Hockey Canada was not interested in Tyler Toffoli, but the Los Angeles Kings prospect had his way to almost comical extent in his first post-Christmas game on Wednesday. It almost seemed like Ridiculous Day as Toffoli scored five goals in the first two periods against a short-staffed Kingston Frontenacs team. That included a four-goal opening period and a natural hat trick, giving him a Canadian Hockey League-high 34 goals through 36 games. While it’s early yet, it might be time to look up the last time an OHLer not named John Tavares had a 60-goal season. Toffoli, were he not playing against a divisional opponent, probably could have the first six-goal game in the Ontario league in 22 seasons. However, 67’s head coach Chris Byrne shut down his star since the game was obviously decided.
Some observations:
- Toffoli’s 1st goal: watch the goalie’s head when the puck goes by him. He’s looking off to his extreme right, apparently anticipating a cross-ice pass byToffoli as a result of Toffoli’s pump fake, which fools the cameraman, too.
- 2nd goal: I like how the first shot backed off the d and made room for the second shot, where Toffoli walks in.
- 3rd goal: breakaway. I don’t have anything to say about it, other than to note that he scored five different ways (off the rush, stepping in off the half-wall, breakaway, one-timer, and whatever you want to call that last one).
4th goal: Toffoli takes two perfectly-timed steps back to get himself space for the (perfect) one-timer. - 5th goal: I like how Toffoli gets the defenseman to commit before going around the goalie to the other side.
- Oh, and I tried to look up the last player not named Tavares to score 60 goals, but I failed. Failed. Where are the OHL stats? I believe Lindros did it after Mario did it (but was he OHL? I assume he was QMJHL, but would have to look it up). /