Can the Maple Leafs light up Tristan Jarry for a third time this season in Troy Stecher’s revenge game, or will McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, and the Oilers win the day on HNIC? (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet/CBC)
Game Day Quotes
Troy Stecher on the keys to keeping former teammates Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl quiet:
Understanding it is going to take all five guys on the ice. For the forwards, you’re trying to stay above and chip skin to allow the defensemen extra time to break out. If they are able to get past our forwards, the defensemen have to stay inside the dots and try to push things out to the outside. When you are as good as those two guy are, they are going to get their chances. It’s about how you can limit them and do the best job you can to keep it to the outside.
You need your forwards to get in [McDavid’s] way a little bit, so it is easier for you as a defenseman. If you are not able to do that, then you want to have a tight gap so he doesn’t have space to build his speed. It is all situational; if he does have speed, sometimes you want a bigger gap so that he is not going to embarrass you. It kind of depends on where he is on the ice, where the puck is, and where your support is. You just kind of read and react.
Stecher on the opportunity he has received and earned in Toronto:
There was an opportunity to come in, play important minutes, try to help this team win games, and be an important piece of it. It is one thing to get that opportunity. It is another thing what you do with it, and I have tried to make the most of it.
In saying that, tonight is probably my biggest test as an individual player, going up against #97. Hopefully, I know some of his tendencies and can have some success tonight, but I am sure he is going to get his looks.
Just fortunate for the opportunity.
Craig Berube on the trust Stecher has earned in his short time with the Leafs:
For me, I know what I am going to get from shift to shift. He skates and competes. He just makes the simple play with the puck, for the most part. He has been pretty solid for us all around — moving pucks, defending, PK. He has formed some really good chemistry with McCabe out there. They’ve been really good for us.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch on the impact Stecher is making in Toronto:
We have a lot of respect for Troy. It was hard to see him go. But with our situation and trying to get younger, with some younger players in our lineup on defense — more responsibility for Emberson, Regula — we didn’t have a place for him. Unfortunately, he was the odd guy out.
For him to come here and play as well as he is — playing 24 minutes a night — we are extremely happy for him. There is a guy who worked extremely hard every single day. No matter if he was playing or not. He brought the same attitude. We are very happy that he is having a lot of success here.
Connor McDavid on his time with Stecher in Edmonton:
Great teammate. That is the biggest thing: an unbelievable teammate who does whatever is asked of him. It is great to see him come here and have such a big role. He is playing great. I am looking forward to that challenge, too.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson on dodging the injury scare vs. San Jose:
I am feeling good. It was a freak thing out there. I got lucky, I felt like. It’s all good.
It happened so quickly. The guy fell and didn’t mean to do that. I was lucky to get out of it pretty quickly. It was crazy how much can change in a day or a day and a half. I’m lucky.
Berube on the play of Auston Matthews since he’s returned to the lineup:
That line is starting to form some chemistry offensively, and that is a big part of it. Max is skating and doing more with the puck, which is good, but I still think there is more for that line. We are trying to get more out of them. It’s the same with our captain.
Knoblauch on the personnel changes on his roster ahead of the game:
Any time you have a new player come in, you have a new chapter, and it is very exciting for everyone. Coming back to Toronto, we have so many Ontario guys, so there is a little bit of excitement about that. The additions of those players, plus some call-ups, mean we have quite a few new faces around right now. It is an exciting time for us.
Oilers GM Stan Bowman on the addition of goaltender Tristan Jarry:
Tristan has had a really consistent performance as a pro, really, up until last season. Certainly, that was something we looked into. We wanted to see how he started this year.
We have been impressed with his performance over the course of his career. I think he has shown himself to be a very solid goaltender. In a lot of the metrics we track, he has been very good on those for many years in a large sample size.
I just felt it was time for something different. It is not so much a comment on Stuart Skinner. It is just really maybe time for something different here.
We wanted to make sure we are confident in the person we’re bringing in. He has two more years on his contract, so we have our goalie for the next three playoff runs, which I think is important, knowing that he is signed, and it is a number we are going to be able to manage on our salary cap over the coming couple of seasons.
Those factors played a role. When we add it all up, it was not just about a couple of games here or there. It was about a career sample size and the fact that he is going to be with us for three playoff runs.
Bowman on why he’s confident Jarry is an upgrade on Stuart Skinner:
If you look at Tristan’s track record, he has had a very strong performance for a number of years. It was really last season that was the only time he had a stretch that wasn’t at the same level. I wanted to see how he started the season off, and I think he has been doing really well in Pittsburgh. He is a big part of the reason why their team is off to a great start and is probably surprising some people in the Eastern Conference.
Watching his performance, it solidified in our minds that he is the goalie we had seen for many years. I do see his performance over a number of years as being very good.
Bowman on moving out veteran Brett Kulak and then acquiring young defenseman Spencer Stastney from Nashville in a separate trade:
Brett Kulak has been a great Oiler. He was excellent in the playoffs last year; there is no doubt about that. With where he was in his contract as far as the last year of his deal, we were able to acquire Spencer Stastney, who is six years younger and a very similar style of player.
The thing we’ve liked about Stastney is excellent mobility. He is a great skater with a lot of quickness. He has been very effective on the penalty kill. He has some offense to his game as well.
I think he hasn’t reached his true potential yet. He’s 23 years old. We have been able to reshape our defense a bit in the last year. We now have three who are 25, and Boucher is 26. We have four younger defensemen who are all in those prime years.
Spencer Stasney is probably not someone people are too familiar with, but he plays a similar style of game to Kulak. That was important to us as part of this deal.
We certainly weren’t trying to trade Brett Kulak. He is a great person and a great player on our team. We are going to miss him. But in order to make the transaction work and with the money going back and forth, it had to be part of it.
We wanted to make sure we addressed our defense in the same manner, whether it was a separate trade on the same day. I am encouraged by what Spencer can bring to the table. I think when you get an opportunity to watch him play, you’ll see the similarities in their games.
That is the reason why we are pretty encouraged. We have some young defensemen now. Our players are going to improve. They’re going to continue to get better as we give them opportunities. It is different than having a vet back there, but we still have Nurse, Ekholm, Walman, and Bouchard.
We have some younger guys we are working in, and I think, once we give them the opportunity, they will show us they can make a difference in our lineup.
New Oilers goaltender Tristan Jarry on going from a team with Crosby and Malkin to one with McDavid and Draisaitl:
It is special, being able to play with Sid, Geno, Letang, Karlsson, and those guys. Special players. They’re all Hall-of-Famers. It’ll be cool to be able to say I was able to play for a long time in my career with them. They’re great friends and family now. They’re all very tough goodbyes.
McDavid on his relationship with Auston Matthews and what he admires about his game:
He is definitely a guy I have gotten to know better and better over the course of our careers. We share the same agent and spend a little bit of time together.
Just his ability to score goals, the way he shoots the puck, the way he gets open, and the fact that he doesn’t need much room are very impressive.
Maple Leafs (14-11-5) vs. Oilers (14-11-6): Head-to-Head Stats
via NaturalStatTrick.com & AdvancedHockeyStats.com
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies – #34 Auston Matthews – #11 Max Domi
#74 Bobby McMann – #91 John Tavares – #88 William Nylander
#89 Nick Robertson – #55 Nicolas Roy – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
#18 Steven Lorentz – #24 Scott Laughton –#53 Easton Cowan
Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe – #28 Troy Stecher
#44 Morgan Rielly – #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#2 Simon Benoit – #3 Henry Thrun
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Dennis Hildeby
#70 Artur Akhtyamov
Extras: Philippe Myers
Injured/Out: Dakota Joshua (illness), Joseph Woll (IR), Brandon Carlo (IR), Anthony Stolarz (IR), Chris Tanev (LTIR)
Edmonton Oilers Projected Lines
Forwards
#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – #97 Connor McDavid – #18 Zach Hyman
#92 Vasily Podkolzin – #29 Leon Draisaitl – #22 Matthew Savoie
#10 Trent Frederic – #19 Adam Henrique – #13 Mattias Janmark
#88 Andrew Mangiapane – #20 Curtis Lazar – #86 David Tomasek
Defensemen
#14 Mattias Ekholm – #2 Evan Bouchard
#25 Darnell Nurse – #75 Alec Regula
#24 Spencer Stastney – #49 Ty Emberson
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Tristan Jarry
#30 Calvin Pickard
Injured/Out: Jake Walman, Jack Roslovic, Kasperi Kapanen
