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Report Cards: Toronto Maple Leafs close out Winnipeg series with a thud – Maple Leafs Hot Stove

Published

3 years ago

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Has Connor Hellebuyck been holding the Winnipeg Jets back? My column.

The Leafs dominated the run of play in their previous two games against Hellebuyck and the Jets. That was not the case tonight.

Paul Maurice decided to go with Laurent Brossoit in net, which must have energized the team because they looked much better at even strength. Thanks to a few power-play goals in the third period, aided by a bench minor and “questionable” penalty calls, Winnipeg was able to defeat Toronto by a final score of 5-2.

I’m sure this will be an emotional one for fans. Let’s all take a deep breath and do that one thing you know will calm you down after a third period like that.

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Did you do it?

Awesome, it’s time for some report cards!

4 Stars

Mitch Marner (RW, #16) — His line didn’t quite have “it” tonight, but Marner did everything he could to help open up space with some shifty moves. He pulled off a few little jump dekes to avoid contact while still maintaining possession of the puck.

That’s how he started the PK rush leading to a primary assist.

Believe it or not, this was Toronto’s first shorthanded goal of the season. They actually generate the most 4v5 scoring chances per 60 in the NHL, so maybe this is a sign of things to come. They weren’t going to keep shooting zero percent on all of those rush chances.

Getting back to Marner, one thing that stood out to me was just how fast he was skating back to cover for pinching defensemen. The Leafs love to get Rielly-Brodie in motion when they’re cycling in the offensive zone, but that can only work if the forwards buy into the system and consistently cover as the third forward (F3). Marner has been excellent in that regard this season.

William Nylander (LW, #88) — This might be the best stretch of hockey we’ve seen him play.

William Nylander is on fire offensively right now, using his speed in transition to back off defenders and create something dangerous with that open space. One thing I noticed is that he was also using his speed well defensively in the neutral zone, skating stride-for-stride with Nik Ehlers at one point — something none of Toronto’s players have been able to accomplish in this series.

Jake Muzzin (LD, #8) — I know Sheldon Keefe said that he didn’t think anyone had a good game tonight, but I disagree. Jake Muzzin did a great job standing up on opposing Jets forwards in transition, killing plays early in the neutral zone. We’ve come to expect that from Muzzin.

What we typically don’t expect is him jumping up in the offensive zone and creating chances. He had that shorthanded goal off the rush on the PK, not to mention sneaking backdoor at 5v5, where he received a great pass from Ilya Mikheyev.

I’m not used to seeing Muzzin as active in the OZ as he was tonight, but he looked good doing it. Maybe that’s something the Leafs should encourage him to do more often.

TJ Brodie (RD, #78) — He’s been earning his paycheck with defensive plays like these.

That’s textbook 1-on-1 defense against Kyle Connor.

TJ Brodie has a knack for getting his stick on the puck in these situations. You’ve also probably noticed he has a habit of breaking up 2-on-1 passes with a well-timed slide in the defensive zone.

The most efficient offense in the NHL is created off the rush, with a pass through the middle of the ice. Brodie’s great at preventing that, which is confirmed by both the eye test and the numbers.

Not a bad acquisition by Kyle Dubas.

3 Stars

John Tavares (C, #91) — One of the things that stood out to me tonight was how well Tavares was able to get body position, boxing out opposing players before going into a 1-on-1 puck battle. This was most noticeable in the defensive zone, which helped Tavares scoop up loose pucks and start the breakout for Toronto. His drawn penalty on Mark Scheifele was because of one simple thing: body position.

Now, Tavares did get burned by Mason Appleton when he was supposed to be covering for a pinching defenseman, but Frederik Andersen bailed him out with a big save* on the ensuing 2-on-1.

*Insert joke about how it was Andersen’s only big save of the night.

The Third Line — This play technically didn’t exist because of a hand pass, but my word, what a shot from Pierre Engvall.

The tools on this guy are ridiculous. He’s a 6’5, long dude who can absolutely rip the puck. Offensively, I’d love to see him use that heavy wrister more often from good locations like this.

Defensively, it’s crazy how much ground he can cover in a short amount of time. There were a few separate instances on the backcheck where you’re thinking, “there’s no way Engvall’s going to catch him,” and he does. By a lot.

Ilya Mikheyev was also showing off a bit more offense than we’re used to seeing. He pulled off a few separate “spin moves” in the offensive zone to create some space off the cycle. That’s how he ended up finding the room to deliver a backdoor pass to Muzzin, who was denied by Brossoit.

Last (and least) is Alex Kerfoot, who was a bit of a third wheel at 5v5, although he did have a couple of nice rushes with the puck. He made a bigger impact when Toronto had four skaters on the ice, forcing the turnover on the PK that led to the Muzzin goal, as well as drawing a tripping penalty on Pierre Luc Dubois at 4v4 by moving his feet.

Joe Thornton (LW, #97) — If you watch the Nylander goal again, you’ll notice Thornton makes a great little one-touch pass to create the 2-on-1. I didn’t love Thornton on the power play tonight; he turned the puck over a few times and took an interference penalty.

Justin Holl (RD, #3) — He had a few ups and downs in this game. The Nik Ehlers 2-on-1 earlier in the game was his fault, but at the same time, Holl helped create the Nylander 2-on-1 goal, so we’ll call that a wash.

With Muzzin jumping up into the play so often at 5v5, Holl was forced to sit back more often, which doesn’t make for a super noticeable game — it’s hard to take notes on the guy who isn’t even in the frame.

2 Stars

Coaching Staff — I’m not sure if I should be laughing or terrified.

Keefe was not happy with the officiating down the stretch in the third period, which is understandable considering some of the calls. That said, he essentially put the game to bed by picking up a bench minor there, forcing his team to kill two full minutes of a 5-on-3.

If we’re talking about actual tactical decisions, I loved the fact that he ran with a 4-forward power play at 4-on-3, putting his four best players on the ice when the Leafs really needed a goal.

Auston Matthews (C, #34) — Without his A+ shooting ability, Matthews has been forced to become more of a passer these last few games. He’s still making an impact in that regard, starting the breakout with some slick passes and looking to connect on those dangerous east-west passes in the offensive zone, which he connected on with Rielly off the rush.

All of that said, it feels weird watching Matthews without his shot. He just doesn’t look the same, and it shows on nights like these. The Hyman-Matthews-Marner line got filled in at even strength.

Morgan Rielly (LD, #44) — There are shifts where I marvel at Rielly’s skating and creativity in the offensive zone. Then there are shifts where he’s the first one in on the forecheck and five seconds later, Andersen is facing a 2-on-1. We could talk about his interference penalty on Ehlers, but honestly, that one was pretty dicey.

The bigger concern to me is the fact that Rielly got outshot again at even strength, this time by a significant margin (19-11 shot attempts). He creates so much offensively, but if you give it all back on defense, how much is that really worth tonight?

The Fourth Line — We can go quickly here. Jimmy Vesey really struggled to complete passes up the ice, as did Travis Boyd. That resulted in them getting hemmed in the DZ for most of their shifts, although Jason Spezza was able to generate a few sharp-angle shots that looked somewhat dangerous. Spezza also failed to pick up anyone on the backcheck of Winnipeg’s first goal, which was a bad look for him (and Travis Dermott).

1 Star

Zach Hyman (LW, #11) — When was the last time a Zach Hyman line got out-chanced by eight shots from the slot? Tonight just wasn’t his night.

The Bottom Pair — Zach Bogosian had a few rough moments with the puck, including a failed dump-in that led to a Blake Wheeler breakaway, where Bogosian slashed him at the end and picked up a penalty. He did close out well in transition defense, finishing his checks on Jets forwards as they crossed the blue line.

Travis Dermott was the nearest defender on two goals against, and frankly, you could make a good case that he was the “most guilty” Leaf on both of them.

Someone’s got to pick up Appleton there, whether it’s Spezza or Dermott. We’re not going to bother showing the other clip, but Dermott got caught chasing the puck behind the net, which led to a pass out front for a goal.

Frederik Andersen (G, #31) — Yikes.

He’s been a hot topic lately. Since we all do it on Leafs Twitter anyway, let’s go through each of the five goals Andersen allowed.

  • 1st goal: Backdoor pass
  • 2nd goal: Double deflection
  • 3rd goal: Pass out front, five-hole
  • 4th goal: Screen & Ehlers snipe
  • 5th goal: Beat clean from the left dot

With goaltenders, you’ll either hear fans scream, “He has to make that save!”, or, “He had no chance on that one!” Frankly, the first two probably fall in that second category, but there were some saveable shots that Andersen let past him tonight.

That doesn’t mean he’s a bad goaltender. It means he had a bad game.

Heat Map

Here’s a quick look at where each team’s shots were coming from at even strength, courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.

The Leafs got significantly outplayed, controlling only 40 percent of the shots and chances at 5v5.

Game Score

Game score is a metric developed by The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn to measure single-game performance. You can read more about it here.

Tweets of the Night

Good question, yes.

This made me laugh out loud. Kevin Bieksa sure is one funny dude.

They tweeted this before the third period in Toronto’s game. I know the EvolvingWild twins are really good at coming up with predictive metrics at their website, but now they have predictive tweets!?

Final Grade: F

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Need to Know: Bruins at Maple Leafs | Game 3 | Boston Bruins – NHL.com

Published

10 hours ago

 on

April 24, 2024

By


Familiar Territory

James van Riemsdyk has played his fair share of playoff contests here in Toronto – but all of them have come in blue and white. On Wednesday night, he would be on the other side for the first time if he indeed makes his Bruins postseason debut, which appeared to be a strong possibility based on the Black & Gold’s morning skate.

“It’s always special to play in this building,” said van Riemsdyk, who played in 20 postseason games with Toronto, including nine at Scotiabank Arena. “In this rivalry, it’s always a lot of fun. This time of year is always amazing, no matter where you’re at – if you’re at a 500-seat arena or a rink with all the tradition and history like this. It’s always fun and always a great opportunity to get in there.”

van Riemsdyk was a healthy scratch for the first two games of this series, following a trend across the second half of the regular season, during which he sat out several games.

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“Playoff time of year is always the best time of year,” said van Riemsdyk, who has 20 goals and 31 points in 71 career playoff games between Philadelphia and Toronto. “Obviously, in this rivalry, it’s always a lot of fun – two fun buildings to play in. You cherish every opportunity you get.

“This time of year, you learn that along the way, it’s all about the team. Whatever the team’s asking you to do, that’s always got to be your mindset and approach…you stay at it every day and just take it one day at a time.”

Montgomery said that if van Riemsdyk does re-enter the lineup, he’ll be looking for the veteran winger to help the Bruins’ offensive game. He also complimented van Riemsdyk’s professionalism throughout a trying second half.

“I guess getting his stick on more pucks,” Montgomery said on what he wants to see from van Riemsdyk. “We’ve talked about it a lot of times internally. Him and [Kevin] Shattenkirk have been great. They’re true pros. Every day come to work, come to get better. It’s not an easy situation, but he’s been great.”

van Riemsdyk concurred with his coach’s sentiments about helping Boston’s offensive attack, saying that he’ll be aiming to be around the net as much as possible.

“I think you’ve got to stay true to who you are as a player and play with good details and manage the game well and play to your strengths as a player,” he said. “This time of year, being around the net is always an important trait. You see all the goals being scored, it’s all within 5-10 feet of the net. That’s an area that I pride myself on, so going to be doing my best to get there and have an impact there.”

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NHL teams, take note: Alexandar Georgiev is proof that anything can happen in the playoffs

Published

21 hours ago

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April 24, 2024

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It’s hard to say when, exactly, Alexandar Georgiev truly began to win some hearts and change some minds on Tuesday night.

Maybe it was in the back half of the second period; that was when the Colorado Avalanche, for the first time in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets, actually managed to hold a lead for more than, oh, two minutes or thereabouts. Maybe it was when the Avs walked into the locker room up 4-2 with 20 minutes to play.

Maybe it was midway through the third, when a series of saves by the Avalanche’s beleaguered starting goaltender helped preserve their two-goal buffer. Maybe it was when the buzzer sounded after their 5-2 win. Maybe it didn’t happen until the Avs made it into their locker room at Canada Life Centre, tied 1-1 with the Jets and headed for Denver.

At some point, though, it should’ve happened. If you were watching, you should’ve realized that Colorado — after a 7-6 Game 1 loss that had us all talking not just about all those goals, but at least one of the guys who’d allowed them — had squared things up, thanks in part to … well, that same guy.

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Georgiev, indeed, was the story of Game 2, stopping 28 of 30 shots, improving as the game progressed and providing a lesson on how quickly things can change in the playoffs — series to series, game to game, period to period, moment to moment. The narrative doesn’t always hold. Facts don’t always cooperate. Alexandar Georgiev, for one night and counting, was not a problem for the Colorado Avalanche. He was, in direct opposition to the way he played in Game 1, a solution. How could we view him as anything else?

He had a few big-moment saves, and most of them came midway through the third period with his team up 4-2. There he was with 12:44 remaining, stopping a puck that had awkwardly rolled off Nino Niederreiter’s stick; two missed posts by the Avs at the other end had helped spring Niederreiter for a breakaway. Game 1 Georgiev doesn’t make that save.

There he was, stopping Nikolaj Ehlers from the circle a few minutes later. There wasn’t an Avs defender within five feet, and there was nothing awkward about the puck Ehlers fired at his shoulder. Game 1 Georgiev gets scored on twice.

(That one might’ve been poetic justice. It was Ehlers who’d put the first puck of the night on Georgiev — a chip from center ice that he stopped, and that the crowd in Winnipeg greeted with the ol’ mock cheer. Whoops.)

By the end of it all, Georgiev had stared down Connor Hellebuyck and won, saving nearly 0.5 goals more than expected according to Natural Stat Trick, giving the Avalanche precisely what they needed and looking almost nothing like the guy we’d seen a couple days before. Conventional wisdom coming into this series was twofold: That the Avs have firepower, high-end talent and an overall edge — slight as it may be — on Winnipeg, and that Georgiev is shaky enough to nuke the whole thing.

That wasn’t without merit, either. Georgiev’s .897 save percentage in the regular season was six percentage points below the league average, and he hadn’t broken even in expected goals allowed (minus-0.21). He’d been even worse down the stretch, putting up an .856 save percentage in his final eight appearances, and worse still in Game 1, allowing seven goals on 23 shots and more than five goals more than expected. That’s not bad; that’s an oil spill. Writing him off would’ve been understandable. Writing off Jared Bednar for rolling him out there in Game 2 would’ve been understandable. Writing the Avs off — for all of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar’s greatness — would’ve been understandable.

It just wouldn’t have been correct.

The fact that this all went down now, four days into a two-month ordeal, is a gift — because the postseason thus far has been short on surprises, almost as a rule. The Rangers and Oilers are overwhelming the Capitals and Kings. The Hurricanes are halfway done with the Islanders. The Canucks are struggling with the Predators. Panthers–Lightning is tight, but one team is clearly better than the other. Bruins–Maple Leafs is a close matchup featuring psychic baggage that we don’t have time to unpack. In Golden Knights–Stars, Mark Stone came back and scored a huge goal.

None of that should shock you. None of that should make you blink.

Georgiev being good enough for Colorado, though? After what we saw in Game 1? Strange, surprising and completely true. For now.

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"Laugh it off": Evander Kane says Oilers won’t take the bait against Kings | Offside

Published

1 day ago

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April 23, 2024

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The LA Kings tried every trick in the book to get the Edmonton Oilers off their game last night.

Hacks after the whistle, punches to the face, and interference with line changes were just some of the things that the Oilers had to endure, and throughout it all, there was not an ounce of retaliation.

All that badgering by the Kings resulted in at least two penalties against them and fuelled a red-hot Oilers power play that made them pay with three goals on four chances. That was by design for Edmonton, who knew that LA was going to try to pester them as much as they could.

That may have worked on past Oilers teams, but not this one.

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“We’ve been in a series now for the third year in a row with these guys,” Kane said after practice this morning. “We know them, they know us… it’s one of those things where maybe it makes it a little easier to kind of laugh it off, walk away, or take a shot.

“That type of stuff isn’t gonna affect us.”

Once upon a time, this type of play would get under the Oilers’ skin and result in retaliatory penalties. Yet, with a few hard-knock lessons handed down to them in the past few seasons, it seems like the team is as determined as ever to cut the extracurriculars and focus on getting revenge on the scoreboard.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the longest-tenured player on this Oilers team, had to keep his emotions in check with Kings defender Vladislav Gavrikov, who punched him in the face early in the game. The easy reaction would be to punch back, but the veteran Nugen-Hopkins took his licks and wound up scoring later in the game.

“It’s going to be physical, the emotions are high, and there’s probably going to be some stuff after the whistle,” Nugent-Hopkins told reporters this morning. “I think it’s important to stay poised out there and not retaliate and just play through the whistles and let the other stuff just kind of happen.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch also noticed his team’s discipline. Playoff hockey is full of emotion, and keeping those in check to focus on the larger goal is difficult. He was happy with how his team set the tone.

“It’s not necessarily easy to do,” Knoblauch said. “You get punched in the face and sometimes the referees feel it’s enough to call a penalty, sometimes it’s not… You just have to take them, and sometimes, you get rewarded with the power play.

“I liked our guy’s response and we want to be sticking up for each other, we want to have that pack mentality, but it’s really important that we’re not the ones taking that extra penalty.”

There is no doubt that the Kings will continue to poke and prod at the Oilers as the series continues. Keeping those retaliations in check will only get more difficult, but if the team can continue to succeed on the scoreboard, it could get easier.

 

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