Stating the Maple Leafs badly needed a response effort after what was ultimately a comeback win over Pittsburgh is maybe overstating matters slightly, but they should’ve been heavily emphasizing a better start entering this game.
Despite the 1-0 Utah scoreline after one period, the Leafs mostly played a strong opening frame. Missed opportunities for Toronto, and one cheap/avoidable goal against, were really the storyline in a period the Leafs controlled in terms of offensive-zone time and quality scoring chances. They registered just five shots on goal but 16 shot attempts, and 10 were recorded in the home-plate area per Natural Stat Trick.
Bobby McMann was stuck in pass mode on a 2v1 to the point where he was too late to realize he was basically 1v1 with the goalie, John Tavares ripped one off the bar, and William Nylander ripped one high off the rush, among other good looks (Max Domi one-timer in the slot, Steven Lorentz with a rebound opportunity in tight).
There was also a frustrating penalty call that disrupted Leaf momentum. Kailer Yamamoto’s own stick rode up into his face after a quick lift by Tavares, and the referee standing right next to the incident didn’t call it, but the one standing way over by the complainants on the Utah bench put his arm up and made the call.
The Leafs got a fairly stress-free kill — save one big save by Anthony Stolarz when OEL fell down, leaving the bumper wide open — and were in fine shape again, only to concede a cheap one late in the frame. In a race to retrieve a puck inside his own blue line against Lawson Crouse, Brandon Carlo tried a D to D play off his backhand and got stripped — up the wall was the better play, and there should’ve been communication from his partner here — leading to Crouse rounding the back of the net. There was no need for Rielly to chase behind the net, and Crouse made him pay with a nice slip pass in front for a Michael Carcone goal.
The Leafs levelled the score inside the first five minutes of the second period, after more good work from John Tavares. In addition to ringing the bar in the first, Tavares made a great play to drive inside off the wall and pick out Carlo for a great look earlier, and he continued to cause problems for Utah with his strength on the puck before the 1-1 goal. He got the better of Dmitry Simashev, shook him off despite a hold, stopped up, and threw a puck in front. It was a broken play initially, but Knies fished out a puck out of a crowd in the crease for Nylander to finish off nicely in tight.
The Leafs took the lead a few minutes later after Matias Maccelli embarrassed Olli Maata on a puck retrieval off a McCabe dump-in and picked out Matthews, who faded away into a pocket of space in the circle for a perfectly placed one-timer into the far corner.
The Leafs then dodged a bullet with their first dangerous odd-man rush against; Carlo stepped up in the neutral zone and got burned at the same time Max Domi lost his balance, but Logan Cooley flubbed the chance at the backpost.
The Leafs’ PK needed to go to work twice in fairly quick succession due to a Laughton (worthwhile) penalty taken while standing up for Stolarz after the Cooley chance, and Carlo making a great play to strip Barrett Hayton of a potential breakaway but taking him down in the process (it’s a trip by rule, unfortunately). The PK was solid, allowing just two shots on goal (plus one just after the expiry), and Dakota Mermis made a crease clearance to save a goal.
The Leafs should’ve made it out of the period up one, but Anthony Stolarz allowed a total stinker, a not particularly hard slapshot flat on the ice through his legs with minimal screen. The turnover shouldn’t have happened — McCabe made a reasonable bump play down low to Matthews, who wasn’t fully ready/didn’t have his stick firmly on the ice — but this shot should never beat an NHL goalie.
An early third-period power play, the Leafs’ only of the game, led to zero shots on goal. The second unit was more threatening than the first, as Matias Maccelli picked out Nick Robertson and Max Domi for good looks that didn’t lead to recorded shots, and Maccelli set up Robertson shortly after the power play expired for another good look.
You were hoping the Leafs would prove able to separate themselves from a tired Utah team as this game wore on, and they did just that with two goals in a little more than six minutes in the third, both born out of winning battles down low in the offensive zone.
After Bobby McMann got the better of Ian Cole on the forecheck and forced the puck out front, Tavares finished off a broken play, a well-deserved goal on a special night for JT.
Another strong play on the puck by one of the Leafs’ bigger-bodied wingers, this time Dakota Joshua, saw him outmuscle Mikhail Sergachev and find Matias Maccelli for a good finish, a well-deserved goal for the former Mammoth player who played arguably his best game in a Leaf sweater coming off his healthy scratch. Maccielli’s goal all but put this one to bed, and if it didn’t, Matthew Knies’ empty-netter 1:30 later sure did.
Post-Game Notes
– Despite just 17 shots on goal at five-on-five, the scoring chances were 22-14 Leafs per Natural Stat Trick. That matches the eye test. The team moved to 4-0-0 when tied after the second period (3-0-0 when leading), and they are leading the NHL in third-period goals by a wide margin at 25. Their third-period goal differential is +10 compared to -1 in the first and -8 in the second.
– It was nice to see the Leafs step up with a tidy kill (zero shots on goal) when Scott Laughton dropped John Marino after the whistle for digging at Anthony Stolarz. Laughton surely noted some of the team’s issues standing up for Stolarz from the press box over the first few weeks of the season and was having none of it. It’s the type of penalty you really want to make sure you kill off.
The frustrating part is that for the rest of the game, whenever Utah bumped Stolarz, the refs didn’t call a thing or put a lid on it in any way. It put the Leafs in a difficult position inside a competitive game, where they didn’t want to stack up penalties but wanted to stand up for their goalie.
As for Laughton, he was eased in with the fewest five-on-five minutes on the team (9:16) but was solid in the faceoff circle and appeared to have his legs underneath him just fine.
– Coming off the scratch and facing his former team (Berube threw his line the first shift of the game), Matias Maccelli played a strong game overall with a particularly good third period, as he was finding teammates in good spots on the ice over and over again. Prior to this game, three assists in his 12 games didn’t fully reflect the chances Maccelli has helped create.
– The line with the most dominant underlying numbers in this one: Roberton-Tavares-McMann, with a 9-1 shot attempt differential at five-on-five. Maybe it’s not a big surprise, given that John Tavares and Nick Robertson have been two of the team’s most consistently hard workers so far this season.
– John Tavares‘ special moments haven’t always been greeted by the best of performances by the Leafs; who could forget his first trip back to the Island, or most recently, the 500th goal coming at the end of a blowout loss with zero celebration in Columbus. After his pre-game ceremony, Tavares scoring and the team picking up a solid win is much more like it, and it definitely helps make up for the unfortunate circumstances around the milestone achievement in Columbus.
– This was a game where the Leafs generally controlled play and created more but came out handily on the wrong side of the penalty differential. Can you believe it?
– Good to see the Leafs’ big-bodied wingers — Bobby McMann, Matthew Knies, and Dakota Joshua — all providing the dirty work of being heavy on pucks down low/at the net to help create offensive opportunity for the Leafs’ Nylander, Tavares, and Maccelli goals. That’s how it’s supposed to come together for each of those lines.
The Leafs are now up to a league-leading 39 five-on-five goals with a collection of producers (Knies, Nylander, Tavares) at the top of the even-strength point charts. They’re shooting 12.54% at five-on-five as a team, and they shot 9.5% last season, so it’s bound to regress some, but it’s a saving grace while the power play…
– It can be hard to build any momentum on a power play when it only gets one opportunity in a game, which also started with a center-ice faceoff. But we have to be getting close to the point where they consider splitting the units and creating a real competition out of it. Maccelli connecting with Domi and Robertson were the only things going on, besides a jam play attempt by Tavares.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
