3 most impressive Toronto Maple Leafs players from 6-4 win over Boston Bruins feat. Matthew Knies

It's always a treat for hockey fans when the Original Six rivals, the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs, renew their legendary rivalry on a Saturday night.

In fact, the two teams have met several times in recent years in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the Bruins coming out on top in Game 7 every time (2013, 2018, 2019, 2024).

And while Saturday night's matchup featured only a pair of points in the standings up for grabs rather than a postseason series win, the Maple Leafs can feel good about picking up the win over the Bruins. They improved to 25-13-2 with their exciting 6-4 win over the Bruins, who fell to 20-17-4.

The scoring was started by Jake McCabe, who picked up his first goal of the season. Toronto then increased their lead to 2-0 thanks to the first of what would be three goals from Matthew Knies.

However, the Bruins fought their way back into the contest with goals from Morgan Geekie and Trent Frederic.

Both teams went back and forth in the third period, as Matthew Knies completed the hat trick with a pair of goals inside of two minutes, while David Pastrnak scored for Boston.

Mitch Marner then scored into Boston's empty net with goaltender Jeremy Swayman on the bench for an extra attacker, increasing the lead to 5-3. While Pastrnak made things interesting with his second goal of the night to make it 5-4, the Leafs got the capper from captain Auston Matthews with 31 seconds left.

3 most impressive Toronto Maple Leafs players from 6-4 win over Boston Bruins

#1. Matthew Knies

The Maple Leafs won the game on Saturday night on the back of the first career hat trick for Knies, who is taking on a bigger role with the franchise that selected him 57th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft.

#2. Mitch Marner

It's going to be one of the more intriguing storylines in the NHL in a few months, as the future of Marner with the Maple Leafs will be decided.

But for now, he could very well be pricing himself out of Toronto with his performance so far in 2024-25. He scored a goal and added four assists for a five-point performance against the Bruins, along with a +5 rating.

#3. Auston Matthews

The Toronto captain made his return to the lineup for the first time in weeks and demonstrated that he hadn't missed a step by scoring a goal and adding a pair of assists.

The Leafs will need Matthews at full strength in a few months if they're to go on an extended postseason run, and Saturday night was a step in that direction.