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And now for the Maple Leafs’ first shutout of the season, we give you Ilya Samsonov.

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With Joseph Woll out for the foreseeable future as he nurses a high ankle sprain, Samonov had to make just 18 saves on Saturday night as the Leafs beat the Nashville Predators 4-0 at Scotiabank Arena. 

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It was the first Leafs shutout since last April 1 when Samsonov blanked the Ottawa Senators on the road.

Defensively, the Leafs were full marks for their second win in regulation in as many games and their seventh regulation victory of the season. High-danger scoring chances for the Predators were few and far between. And consider that Nashville had won nine of its previous 11 games prior to arriving in Toronto.

Simply, it was the Leafs’ most complete game of 2023-24.

“It was as tidy a game as we’ve played,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. 

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“A team game like that takes care of everybody. The defence, their gap control, getting up and killing plays on the walls, killing plays quickly in the defensive zone, I just thought they were really solid one through six tonight. On the forward side, all four lines did a good job for us. That’s as good a team win as we’ve had.”

The Leafs are 8-1-2 in their past 11 games. Any way it’s sliced, that’s impressive. 

Auston Matthews scored two more goals to bring him to 18, and John Tavares assisted on the second Matthews goal. That’s 998 career NHL points for the Leafs captain, and he has a clear opportunity to reach 1,000 on Monday night when the Leafs visit his former team, the New York Islanders.

The Leafs’ dads joined the team for the game and will travel to New York for the game against the Islanders and then against the Rangers on Tuesday. The victory helped earn the players a full day off on Sunday.

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Our takeaways:

SAMSONOV RETURNS

We wouldn’t suggest Samsonov had an easy night — those really don’t exist in the National Hockey League — but in his first start since Nov. 24, there wasn’t much stress for the netminder. 

Good thing, too, because with Woll hurt, it’s more weight on the shoulders of Samsonov and Martin Jones to provide solid goaltending.

Samsonov had not done that much before he got sick last week, though Woll’s recent play probably would have kept Samsonov on the bench.

Never mind that now.

“If you could draw it up as a perfect game for him, that would probably be it,” Keefe said. “Doesn’t let anything in, the guys play well in front of him.

“With Woll’s injury, there’s a little bit of a pressure and attention on that position right now and for Sammy to come in and have a night like that is great for him, and something for him to build on.”

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If Samsonov can duplicate, or come close to duplicating, Woll’s positional smarts, the Leafs will be in good shape. Even though Samsonov had been dealing with an illness for the past week, there was time to work on the details with goalie coach Curtis Sanford. 

“We’re playing in the best league in the world,” Samsonov said. “You need to understand sometimes your partner is playing better than you and you need to get some work every day, harder and harder. This is where we see character.”

Samsonov is always thinking team-first, so it wasn’t a surprise to hear his thoughts on the Woll injury.

“Some shock, a little bit,” Samsonov said. “It’s not too fun to see how your partner gets an injury. I remember how I’ve been on this situation in the last year or two. It’s not great. I think he feels bad too.”

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KAMPF ALERT

No one needs to be reminded that secondary scoring can be crucial in a team’s success, and if it’s the fourth line we’re talking about, a puck that goes in off a shin pad every so often would be acceptable. 

Not so with David Kampf, who doesn’t fill scouting reports with lots of notable scoring chances, on Saturday night. 

Kampf scored what might have been his prettiest goal with the Leafs when he went bar-down on Predators goalie Kevin Lankinen at 14:15 of the second period.

After taking a pass from Conor Timmins, Kampf burst past defenceman Ryan McDonough and went high over Lankinen’s glove for what stood up as the winning goal. Kampf’s defensive awareness often is noted by Keefe. And now Kampf has scored in consecutive games.

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“I would say it’s probably more instinct,” Kampf said of his shot. “I just tried to put it up and (there was) not too much thinking about it.”

The Leafs didn’t sit back after the Kampf goal, and Matthews scored less than four minutes later.

Fully behind the goal line to the side of the net, Matthew used his backhand to tap the puck in after a pass from William Nylander. 

The Nylander-to-Matthews combination clicked again late in the third period when Matthews went five-hole during a Toronto power play.

Noah Gregor scored a shorthanded goal, into an empty Predators net, with 91 seconds remaining.

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CLAMPING DOWN

The Leafs they did enough early to keep the flies off Samsonov, allowing the goalie to settle in.

Samsonov didn’t face a shot on goal until the game was past six minutes old, and when he did eventually have a tough save to make, he calmly turned aside a Colton Sissons point-blank shot during a Nashville power play. 

The Predators won’t be confused with the flashiest teams in the NHL, true, but they really could get nothing going on offence. 

The 18 Nashville shots were the fewest allowed in a game by the Leafs this season. The previous low was 24, done three times.

And the 34 shot attempts that Nashville had at five-on-five were the fewest the Leafs have given up. 

“That’s what we’re looking for,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said. “There was a calmness just about our group. That’s always a good sign.”

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