Matthew Knies humiliates the Maple Leafs in his Columbus debut interview

Matthew Knies didn't name the Maple Leafs on Thursday night. After a three-point opener with the Blue Jackets, he didn't have to. But his message was directly aimed at his former team.

"It's a damn fun locker room to be in. This place is unbelievable," the 23-year-old winger said after Columbus handled Buffalo 6-3 at home.

Read that second line again. "This place" lands differently when the guy saying it used to pull on a Maple Leafs sweater.

And he backed up every word. Knies scored twice, added an assist and buried the game-winner, with one of those goals coming on the power play.

He fired 4 shots on goal in 16:06 of ice time. Efficient barely covers it.

Charlie Coyle set the table with 3 assists. Zachary Werenski added two more from the blue line, and suddenly the room Knies was raving about had plenty of evidence.

Auston Matthews still waiting while Knies cashes in

Now flip over to Toronto. The Maple Leafs have scored 4 goals through two games, so their old winger matched half that total in a single night.

Auston Matthews still hasn't found the scoresheet and sits at minus-2. That's a $13,250,000 cap hit producing nothing yet.

Toronto dropped a 3-2 home decision to the Canadiens before grinding out a 2-1 win over the Islanders. Jim Hiller's group sits at 1-1-0.

Easton Cowan, all of 21, leads the team in scoring. When the kid is carrying the offence, something up front isn't working.

Is one game a sample size? Of course not. But it's the kind of night that has Leafs fans staring at the ceiling at 2 a.m.

Knies gushing about his new room is like an ex posting beach photos the week after the breakup. Nobody's confused about who the post is for.

Here's the take. Columbus paying $7,750,000 for this version of him looks smart, and Toronto watching him do it in another crest already looks bad.

Rick Bowness has a winger playing loose and a goalie who held up. Jet Greaves turned aside 23 of 26 shots, and Mathieu Olivier even chipped in a shorthanded goal.

Utah visits Columbus on Saturday. Toronto hosts Ottawa that same night, still hunting for some offensive rhythm.

Then comes October 20, when the Maple Leafs walk into Columbus for the first meeting of the season.

Knies has 19 days to keep the receipts coming. Whether Toronto has an answer by then is a whole other problem.

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