On The FAN Pregame, Anthony Petrielli discussed Gavin McKenna’s opportunity on the top line, Auston Matthews’ return to form, Easton Cowan’s emergence, the Leafs’ current bottom six, and the workload split between Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz.
Petrielli on the workload split between Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz:
It’s interesting because it feels like they’re kind of going two for Bob, one for Stolarz.
Based on play, Stolarz was awesome against Edmonton. Bob, in fairness, did shut the door to keep it a three-goal game in Calgary. He was good, but you don’t like that they had the three goals that they scored, particularly the second and the third.
You’re kind of watching, going, “Well, it would make sense to go back to Stolarz tonight, given how well he played on Saturday, and Bob was kind of iffy on Monday.”
But Bob’s back in net. Obviously, it’s a shared workload, but they clearly favour Bob in that situation.
Look, it’s early. I think the line that they would give is that Bob is a notoriously slow starter. He needs repetition. He needs to get into a rhythm. But you can only take that so far if Stolarz is going to play really well and Bob’s going to do what he did.
I would have gone to Stolarz today. I think he earned that, and then it gives Bob a little bit of time off.
Also, Bob’s played nine games, and in eight of them, he’s given up three-plus.
They can ride this for a little bit longer, but it’s wild because the season is so long, and yet it really feels like you’ve got to get every point they can in the Atlantic, right? The Atlantic is just crazy. You can’t be messing around. They’ve had a pretty good start, and their points percentage still puts them in tough in the Atlantic already.
Petrielli on Gavin McKenna’s opportunity on the top line:
Based on his play, he probably hasn’t earned it. But based on the circumstances, they didn’t have much of a choice. He was going to play in the top six, whether it was on the first line or the second line, or whatever you want to call it. He was going to be there.
He’s been up and down, as any 18-year-old would. He’s also been on a line lately with Colton Sissons and Vinni Lettieri, which is obviously not ideal. You can only put so much on his shoulders in that situation.
Expectations are tough. You’re hoping that he’s not a liability on one side of the ice, and then he’s able to at least contribute some level of offense.
If you look at the Edmonton game, I know he got an assist on the Lettieri seventh goal of the game, but he drew a key penalty that the Leafs scored on, and that effectively iced the game.
Make some level of contribution–I think that he’s capable of. Whether it’s scoring or an assist or whatever is not really what I would focus on. Can he find a way to contribute in a meaningful way, as he did against Edmonton?
Petrielli on the type of linemates who best complement Auston Matthews:
Honestly, I think he’s best with guys who are good at lugging the puck around and carrying it. It allows him to kind of pop into space and do what he does best, which is score goals.
No one’s MacKinnon or McDavid. Obviously, those two stand on a different planet. But he’s not like that in terms of being a star, where he’s going to just lug it up the ice himself and blaze by with his speed.
He has an incredible shot, and an incredible nose for the net. He’s good at finding pucks. Someone like Roslovic works because he flies down the wing. He’s good at carrying it through the neutral zone. He’ll find him in space. He’ll get in on the forecheck.
Cowan is the same sort of concept: good at carrying the puck, good at forechecking, and a smart enough passer once he has the puck on his stick.
Then, obviously, you have McKenna. Maybe not the same level of forechecker as Cowan and Roslovic, but those guys are also not the same level of passer that McKenna is.
Obviously, he’s always worked well with setup men, but I do think part of that needs to be linemates who can carry the puck through the neutral zone and let Matthews focus on finding space and not being the guy who has to basically do it all himself.
Petrielli on the signs that Matthews is back to his best:
The other thing I’d add is his ability to just take the puck off guys. He’s always had that.
You go back to the four-goal game to start his career, and the highlight for me was the stick lift leading to the goal on Karlsson. He’s always had that kind of sneaky ability to take pucks away from people and have a really heavy stick.
Now, he’s just going to get it on the wall. You’re watching games where he’s dominating in the offensive zone because he’s just holding on to it. He is a big player. He’s heavy, and he has all that strength he can use down low.
The shot, obviously, and the zip that he has on it is big, but it’s his ability to control the walls and dig pucks out and extend offensive-zone sequences. McKenna’s first goal would be a good example, where he makes a nice play on the wall and finds him in space.
We always think of Matthews as a goal scorer, but I’ve also always thought of him as the guy who can control pucks down low and just be a nightmare for a defenseman to deal with at all times.
Petrielli on Colton Sissons’ role and the construction of the bottom six after the Kirill Marchenko injury:
I don’t know if surprise would be the right word, but I thought it would have made more sense to just put together the Blueger–Duhaime–Sissons line that we’ve seen them use and turn to in third periods, and use them as a straight-up shutdown line.
Then you have your top six, however you want to arrange it. At least then you have three legitimate lines that you can count on, and they don’t play again until Saturday. They could have just gassed those three lines, and they would have had more than enough time to recover and be ready to go again for Saturday.
We’ll see, right? That third line (Groulx-Sissons-Lettieri), obviously, doesn’t look good on paper. I think Groulx has more than he’s shown. He was good for them down the stretch last year. He almost single-handedly cost them Gavin McKenna down the stretch of that season. He can shoot a puck, and obviously, he’s been good for the Marlies.
Lettieri is a little bit older. You can see why he struggles at the NHL level. I don’t think that’s magically going to change in his early 30s.
You’re hoping that the Blueger–MacEwen–Duhaime line continues doing their thing. They’re almost the de facto third line, but then Sissons kind of gets moved around.
Sissons is basically a caretaker. He’s a babysitter, almost, on that line where it’s, “Just try not to have anything bad happen, I guess.”
But I also don’t know what we would use that line for. It’s not strong defensively. You’re not going to count on them offensively. It seems like a line you hope just kills some minutes whenever they’re out there.
Petrielli on whether he saw Easton Cowan’s step forward coming:
Yeah. He was probably the only reason they were even somewhat remotely worth watching down the stretch last year. Legitimately, he was really good.
Then, obviously, he had the Marlies playoff run. We’ll never know the answer, but I would be curious to weigh which actually had more of an impact on him. To me, it’s the NHL minutes because he finally started playing and started doing well and getting comfortable. Then the AHL playoff run was sort of the cherry on top.
He showed all the signs. Obviously, he was what he was in the OHL, and then he came and had a solid rookie season, in particular, when they played him down the stretch. He was clearly a step above the American Hockey League in the playoffs. If he’d played there all year, he would have been extremely good, and he would have had quite a bit of hype to him if he’d just stayed down there and dominated that league all year.
He kind of has all the tools that you would expect to do really well. Whether it would be this fast, I didn’t know.
I think he also got some help in the sense that McKenna needs some time. He’s not stepping into the league the way Matthews did. Almost nobody does, in fairness. Matthews had pretty much the best rookie season since Patrick Kane. Over the past almost 20 years now, Matthews and Kane probably had the two best. McDavid was going to have it, but then he obviously got hurt after that, right?
McKenna’s not like those players, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but he just needs some time, which opens the door for Cowan.
I liked the role that they had for Cowan to start the year, with Paul and Sissons. Those are two good pros and two proper NHLers. He worked alongside them as just a worker bee, and that line was really effective.
Good for him for moving up the lineup and seizing the opportunity. He’s a good player. People should be excited about him.
Petrielli on whether Dakota Joshua can help address the Leafs’ depth issues:
Right now, he would because I do think he’s at least a viable NHLer. He played 50-some-odd games last year and had 10 goals. He’s had a few solid seasons. I think that’s a 17- or 18-goal pace if you were to pace out his numbers.
He’s an NHL player, and right now you’re looking at Lettieri, and he’s not an NHL player. Groulx wasn’t playing like an NHL player. Just the fact that Joshua is, and those guys haven’t shown themselves to be, would be a notable step up.
Also, it’s kind of weird, right? Jim Hiller basically said he didn’t have his equipment today. It sounded like he was going to play. The Toronto Maple Leafs couldn’t get his equipment across the country and down to Seattle? That seems a bit strange to me.
Anyway, I think he can just fill a serviceable role in the bottom six, whereas right now, they just don’t have enough options. If you put Joshua in, it wouldn’t look great either, but it would at least be a little bit more NHL-level.
