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Report Cards: Toronto Maple Leafs overcome slow start, bounce back in win over Ottawa – Maple Leafs Hot Stove

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4 years ago

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Trap game – literally.

After coming out of the gates at a snail’s pace, Toronto started to turn things around in the second period and really kicked things into gear by the third period. That’s obviously not the way they drew things up, especially following their 5-1 collapse on Monday night, but the Leafs were able to come out of this game with two points, defeating the Senators by a final score of 2-1.

Ottawa’s 1-3-1 neutral zone trap, not as much of a factor in Monday’s game that was full of goals and momentum swings, seemed to throw Toronto off guard early in the game as the Senators executed well within their structure. Then again, that’s something they’ll need to learn how to get past. Coaches have been trying to trap up high-skill teams for decades. It’s nothing new.

The Leafs found a way eventually, although it definitely wasn’t their strongest performance of the year. To break things down in a bit more detail, let’s assess each player’s individual performance by diving into the report cards!

5/5 Stars

Game Puck: The Leafs‘ actual 1st Pairing — By this, of course I mean Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl. They’ve consistently tilted the ice in their team’s favour better than the Rielly-Brodie pairing despite facing similar competition.

That’s in large part because of both players’ gap control in transition; Muzzin and Holl don’t give opposing forwards any room when they’re trying to slice through the neutral zone. That’s why Muzzin-Holl were on the ice to defend Tim Stuzle & company in the dying minutes – they don’t allow many rush chances against.

Let’s not forget that both defensemen were able to produce offense tonight by consciously looking to set up their team’s best scorer:

It turns out passing the puck to Auston Matthews is still a good idea.

Joe Thornton (LW, #97) — The way he occupies space at the bottom of the offensive zone is really interesting to watch. Thornton reminds me of a low-post player in the NBA with the way he uses his size and long reach to keep opposing players on his back (or butt) while he surveys the defense and looks for the next pass.

By giving his teammates an easy passing option behind the net, Toronto was able to live in the offensive zone when Thornton was on the ice, constantly cycling the puck down low to him behind the goal-line. At one point, that line had Ottawa hemmed in their own end for over two minutes, eventually resulting in a drawn penalty by Thornton.

He was also able to sneak his way out front for what appeared to be a goal.

Back when I used to referee youth hockey, I remember being in meetings where it was explained that the play ends when the official “intends” to blow the whistle. Believe me, it’s not fun explaining that one to coaches.

Preaching to the choir here, Mike. Fun fact: Thornton had another goal waived off because of a high stick. The hockey gods just weren’t with him tonight, and yet he was the one at the front of the net creating the havoc that led to the game-winning goal by Alex Kerfoot.

Auston Matthews (C, #34) — We’re starting to hold Matthews to such a high standard that it’s becoming difficult to look for ways to him improve. He’s winning almost every puck battle this season and dictating play in transition. As you saw in the Muzzin-Holl section, Matthews was able to score another goal with his patented one-timer, putting him on pace to score a staggering 50 goals in 55 games.

If we are going to nit-pick, though, there was one specific backcheck where Matthews was late to recognize he was the 3rd forward (F3) who was supposed to be covering for Holl.

Matthews has now officially scored on every NHL team.

4/5 Stars

Frederik Andersen (G, #31) — After Monday night’s debacle, it was nice to see Andersen bounce back with one of his stronger performances of the season. The team in front of him did a pretty good job at limiting high-quality shots, but you still need to makes the saves. Andersen did that tonight, at least on 27 of the 28 shots he faced. He needed to be sharp early to help the Leafs settle in and came up big there.

Jason Spezza (RW, #19) — His composure with the puck really stood out to me last season, especially right after the coaching chance. In Keefe’s system, puck possession is highly prioritized, which fits in well with Spezza’s patient approach to buildup play.

By taking a calculated risk in his own end, Spezza gets rewarded with a rush opportunity at the other end.

It’s also worth noting that Spezza took a few shifts with Matthews-Marner tonight, which looked pretty good. It was a creative way to maximize the team’s chances of winning the faceoff on the right side of the ice.

You don’t want Thornton playing as many minutes as Toronto’s big guns, so why not spell in a Spezza or Hyman every now on then?

Alex Kerfoot (C, #15) — He was flying tonight. Kerfoot’s always been a fast skater, but he’s struggled this season to create dangerous opportunities off the rush.

That wasn’t the case on Wednesday night. Kerfoot was transitioning the puck from defense to offense with his legs, but more importantly, connecting on that next pass through the middle of the ice.  It’s too bad Pierre Engvall insisted on whiffing on those chances.

As luck would have it, a Muzzin point-shot landed right in front of Kerfoot later in the game, where he was able to bury the eventual game winner.

Sometimes you need a bit of luck to get you going offensively. Here’s hoping that’s the case with Kerfoot, although his linemate quality doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence.

3/5 Stars

The Tavares-Nylander Line — Better is the way I would describe them tonight. I still think there’s another level Toronto’s second line can hit offensively. Then again, once Tavares’ shooting percentage regresses back up to where it should be, I’m sure we’ll stop hearing so many complaints about the Tavares-Nylander combo.

Something tells me Tavares isn’t going to keep shooting three percent all season.

When it comes to Nylander, part of me doesn’t even want to address some of the criticism that comes his way – I prefer sharing high-quality work in this field. Then again, it has made me realize that there’s always going to be a large portion of this fanbase who doesn’t value Nylander.

Just remember that when we’re assessing his value defensively, he defends the rush better than Rielly.

The Leafs got the puck back on this play, which tends to happen when #88 is on the ice.

Mitch Marner (RW, #16) — I saw quite a bit of disagreement online with respect to Marner’s play tonight. Early on, I thought he was fantastic at picking off passes and creating some kind of dangerous chance off of the turnover. Marner was also great on the backcheck, turning a couple odd-man rushes into even-man rushes, which really helps stack the deck in your goaltender’s favour.

As the game went on, he seemed to be a bit off in his passes. There were times he had Matthews open in a good spot and he’d miss him by a few inches, sometimes even a few feet. For someone who makes a living off of those passes, you’d like to see Marner look a bit sharper in that regard.

Travis Boyd (C, #72) — Despite his 46 percent shot share (CF%) at even strength this season, I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Boyd as a passer.

That said, I’m not sure if playing bumper on the power play is the right role for him. He turned the puck over the one time he touched the puck on an entry attempt. When the 5v4 unit got set up in the offensive zone, Ottawa’s penalty killers essentially ignored Boyd (and Thornton), sending their forwards to pressure Matthews & Marner on the half-wall. It really disrupted them, making me think that unit needs more of a shot threat in the middle of the ice.

I wonder what Nick Robertson would look like in that spot.

2/5 Stars

The Dermott-Bogosian Pairing — I don’t want to spill too much ink evaluating Zach Bogosian tonight, since we all pretty much know what type of defenseman he is at this point. With Travis Dermott, he seems to be playing with a lot more confidence lately.

It’s probably what made him think this was a good idea.

It wasn’t.

I love it when Dermott uses his skating to make dynamic plays in transition, but it’s worth noting his zone entry numbers have never been as strong as his zone exit numbers. This means he’s had a much easier time getting out of his defensive zone with possession than he does getting into the offensive zone with possession.

After crossing center ice, I’d be looking to defer more to my talented forwards if I were Dermott.

TJ Brodie (RD, #78) — We’ll discuss his defense partner in detail at the end. For now, I’d like to quickly bring up Brodie’s play on the power play. I don’t love it. We’ve seen Mikko Lehtonen or even Rasmus Sandin last season quarterback the second unit with much more confidence walking the line.

The Leafs don’t have many other great options to put there (Dermott? Muzzin?), especially when they’re only playing six defensemen, but it’s reaching the point where there’s a noticeable drop-off in quality between the Rielly unit and Brodie unit, at least to my eye test.

The Long Lanky Wingers — We’re going to group Pierre Engvall and Ilya Mikheyev together here, since they both played a similar role on the third line tonight. That role was to apply pressure defensively and provide next to nothing offensively. Engvall had a couple Kerfoot passes hit him on the tape in the slot, but he couldn’t connect on the one-timer right away, which allowed Ottawa’s goaltender to get across in time to make the save.

We’re also going to throw Jimmy Vesey in this section because he had the same kind of night. I’ve actually liked him a lot more defensively than I expected to; he has a knack for getting his stick in the passing lanes. The issue is that he’s still isn’t generating much of anything offensively.

1/5 Stars

Morgan Rielly (LD, #44) — I think a few of us need to take a good look in the mirror and ask ourselves how we’re evaluating defensemen in the year 2021.

Rielly’s speed allows him to jump up into the play and create offensive opportunities for his team, but when you consider how much he gives up the other way, you start to wonder if the risk is worth the reward at times.

This is one isolated play, but it’s representative of a larger problem. Rielly has always allowed more shots and scoring chances against than his peers defensively. The Senators’ best chance to tie it in the final five minutes also came on a play where Rielly took himself out of position inside the defensive zone and a pass went through him.

Maybe we all need to accept Morgan Rielly for what he is: a fourth forward. That can have a lot of value when you desperately need to score a goal. If we’re talking about his 200-foot impact on winning, though, I think it’s fair to say that Leafs fans have overrated Rielly’s impact at 5-on-5 for a while now.

Heat Map

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

Toronto got pretty badly outshot at even strength, with Ottawa controlling 58 percent of the shots. It is worth noting the expected goals had them at 50-50.

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.

Final Grade: B

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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12 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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22 hours ago

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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22 hours ago

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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