Leafs/Marlies forward Scott Sabourin ejected 23 seconds into his first game in 366 days
Scott Sabourin's first shift in a Toronto Marlies uniform was certainly a memorable one, as the former Ottawa Senator was ejected just 23 seconds into his first shift back in an actual game setting in 366 days.
Sabourin, who signed a one year, two-way deal with the Leafs on February 7th, was tossed from the Marlies' contest against the visiting Laval Rockets following a chaotic sequence in which he won a clean foot-race, cut hard to the middle of the ice on a scoring chance, absolutely flattened Habs top goalie prospect Cayden Primeau before dropping his gloves and throwing bombs at Rockets center Lukas Vejdemo who was first on the scene to respond to the hit on Primeau.
Sabourin was issued a 2-minute minor penalty for goaltender interference, a 5-minute major for fighting, plus 10 minutes and a game misconduct for being the aggressor and initiating a fight with an unwilling opponent (Vejdemo, who earned a 2-minute roughing call on the play as well). It really was a wild sequence, as you can see below:
The good news for Laval and the Habs is that the 21-year-old Primeau was, thankfully, no worse for the wear after the hit and did remain in the contest.
Playing a hard, physical game is definitely Sabourin's style, but perhaps he was a bit over-eager to make a good first impression with the Leafs' organization on this one.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Conor Garland | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dylan Guenther | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Nick Schmaltz | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack McBain | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikhail Sergachev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jayden Struble | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Cooley | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Christian Dvorak | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Barrett Hayton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Quinn Hughes | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Clayton Keller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| David Savard | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Pius Suter | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Arber Xhekaj | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Joel Armia | - | - | - | |
| Arshdeep Bains | - | - | - | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 22 | 18 | 4 | - | 36 | |
Devils | 24 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 32 | |
Hurricanes | 21 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 31 | |
Wild | 21 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 30 | |
Golden Knights | 22 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 30 | |
Capitals | 21 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 29 | |
Maple Leafs | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Flames | 22 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 20 | 13 | 7 | - | 26 | |
Rangers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||