The Leafs walked out of Florida with 2 of a possible 4pts last week. In their first game they were dominated by the Florida Panthers but they turned things around on Saturday, with a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. While you are always happy with a win, the team bent almost to their breaking point at the end of the game. With a 4-0 lead and less than 10 minutes to play, the Lightning managed to score 3 unanswered goals before William Nylander potted an empty net marker. The game became too close for comfort and while the Leafs were all smiles after the buzzer, playing a full 60 minutes needs to be something they work on moving forward.
Auston Matthews registered 2 assists upon his return to the lineup, while Matthew Knies managed 1 goal and 2pts. Getting 2/3rds of their top line back certainly made them more dangerous offensively, but it was the contributions from unlikely goal scorers Chris Tanev and Nicholas Robertson that helped push them to a win. They’ll need a lot more from Robertson if he is to stick with the team long term. If he isn’t able to provide more depth scoring than he has (2 goals in 20 games) then they’ll have to move on from him before the trade deadline. The hope from everybody is that goal will get the monkey off his back and allow him to start scoring more regularly.
Jake McCabe took a shot off his head during the game and while he sat out for the rest of Saturdays contest, he isn’t expected to miss additional time. That’s great news for the Leafs considering how good McCabe has been this season. He leads the Leafs blueliners in TOI/GP and has formed a great pairing with Chris Tanev. Both defenders ability in their own zone, coupled with their penchant for getting the puck out of the zone with control has helped solidify the blueline and allowed other long time players (Morgan Rielly) to play against softer matchups. This is one case where the trickle down effect is very real.
After McCabe went down it was Simon Benoit that was called upon to replace his minutes. With a season high 22:13/TOI he helped the team hold the fort and looked good doing it for the most part. We’ve been screaming for a better group of defenders for this team for a long time now, so it’s nice to say that from 1-6 (and more), the blueline has been better than expected and appears to be more of a cohesive unit. While the personnel on the blueline has improved, the coaching staff (and goalies) has to be given ample credit as well. Some of the old mistakes still rear up, but you can’t argue with the results and as of this writing the Leafs are tied for 3rd in the NHL in goals against per game, they own the 8th best penalty kill and only Minnesota has allowed fewer goals overall. They’re in a battle for 1st overall (they have the best point percentage) in a very tough Atlantic Division. Is that a more impressive feat given the fact that Jon Cooper allowed Andrei Vasilevskiy to remain home while the rest of the team traveled to Nashville to take on the Predators, just so his goalie would be as rested and ready as possible for the Leafs, which is further proof that teams have an inordinately large proverbial hard-on when it comes to beating the Leafs? I think so, but I’m biased.
The Chicago Blackhawks are in last place in the NHL and have lost 2 in row. However, with former Leafs Nick Foligno, Tyler Bertuzzi, Ilya Mikheyev, TJ Brodie and Joey Anderson on their roster, Toronto is already down 5 goals so they’ll have to work hard if they want to come away with a “W.” While former Leaf goaltender, Petr Mrazek, is also on the other side, he played last night against the Columbus Blue Jackets so will likely watch this one from the bench. At first glance that’s a very poor coaching decision, but considering I can’t name the other half of their goaltending tandem from memory (Arvid Soderblom, I just looked it up), I’m sure the Leafs will fire 50+ shots on net, only to make a relatively unknown goalie look like a star.
All jokes aside, while the wins haven’t been there for Soderblom, his numbers have been great and the Hawks have good veterans and exciting young players on their roster. If the Leafs aren’t prepared and continue to play to the level at which they ended their last contest, they’re going to find winning tonight to be a very tough task.
Enjoy the game. Go Leafs Go!!