrible effort on Friday against Ottawa firmly in the past. Toronto buzzed around Kuemper, but the veteran netminder didn’t break, making a couple of good saves on Calle Jarnkrok.
The Caps found their legs and the Leafs couldn’t keep the pressure on with consistency through the remainder of the period.
The lone goal in the opening 20 minutes was scored by Washington, coming from Nicklas Backstrom with his first of the season. Backstrom beat Samonov on a power play, snapping the puck into the top of the net through a screen at 17:17.
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