The Lead

Halliday's Third-Period Winner Hands Leafs a 1-2 Start

Stephen Halliday's third-period winner gave Ottawa a 3-2 win over Toronto, and the shape of the game says more than the 1-2 start does. Auston Matthews and Kirill Marchenko both scored for the Leafs. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots, and Linus Ullmark's 27 saves at the other end kept the Senators ahead of them.

A one-goal result between two goaltenders working at that level is a coin flip that landed on the wrong side. Two goals is typically enough offence to earn a point against a goalie playing well, so the shortfall is thin and small.

A 1-2 record this early is mostly noise, and the number that would settle it is goals against. If Toronto keeps scoring twice a night, the goaltending and the defence decide the points. Expect that split to be the dominant measure of this team through its next few games, ahead of any lineup tinkering.

The Rest of the Slate

MLB Postseason

Rasmussen held the Yankees to one hit and two walks over eight scoreless innings in Tampa Bay's 1-0 ALDS Game 1 win, and the Rays lead the series 1-0. Chicago beat Cleveland 3-0 on a two-run homer from Munetaka Murakami and a three-hit combined effort from five White Sox pitchers, while Skubal limited Atlanta to one run in six innings in a 5-3 Dodgers win and Milwaukee edged San Diego 3-2, so each of the four series opens 1-0.

Argonauts

Sean Whyte kicked a club-record eight field goals in B.C.'s 24-17 win, ending Toronto's four-game win streak and its first loss in five contests at BMO Field. With Chad Kelly out with a hand injury, Nick Arbuckle completed 27 of 33 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns but threw two interceptions, and at 9-7 the Argonauts now depend on Arbuckle's turnover count.

Canadian Soccer

Jacob Shaffelburg scored in the 19th and 35th minutes as Canada beat Peru 2-0 in front of a sellout 19,619 at Stade Saputo. Two goals before the break from one winger is a useful case for his place in the attack as the international window closes.

The Number

Podiums for Taylor Ruck in three days at the Swimming World Cup in Azerbaijan A silver in the 200-metre backstroke and a bronze in the 100-metre freestyle on Saturday made it a fourth trip to the podium, and that spread across two strokes is range, not a one-event hot streak. Four podiums in three days is a pattern, and her next events will show whether the range holds, since a medal in a third stroke would make this a full-programme case.

What's On Today

            1:00 PM ET · New England @ Buffalo
25 PM ET · Kansas City @ Las Vegas
00 PM ET · Atlanta Braves at Los Angeles Dodgers (NLDS Game 2)
20 PM ET · Detroit @ Carolina
          

The Snap Count

The Matchup
Los Angeles Rams at Philadelphia, 1:00 PM ET at Lincoln Financial Field, is the early game with the most reputation on both sidelines. It is a good test of whether pre-season impressions still carry more weight than evidence this early in the year.

The Slate
The day opens with Indianapolis against Washington at 9:30 AM ET at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, then eight games kick off at 1:00 PM ET. Miami at Minnesota at 4:05 PM ET leads a three-game 4:25 PM ET block of Kansas City at Las Vegas, Denver at San Francisco and Los Angeles at Seattle, and Detroit at Carolina at 8:20 PM ET closes the day.

“A one-goal game is a coin flip with better branding”