Troy Stecher reflects on 1st goal with Leafs following win vs. Panthers: ‘It feels nice when you get one’

Claimed off waivers in mid-November, Troy Stecher scored his first goal with the Leafs on Tuesday, adding an assist for his first multi-point game since March 2023. The team now boasts a winning record when Stecher dresses, and the 31-year-old shared what he liked about how Toronto played in the win.

“We didn’t really give them much,” Stecher said post-game. “It felt like in the second period we really tilted the ice in our favour. It felt like a complete game from all 20 guys who were playing tonight.”

Stecher opened the scoring for Toronto in the first period with a clean wrist shot from the point that beat Sergei Bobrovsky. It’s the third consecutive game when a Maple Leafs blueliner opened the scoring, with Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson doing so in the previous two contests.

Troy Stecher scores his first as a Leaf! 🍁

Stecher is hardly known as a goalscorer. His last tuck came in December 2024, and he has a career high of five goals in a season. Considering this, Stecher spoke about how good it felt to come up with an important one for the Leafs so early in his time with the team.

“It’s great,” Stecher said. “Don’t do it often, so it feels nice when you get one. It’s nice to contribute, big goal at that moment obviously, gave us the lead and we never looked back.”

Stecher shared that he had told Easton Cowan and Nick Robertson before the game he was going to score one, but added that he tells someone that every night just in case it happens.

“Fake it ’till you make it kind of thing,” he said. “Give me the puck, I’m gonna score, then most often it’s on the glass and out. So it feels good to score tonight.”

While Stecher is joking around a bit with media, it’s refreshing to see that kind of confidence and drive in the Leafs locker room, which has seemed (understandably) down as of late. As Stecher has begun to take on a bigger role with the team, they now have wins in three of their last four games, and he’s currently riding a three-game point streak. Not bad for an early season waiver claim.

Stecher and the Maple Leafs will now look to keep that swagger going as they wrap up their road trip on Thursday against the Carolina Hurricanes.PRESENTED BY TABLE FAIR + SOCIALTABLE Fare + Social is a vibrant food hall in the heart of Toronto’s financial district,
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