#NHLPeachy @NHL #NHLStats Pack: 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers – Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Columbus Blue Jackets

NHL STATS & INFORMATION NOTES

2020 STANLEY CUP QUALIFIERS: TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (8) VS. COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS (9)

#NHLSTATS: TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

* The Maple Leafs franchise owns a 7-8 record in 15 best-of-five series. Their 15 all-time appearances in best-of-five series are the most among all franchises, ahead of Boston and Montreal (14 each).

* Auston Matthews, who will turn 23 on Sept. 17, has 10 career playoff goals (20 GP), third-most among Maple Leafs before age 23 behind Ted Kennedy (20 G in 38 GP) and Wendel Clark (11 G in 23 GP).

* Mitch Marner leads Maple Leafs players with 17 postseason points since 2017 (5-12—17 in 20 GP), two more than Morgan Rielly (2-13—15 in 20 GP). His nine points in the 2018 First Round versus Boston (2-7—9 in 7 GP) were the most by a Toronto player in a single series since 2002, when Gary Roberts had 10 in the Conference Semifinals against Ottawa (5-5—10 in 7 GP).

* William Nylander ranked second on the team with 31 goals in 2019-20 (68 GP), an increase of 24 from his 2018-19 total (7 G in 54 GP). There have been only three instances of a larger season-to-season goal improvement by a Toronto player (min. 50 GP in each season).

* Since joining the Maple Leafs in 2016-17, Frederik Andersen is 8-11 in 20 Stanley Cup Playoffs appearances. Only nine goaltenders have recorded more postseason wins in a Toronto uniform.

* Matthews, Marner, Reilly, Nylander, Andersen, Kasperi Kapanen and Zach Hyman have appeared in all 20 postseason games contested by the Maple Leafs since the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

* John Tavares has appeared in 27 career head-to-head games against the Blue Jackets (14-19—33). That’s the highest such total among current Toronto players, five more than the next-closest skater (Jason Spezza: 4-8—12 in 22 GP).

* Jake Muzzin (2014 LAK) and in-season acquisition Kyle Clifford (2012 LAK & 2014 LAK) are the only Stanley Cup winners on the Maple Leafs roster. Muzzin (57 GP) and Clifford (55 GP) have played in the second- and third-most career postseason games among current Toronto players (Spezza: 80 GP).

* Corb Denneny of the Toronto Arenas scored the first series-clinching goal in a best-of-five series in NHL history, against the Vancouver Millionaires in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the 1918 Final.

#NHLSTATS: COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

* The Blue Jackets swept the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Lightning in the 2019 First Round, regarded as one of the greatest postseason upsets in NHL history. Nineteen of the 24 players who dressed in at least one game with Columbus during the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs remain with the team.

* Cam Atkinson has 18 career playoff points (7-11—18 in 27 GP), tied with former teammate Artemi Panarin (7-11—18 in 16 GP) for the most in franchise history. Atkinson paces a group of five players on Columbus’ roster who have recorded at least 10 playoff points with the franchise.

* Atkinson, Boone Jenner, Brandon Dubinsky and David Savard have appeared in all 27 postseason games contested by the Blue Jackets since 2014.

* Seth Jones is the Blue Jackets’ all-time leader in postseason assists with 12 (21 GP). He is one of 10 defensemen sitting atop a current NHL franchise’s all-time playoff assists list – a cohort which features Al MacInnis, father of Columbus’ Ryan MacInnis.

* Zach Werenski paced NHL defensemen with 20 goals in 2019-20 (20-21—41 in 63 GP), a single-season franchise record among blueliners. He ranks first on the franchise’s all-time regular-season goals list among defensemen, while Jones and Savard also rank among the top four.

* Nick Foligno, who skated with the Senators from 2007-08 to 2011-12, leads current Blue Jackets players with 46 career head-to-head games against the Maple Leafs. His father, Mike Foligno, had 2-6—8 in 18 playoff games with Toronto in 1993 as the club reached the Conference Finals; both his goals stood as game-winners, including one in overtime.

* Elvis Merzlikins went 13-9-8 through 33 appearances in 2019-20 (2.35 GAA, .923 SV%, 5 SO), highlighted by five shutouts over an eight-game span. A rookie has earned the Stanley Cup-clinching win in three of the past four seasons (Matt Murray in 2016 & 2017; Jordan Binnington in 2019).

* Riley Nash is the only member of the Blue Jackets with postseason experience against Toronto – he played in five games with Boston during the 2018 First Round, collecting an assist in a Game 7 victory.

* John Tortorella, who won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004, has 52 career playoff wins to rank fifth among active head coaches behind Joel Quenneville (118), Alain Vigneault (68), Claude Julien (63) and Barry Trotz (59).

CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE

The AHL affiliates of both Toronto and Columbus have won a Calder Cup within the last four years, with the Toronto Marlies winning in 2018 under current Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe and the Lake Erie Monsters (now Cleveland Monsters) doing so in 2016.

* Nine current Maple Leafs players won the Calder Cup with the Marlies: Adam Brooks, Travis Dermott, Pierre Engvall, Frederik Gauthier, Justin Holl, Andreas Johnsson, Timothy Liljegren, Martin Marincin and Calle Rosen. Five current Blue Jackets players did so with the Monsters: Josh Anderson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Joonas Korpisalo, Dean Kukan and Zach Werenski.

NOTABLE CONNECTIONS

Some notable connections between the Maple Leafs and Blue Jackets:

* Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, Seth Jones and Ryan Murray skated with Team North America at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

* Matthews and Zach Werenski were teammates in 2013-14 with USA Hockey's National Team Development Program. They also skated together for the United States in its gold-medal entry at the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

* Jake Muzzin, Jason Spezza, Tyson Barrie and David Savard won gold with Canada at the 2015 World Championship.

* Frederik Andersen and Oliver Bjorkstrand – who hail from Herning, Denmark – last played together internationally at the 2018 World Championship when Andersen was named Best Goaltender.

* Popeye Jones, father of Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones, played two seasons for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors from 1996-97 to 1997-98.