Maple Leafs’ Easton Cowan showing fight after Auston Matthews injury and despite rough season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are wrapping up a rough season. Auston Matthews is done for the year with an injury. It’d be easy to excuse the Leafs for simply playing out the string.
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Easton Cowan isn’t having any of that.
The 20-year old rising standout for Toronto threw himself right into the fray on Tuesday night against the Boston Bruins.
He had expressed recently, “I wish I did something,” when Matthews took the season-ending hit from Radko Gudas.
This time, with a chance to redeem himself, Cowan took it.
Nikita Zadorov hit John Tavares into the boards illegally. Cowan didn’t stand for it.
He flipped his gloves off and went straight for Zadorov. Mind you, Cowan is seven inches shorter and 65 pounds lighter than Zadorov.
“I think you just kind of black out,” Cowan told Sportsnet after the game. “And, you know, go for it.”
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The Maple Leafs scored on the ensuing power play that came from Zadorov’s boarding major penalty, and they went on to beat the Bruins, 4-2.
It’s not a win to help them retain their top-five pick, which conveys to the Bruins if it’s sixth or worst.
It’s a win that improves spirits, though.
“I bet he’s feeling pretty tall right now,” Tavares told Sportsnet after the game about Cowan. “He plays with a lot of emotion. You can feel his excitement on a daily basis, just getting up and getting to play and compete. And I remember being in those shoes. So, it’s invigorating and it’s exciting. You know, I think the world of him.”
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The Maple Leafs aren’t planning on Cowan being an enforcer in the future. But his willingness to throw himself into the mix to defend a teammate is as good a statement about who he is as a hockey player as anything.
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