The Maple Leafs’ OT victory over the Avalanche in Game 4 of the season counts among the best possession games during the Randy Carlyle era, as the Maple Leafs owned 58% of the shot attempts in that game and came out on the right end of a 40-24 shot count.
The Maple Leafs will hopefully have a semblance of a blueprint as to how they went about dictating the game against this Avs team, especially over the final 40 minutes, when they outshot the Avs 31-12.
A 3-6-5 start with too much time spent in their own end inspired an early tweak by Patrick Roy of the Avs’ defensive systems the last few days in practice:
[quote_box_center]”We’re going to make some changes. The fact that we’re spending too much time in our end becomes a problem and you always try to find solutions. We need to find a way to play that our players are going to be very comfortable with, and that’s what we’re going to work on.
“I think it’s going to simplify a lot of things. There’s going to be more support (from the forwards) in our zone. We might not be perfect tonight, but these guys have been playing the zone for pretty much their entire career. I think it’s an adjustment that could be made pretty easy in some ways. We practiced a bit with it this morning and I think we’re going to be fine with it.”[/quote_box_center]
Semyeon Varlamov has been a great example of why goals-against-average is no way to judge goalie performance. If there’s hope for the Avalanche yet, it’s that their goaltending has not taken a step back as many thought it would (.925 save percentage for Varlamov, .932 in four starts for Reto Berra). It’s expected Berra (3-1-0, .932sv%) will start versus the Leafs tonight.
Record aside, we all know the Avalanche can be a scary team; the Leafs managed to avoid going chance for chance with them for the most part last game and will look to control possession on the road against a desperate hockey club tonight.
Jonathan Bernier is expected to start for the Leafs, Berra for the Avs. Presumably Matt Frattin gets his fifth game of the season with the Ashton suspension.
There’s some rumblings Morgan Rielly will take a seat in the press box while Stu Percy steps into the lineup, but that is as of yet unconfirmed. Rielly had a few defensive lapses, as did most of the team, but this would come after a game in which he had six shots on goal versus Arizona.
Projected Lines
TML
Daniel Winnik – Nazem Kadri – Phil Kessel
James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – David Clarkson
Leo Komarov – Peter Holland – Mike Santorelli
Matt Frattin – Sam Carrick – Richard Panik
Dion Phaneuf – Cody Franson
Stuart Percy – Roman Polak
Jake Gardiner – Stephane Robidas
Jonathan Bernier
James Reimer
AVALANCHE
Ryan O’Reilly – Matt Duchene – Jamie McGinn
Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Jarome Iginla
Alex Tanguay – John Mitchell – Dennis Everberg
Cody McLeod – Marc-Andre Cliche – Maxime Talbot
Nick Holden – Erik Johnson
Zach Redmond – Tyson Barrie
Jan Hejda – Nate Guenin
Reto Berra
Semyon Varlamov
Game Review: Game #13, Avalanche 4 vs. Maple Leafs 3 (SO)
Game Review: Game #13 Scoring Chances: Avalanche 4 vs. Maple Leafs 3 (SO)
