The Maple Leafs scored five in this regulation win over the Rangers, four at even strength and one on the power play, without a goal from Auston Matthews or William Nylander.
Offensively, this looks like a team that’s not just talented — which was apparent from jump — but is now starting to smooth out some of the early kinks and actually gel together.
The top line didn’t light it up tonight in the end, but they scored the early 1-0 goal. Jack Roslovic did a good job of hanging onto a contested puck on the wall at the offensive blue line and bumping it back to Jake McCabe, who caught the Rangers on a bad change and sent in Easton Cowan alone for another confident finish. Cowan, Roslovic, and Matthews didn’t find the scoresheet again after that, but they were finding each other all over the ice (Cowan made two particularly nice feeds to Matthews for good looks, including a memorable no-look backhand feed into the high slot from the corner). While they conceded one against them, the top line outshot the Zibanejad line 8-2 at five-on-five in eight minutes head-to-head (high-dangers were 4-1 Leafs).
The fourth line, which scored two massive goals in this game to give the team the lead (at 2-1 and 3-2), is doing a good job of playing a physical, energetic, simple game, getting pucks stopped or turned over on the forecheck and supporting each other well. Zack MacEwen — who appeared to be blacking out at points in this game — created the first goal on his own with a good turn/rush down the wing before forcing it out front for Brandon Duhaime to set up Teddy Blueger, who redirected it wide but got a bounce (probably always the way they were going to end their 11-game scoring drought). Later, they came up with a big response soon after the Rangers took the 3-2 lead via Brandon Duhaime, who followed up on his own rebound after MacEwen and Blueger combined to turn over a puck with their pressure in the neutral zone.
The second line didn’t find the scoresheet as a unit at five-on-five, but Kirill Marchenko’s great effort on the power play gave the Leafs the 4-3 lead late in the second period, and Nick Paul’s fantastic extra effort to keep the play alive in the offensive zone late in his shift led to Troy Stecher’s dramatic, late game-winning snipe.
The reaction on the bench said it all about the intangible value of character, glue guys like Stecher and how they can help bring a team together. The Leafs’ response in general after conceding the 4-4 goal — a soft one past Sergei Bobrovsky that could’ve been a killer — was highly encouraging as they shook it off and took over the game.
On the flip side, the third line and Sergei Bobrovsky had a tough night, and due to a mix of either their goaltending or defense (sometimes both), the Leafs are more of a “we’ll get the next one” team than a serious one when it comes to locking down games/leads. That said, with the one-goal lead for the majority of it, the Leafs controlled the third period in shots, shot attempts, and gave up just one high-danger five-on-five chance. Tonight, it felt more like an ill-timed soft goal from Bobrovsky than their overall approach or their defending in the third. Again, the response at 4-4 was excellent.
Lots to like tonight, and still a few areas to clean up heading into a big test in Edmonton.
Post-Game Notes
- An interesting side story in this game: the Leafs’ #1-ranked PK vs. the Rangers’ #2-ranked PK. It took until the end of the second for a penalty to be called — Wes McCauley was officiating a Leafs game, after all — but the Toronto power play absolutely carved up the Rangers’ PK. They could have scored multiple times before they did, including the original Marchenko shot as he rolled downhill through the middle of the zone and ripped one right in the slot. Credit to Marchenko for sticking with it; he looked like a basketball player who knew a rebound was coming, as he kept going to the net and fire-poked the rebound home. That was Marchenko’s fourth power-play goal of the season already, after scoring all six last season.
- Gavin McKenna — who played just 10 minutes and change — got a ton of attention, some of it justified, for his fly-by of the net, leaving his man all day to score the Rangers’ 2-2 goal. There was a calamity of errors in the lead-up, too, though: Colton Sissons didn’t get the puck in deep, leading to the odd-man rush, Nick Blankenburg got beat off the rush by Justin Dowling, and even Sergei Bobrovsky’s rebound was bad.
- The larger concern: in addition to the goal against, shot attempts were 11-0 Rangers and shots were 6-0 Rangers in the McKenna-Sissons-Lettieri line’s seven minutes of five-on-five time, and they played entirely against the Rangers’ bottom six. We’ll see what Jim Hiller does here as they head out on the road, where he can’t hide them. Big picture, John Tavares’ eventual return will help a lot, but in the meantime, there is work to do here as far as finding a working line three and the right line setup for McKenna so he’s not playing 10 minutes even with control over the matchups. They can continue to play around with the third member of the line — Dakota Joshua is starting to ramp up — but that unit is an obvious question mark as it stands.
- Feels wrong to only mention Colton Sissons in a negative light re: the 2-2 NYR goal and that overall line’s numbers tonight, having not given him his proper flowers in this space yet for his good start to his Leaf career overall. They’re regularly using him in MacEwen’s place on the fourth line for defensive-zone draws, and while they gave one up in that situation in the third (bad goal on Bob), there was one good example of his value in that capacity late in the first period. Out with Bleuger and Duhaime for a D-zone draw, Sissons broke up a pass, skated down the rink, bodied a defender off the puck, and centered the puck for a good chance for Blueger. The Leafs spent time in the offensive zone from there; the Matthews line came on fresh, and the Rangers iced it, leading to a first-line offensive-zone faceoff against a tired Rangers unit. A little thing but a big thing.
- This was Sergei Bobrovsky’s worst start of the season, and in that light, it’s a real positive the Leafs still won it — in regulation, to boot. His rebound control was lacking on two of the goals, and he simply has to stop at least one of the 3-2 or 4-4. The 3-2 goal all starts with a rebound that shouldn’t have been spat out like as it was. Unlike the 3-2, the 4-4 goes in clean and without a low screen. Very interesting call in net for Saturday against Edmonton, knowing Bobrovsky generally has Edmonton’s number but struggled tonight, while Stolarz seemed to be finding his game in the second half of the Columbus win.
- Speaking of the 3-2 Rangers goal, you naturally see more box-out attempts from the D in man-to-man (which the Leafs are playing in the defensive zone), but to me, there still has to be room for the defensemen to make the right situational reads about where the puck is and whether the box-out opportunity is still possible or not, before deciding whether to box-out or front a shot. JT Miller was entrenched in front of Bobrovsky, who was deep in his crease as Rielly stood on top of it, trying in vain to push Miller out. It’s not the first goal this season where a Leafs D was standing right on top of the goalie, creating a double screen with an attacker fully set up in front. I’m not sure what the Leafs’ D is instructed to do there; ideally, you get the box-out early before the net-front attacker gets to his spot, but if the net-front guy is already in his spot/is hard to move out quickly and a shot threat from the top is developing, the read should be to front it, then grab the stick, instead of making the goalie’s life much harder.
- It’s a crime Nick Paul didn’t collect a point on the game-winner for his effort keeping the play alive late in his shift and drawing a penalty before Rielly found Stecher. As good a third assist as you’ll see.
- Thankfully, Jake McCabe was okay after Wednesday’s scare, and he immediately helped set up the opening goal before putting five shots on goal and blocking four shots in 21:03. Nick Blankenburg left the game with an injury in the third period and struggled at times in the game; he turned the puck over into traffic up the wall on the 1-1 goal, and he didn’t play the 2-2 goal well. Unfortunately, Marshall Rifai is week-to-week. Whether Blankenburg is okay or not, they’ll need to bring another defenseman on the road, and there is an argument for playing him regardless of Blankenburg’s health status. It’s tempting to say Ben Danford, and I’d be excited as anyone to see it. Dakota Mermis is probably the safer call, especially ahead of a matchup against the Oil.
- Who had the first three Leafs goals by defensemen coming from Blankenburg, Rifai, and Stecher?
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
