The Toronto Maple Leafs lit up the Pacific Division-leading Calgary Flames for six on Monday night to make it five wins (and 29 goals for) in their last six games.
Your game in ten:
1. The boxscore told the story pretty clearly in this one: The Marner line (Zach Hyman 2g, Mitch Marner 1g,2a), the fourth line (Tyler Ennis 3g, Trevor Moore 2a), and Frederik Andersen (35 saves on 37 shots) were the key difference makers for the Leafs. Calgary led in scoring chances and shot attempts the entire game — they were gaining the Leafs‘ zone with speed and control, and creating plenty of scoring chances with lots of completed royal-road passes — but Andersen was incredible and seemingly everything the Leafs touched at the other end turned into goals.
Entering a building where the Flames had lost just six times in regulation all season — albeit with a spit-crowd atmosphere tonight — with Jake Gardiner, Travis Dermott and Nazem Kadri out and needing to keep pace with the red-hot Bruins, two points is two points at this time of the year and you’ll take them no questions asked in those circumstances.
2. Two of Tyler Ennis’ three goals had a good deal of good fortune about them, but he really seems to catch goalies off guard this way: While skating away from the net and puck protecting, he’ll quickly whip around for a no-look 180 shot along the ice against the grain/into traffic. He’s picked up a number of goals and assists doing that this year while working away from/in and around the goal line. The other goal, on the power play, was a beautifully-taken finish on the backhand. He’s a crafty player and a reclamation project that’s gone according to plan, to say the least.
And there it is, Tyler Ennis' first career hat trick. Great entry from Trevor Moore who gives Ennis the puck and does the rest. 5-1 Leafs. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/jVZa8WFO86
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) March 5, 2019
“When we had a chance to sign him, Kyle and I talked about it quite a bit. We just thought, with our medical people, he could get his legs back and get feeling good and that there would be an opportunity for him. We thought our sports science group would be able to get him up and running and feeling good. Obviously, he has the skill set. You can see his hands are second to none. As confidence comes… When you’ve lost it, it takes a while to get it back, but he’s got confidence now and he is important for us.”
– Mike Babcock on Tyler Ennis
3. Trevor Moore does all of the little things that add up to positive puck-possession hockey — he tracks really hard on the backcheck and on the forecheck and does a great job of jumping inside on puck carriers, cutting off their arms, and creating puck recoveries. His motor is non-stop and everything is done at full speed. He’s also got the skill and vision to turn those puck recoveries into scoring plays. This was a really impressive game again from him tonight. The Leafs found and patiently developed a really nice player here.
Trevor Moore is an elite back checker. This is a recording. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/B0KPiwTSNY
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) March 5, 2019
“Tenacious. Heavy on the puck. Does it right. Wants to stay. Plays like he wants to stay. Doesn’t turn it over. All the details in his game… I thought he was really good.”
– Mike Babcock on Trevor Moore
4. Two assists bring Moore up to seven points in 12 games playing just 9:04/game. It’s just fun with tiny sample sizes, but that leads the NHL in points per 60 among players with a minimum 100 minutes played.
Ennis, meanwhile, is on a 25-goal, 35+ point 82-game pace over 40 appearances this year playing just 10:12/game on average.
Moving out Par Lindholm was addition by subtraction to open up lineup spots for these two, and the fact that they also grabbed a controllable asset with a little bit of upside in Nic Petan is just the gravy on top.
5. Prior to the first Zach Hyman goal, Mitch Marner‘s next-level anticipation skills and on-ice awareness were clear to see — he saw that play developing earlier than most would. Marner also tracked back hard and stopped a clean grade-A look from developing just a little while prior to that. 200-foot dominance on a number of shifts from him tonight.
6. Anyone else notice Auston Matthews drop Rasmus Andersson along the boards with four minutes left in the third period at the end of his shift? The hit on Shea Weber got some attention a few games back, but he looks to be going out of his way to throw the body around a little bit more lately. After a couple of years in the league and a few playoff runs under his belt now, hopefully the urgency to ramp up for the playoffs is learned behaviour for Matthews now. I’m not convinced Matthews-Kapanen is the right fit for either player, but Matthews’ willingness to drive the net and engage physically more of late are positive signs.
7. On that note, the two middle lines in the Matthews unit and Nylander unit are in something of a holding pattern at the moment until Nazem Kadri comes back. Neither were particularly effective in this game and while neither line has been terrible overall, the combinations don’t seem like the optimal mix to me.
The great news is that the Leafs power play and its fourth line have come to life — those were two of the biggest problem areas offensively just 5-10 games ago. If the Leafs can get fully healthy up front, the obvious move is sitting there waiting for the trigger to be pulled: Re-uniting Matthews and Nylander and seeing if this team can begin firing on all cylinders just in time for the playoffs.
8. Watching Connor Brown struggle to complete plays and impact the game offensively, it’s hard not to think about moving Trevor Moore up and Nic Petan in for a game or two, but that’s definitely a bridge too far as far as removing a Babcock favourite and PK staple (especially with Par Lindholm gone). The more interesting question is what happens when Kadri comes back. It’s really hard to make an argument right now that it shouldn’t be Brown coming out.
9. The Leafs are currently in a position on the blue line where Ron Hainsey playing over 22 minutes at even strength was actually probably for the best tonight. The bottom pairing of Martin Marincin – Igor Ozhiganov finished with a 24% CF together. As much as I’m not a huge fan of the Marleau – Nylander – Brown line, the fact that they shared even strength ice time with this pairing more than any other (6-7 minutes) didn’t help matters.
There’s not much the Leafs can do here for the time being with Calle Rosen still not able to put his foot in his skate due to his injury, but if there’s a complaint here for me, it’s that Justin Holl has not been given equal consideration/opportunity as Ozhiganov, especially considering neither has been used at all on the PK. The Leafs have two pairings at the moment that aren’t overly strong in the puck-moving dimension of the game, and Holl is someone who has shown flashes of being able to help there if he was ever afforded enough opportunity to settle into his game. Unfortunately, I doubt he ever gets the chance this year.
10. Frederik Andersen made three great glove saves on point-blank scoring opportunities — including one where Johnny Gaudreau cut in and shot back against the grain into that vulnerable spot between the ear and elbow and he snagged it anyway — as well as a handful more unbelievable post-to-post stops among the 35 saves he made tonight. The game is probably totally different if he doesn’t rob Austin Czarnik early on here:
Frederik Andersen makes a key stop on Austin Czarnik. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/61NmAVm8QJ
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) March 5, 2019
Frederik Andersen makes a terrific glove save on Johnny Gaudreau. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/EMtBDWN8uh
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) March 5, 2019
Totally dialed in.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
