His team lost, so Leafs forward Jamal Mayers refused to let himself smile last night.
But the Leafs' checking centre could not contain his relief. Mayers scored at 1:51 of the second period in Toronto's 6-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes, his first goal since April 3 of last season (in Philadelphia), a span of over eight months.
Needless to say, the Toronto native, who now has 79 career NHL goals, was getting a little antsy waiting for his first goal of the season.
It finally came last night when he picked up a nice, two-line pass from Francois Beauchemin at the Phoenix blue line and then rushed in to beat Ilya Bryzgalov to the glove side.
"It was a line change and I snuck behind the D," said Mayers. "And it's been a long time since I scored, so I just tried to shoot it as hard as could.
"(Scoring) is not really my job, but I haven't gone that long to start a season (without scoring).
"So it was nice to get that," he added.
