There was no luck of the Irish needed for the Maple Leafs, who thoroughly dominated an inferior Calgary team to get back into the regulation win column for the first time in March.
Even better, the big boys really drove the bus for Toronto. Each of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander tallied three points, and Matthews, in particular, was dominant essentially every time he touched the puck. What a welcome sight that is.
This was a much-needed performance; now, we will see if the Leafs can build off it.
Your game in 10:
1. The Leafs got off to a great start to this game from the drop of the puck. Their reunited top line began the game with a dominant shift in the offensive zone. On the next shift, the second line checked hard before the third line came out with some jump. L3 gained the zone, worked it to the point, and scored the type of goal we’ve been calling for more of from the Leafs.
Max Domi passed it to Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the point, where he went across the blue line to Simon Benoit. Benoit saw some traffic in front courtesy of Bobby McMann, so he sent a low, hard shot to the net for a tip or rebound. The rebound kicked out to the backside where Domi, who started the play, had tons of time to wind up a slapshot and hammer a knuckling puck top shelf to take an early 1-0 lead.
After struggling to score all season, that’s now Domi’s third goal in eight games in March and his seventh point in 12 games since the 4 Nations break. Similar to last season, he is heating up down the stretch.
It was also Benoit’s third point in his last four games, and while it was his first recorded shot on net since his goal a few games against Utah, he has not been shy about looking to let it rip lately; he just has to hit the net, as he did here, to allow the forwards to go to work.
2. Benoit giveth and Benoit taketh away. Just over two minutes after the Leafs took the lead on a goal where he picked up an assist, Benoit got beat wide and chopped at Kevin Rooney, taking him down. It was poor play after Benoit got beat, immediately putting the Leafs‘ struggling PK to the test.
The Leafs switched it up in this game, as Scott Laughton killed penalties with Matthew Knies, along with a third unit of Calle Jarnkrok and Steven Lorentz. When the Leafs were doing a good job killing penalties in the past few seasons, they were rolling three forward combos, and it’s something they’ve gotten back to lately. They need to play with high energy and aggression, and they can only do it with three sets of killers.
Calgary generated two good looks on this power play, but the first was a broken play off the initial faceoff, and the second was a Joseph Woll clearance up the middle that was gloved down, leading to a good look. Otherwise, the penalty kill did its job.
Four minutes after they killed the penalty off, the Leafs took another bad penalty, this time when Nick Robertson shot it after the whistle. It was definitely a penalty and one a bubble player like Robertson cannot justify taking. The penalty kill was even better this time, as Calgary created essentially nothing.
Promisingly, a much-maligned Leafs PK unit made some tweaks and showed some life early.
3. The Leafs dominated the entire first period other than when they were in the box. The shot attempts at 5v5 were 25-13, and I don’t think those numbers did it justice. The Leafs created multiple chances in tight, highlighted by Matthews getting stopped in the slot twice (including his own rebound) and a down low Holmberg-Nylander 2v1 where the pass deflected off the post and Nylander just missed the rebound.
Both Holmberg and Nylander had separate looks (on the same shift) in front all alone, but they couldn’t beat Dustin Wolf. I have no idea how the Leafs had only one goal to show for their efforts by the time the first period ended, but they were swarming the net and driving it hard, creating all sorts of first, second, and third looks while tilting the ice.
Calgary couldn’t keep up with the onslaught, but Dustin Wolf was really good. The Leafs were credited with 10 high-danger shot attempts at five-on-five and spent four minutes of the period killing their own penalties. Competitively, it wasn’t close.
4. The Leafs’ first period was great, but one bad mistake undid all their great work in the final minute.
Specifically, Matthew Knies gave the Calgary Flames a gift. Fresh on the ice following a line change, Knies trailed the attack, took a pass from Marner on his backhand, and saw his weak pass intercepted at the top of the zone, leading to a turnover and a Calgary Flames odd-man rush the other way. It’s a horrible play that can’t happen. Knies has to be strong on the puck in that situation, and if he’s not sure, he needs to get it deep. Turning it over in the high slot is not an option.
Calgary went down the ice on a 3v2, and Jonathan Huberdeau made a good pass to find Rasmus Andersson trailing high on the back. Andersson walked in and ripped a shot through Joseph Woll.
There will be some commentary about needing a save here, and while it would have been nice to get one, if a good NHLer like Andersson walks in with speed all alone, it’s fair to expect them to score.
A great period from the Leafs ended with the score at 1-1.
5. You always worry a little after a great period ends with the score tied, but the Leafs drew a penalty off a great set play from the opening faceoff after winning it to the left. Marner, the right winger, swung through the middle, took a pass with speed, and broke in on a 2v1 before Kadri hauled him down.
The Leafs’ top power play unit stayed out for the entire duration instead of coming off halfway through. Marner and Matthews worked around it up top, where Matthews curled back to pass to Marner. Marner made a nifty one-touch cross-ice to Nylander, who was wide open and hammered an absolute bomb short side.
This goal really set the table for the Leafs’ power play. The rest of the way, Calgary cheated toward Nylander after learning the lesson the hard way. It’s also a good example of Marner giving the Leafs a righty passing to a righty for a one-timer. It’s easier to place it in the wheelhouse and gives a better spin on the transfer of the passed puck to the shooter.
It was a great start to a tied period driven entirely by the Leafs’ big dogs.
6. Right after the Leafs took the lead, the sent put out their third line, who got it in deep. Robertson took his second awful penalty of the game, this time by one-hand high-sticking Joel Hanley below the Flames goal line. Craig Berube almost combusted on the bench when it happened.
Usually, a team gets burned when it continues to take bad penalties, and the Leafs did after Woll kicked a big rebound out following a Kadri one-timer. Morgan Frost collected it backdoor and put home the rebound, but the Leafs challenged for offside. Truthfully, I’m not sure how the reviewers thought it was conclusive — perhaps they had a different angle than we did — but the goal was reversed.
The Leafs killed the rest of the penalty well, but right after it ended, Joel Farabee found Blake Coleman at the backdoor, where he hit the bar. With Calgary generating some momentum after the power play, Berube responded with a Nylander-Matthews-Marner line that just missed connecting in the slot before giving up a chance the other way. On the next L3 shift after the penalty, Jarnkrok was on the ice with Domi and McMann instead of Robertson.
7. Wouldn’t you know it, after all the nonsense from Robertson, he potted a goal when his short benching came to an end.
Following a good deflection into the zone from Robertson in the neutral zone, Domi skated down the ice to retrieve the puck and saucered a beautiful pass through multiple Flames defenders to Robertson right in the slot. It was the type of look that Robertson isn’t going to miss as he one-timed it in for his 12th goal of the season.
Last season, Robertson tallied 14 goals and 27 points in 56 games. This season, it has has not been nearly as good offensively — this was his 57th game, and he has 12 goals and 18 points — but his game has slowly progressed as the season has gone along. Especially compared to Sheldon Keefe, Berube has really looked to keep him in the lineup.
Robertson is up to seven points in his last 14.
8. With a 3-1 lead, the Leafs power play, which already scored one, blew this game wide open as Matthews potted back-to-back goals with the man advantage.
The first goal was a mesmerizing passing clinic as Marner, Nylander, and Matthews zipped the puck around, leading to a Nylander shot in the high slot that hit Andersson and bounced right back to Nylander. #88 passed it through the seam cross-ice to Matthews, who he had all day to stickhandle, pick his head up, and rip a shot short side.
Leading up to that sequence, there were a few plays that looked like one-timer opportunities for Matthews, but he never even tried to pull the trigger, which is the kind of play that makes one wonder what might be bothering him physically.
However, on his second power-play goal, Matthews one-timed a shot home. This was a nice set play by the Leafs that I’d like to see more of; it’s a simple goal that we see other teams pull off all the time, as Nylander passed it off the half-wall to Knies, who slid low on the goal line instead of screening the goalie. Knies one-touched it to Matthews in the slot, where Matthews did the rest.
It is a staple play for many teams, and the Leafs definitely have the talent to pull it off. That’s now 26 goals for Matthews. Don’t let him get hot!
9. The Flames came out in the third period with some jump and pressure, and the Leafs understandably took their foot off the pedal. Calgary generated some good zone time and looks early as a result.
Yet, the Leafs scored the next goal anyway, as Andersson drove the net and took a penalty. On the delayed penalty, the Leafs rushed down the ice, and Morgan Rielly had all sorts of time to pass it far side to Bobby McMann. McMann the handle at first but bore down and got a low shot off that found its way through Dan Vladar on the first shot he faced since the Flames pulled Wolf between periods.
It was an awful goal, but hopefully, McMann has bumped the monkey off his back and heats up. This was his first goal in 13 games.
10. The game got predictably chippy as the third went along as a frustrated and probably embarrassed Calgary team started taking some runs. It boiled over a little bit when ex-Leaf Dryden Hunt took a dicey run at Benoit, almost catching him high with a dangerous play. Benoit took exception and rightfully laid Hunt out.
I was curious to see how the Leafs would respond to some rough stuff in a game like this without Ryan Reaves in the lineup, and they did a really good job of sticking up for each other with a pack mentality. There were a few scrums earlier in the game where Pontus Holmberg took some shots, and William Nylander came in swinging to defend his teammate. I am not sure I’ve ever seen that level of aggression from Nylander before, let alone in a weekday game against a middling opponent.
With the travel and tight schedule of late, it was nice to see a snoozer win with low ice times for the Leafs’ top players. Matthews and Marner each played under 17 minutes. Holmberg played a game-low 12:05. Only Jake McCabe played over 20 minutes on defense. The new bottom six line of Steven Lorentz – Scott Laughton – Calle Jarnkrok was double-shifted at points in the third, giving them extra time to gel, although Calgary scored a garbage goal off Laughton’s leg in the final minute.
This was a really good win for the Leafs — one the team needed badly to settle down some of the chatter in the market. Onto Colorado.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
