Rielly, Stralman, Ramo, Schneider and Dumba look great for down the stretch; Franson not so much. More …

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Well that was something. I took a flier yesterday on Rob Tallas for my daily fantasy team because he was a cheap goalie and it almost paid off. Okay, not really. But when Luongo (shoulder or collar bone area) was hurt and then Montoya got hurt (lower body), the Panthers actually dressed their goaltending coach. Tallas, who hadn’t played since 2001. Montoya actually stayed in the net, unable to move. And the Panthers kept possession long enough before Luongo saved the day by throwing his equipment back on and getting out there. Even forwards Scottie Upshall and Derek McKenzie went to the dressing room to possibly dress as the emergency goalie.

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So anyway, the Leafs won. Now they keep winning, just when Leafs fans resigned themselves to actually wishing for losses. This is what they did all the time about a decade ago when they’d try their best to finish ninth in the conference – just enough to get the worst draft pick while still missing the playoffs. They jumped Carolina and Columbus in the standings and are now sixth last.

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Morgan Rielly has 12 points in his last 18 games.

Richard Panik saw 19:43 of ice time last night, an indication that he may be given a lot of ice time down the stretch as the team evaluates some of the younger players. This is his chance to show that he can be a scoring-line player. It will be interesting to see if he’s successful. That was his second highest ice time all season (by one second).

Here are the Toronto line combos and defense pairings based on their new-look team:

Leafs’ coaches would rather die than break up that Kessel line. You’d have to pull Bozak out of their cold, dead hands.

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Ben Bishop was unable to start last night due to an injury sustained in practice. He took a puck to the midsection. I don’t guess it’s anything long term, but Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 28 shots he faced for the shutout. The first of his career. Apparently, Vasilevskiy was going to start the game regardless.