The Toronto Maple Leafs improved their record to 2-1 on the season with a 4-2 victory at home over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins. Key players for the Maple Leafs in this contest were Max Domi, William Nylander, Matthew Knies, and Mitch Marner. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game?
The Bad: Maple Leafs Line Shakeups
We are going to start with the bad because this game started badly for the Maple Leafs. First, it was confirmed that Assistant Captain (it seems funny calling him that) John Tavares would be absent due to illness. The fact that he was not at the rink for the home opener does seem to confirm that it is an illness and not an injury.
That forced Head Coach Craig Berube to juggle the lines. Interestingly, Berube moved Pontus Holmberg up to center the second line between William Nylander and Bobby McMann and dropped Max Domi down to center the third line with Max Pacioretty and Nick Robertson. Domi and Nylander seemed to be developing chemistry in the preseason and into the first two games of the regular season. I was surprised Berube split them up to start this game.
If you just looked at the shots on the net for the first period at 10-6 Toronto, you might think they played pretty well. Those shots were deceiving, though. According to Naturalstattrick, at 5-on-5, the scoring chances were 10-4 Pittsburgh. The stats by Sportlogiq displayed during the first intermission showed the zone times at 5:46 for the Penguins and 3:34 for the Maple Leafs. That same graphic showed Toronto did block ten shots in the period. By the eye test, the Penguins look faster than the Maple Leafs in the first period.
Pittsburgh also scored the only goal of the period. With Simon Benoit in the penalty box for tripping and the Penguins in control in the Toronto zone, the puck returned to Kris Letang at the point. Pontus Holmberg, who seemed to have Letang covered, left him alone instead of attacking him and skated toward the center of the zone, possibly guessing Letang would pass and not shoot. Given that opening, Letang took a couple of strides toward the Toronto net and unloaded a booming slapshot. Jake McCabe attempted to block the shot but failed. The puck was in the top corner of the net over Stolarz’s glove before he could react. Immediately following the goal, Holmberg was visibly mad at himself, realizing his error in not challenging Letang.
Pittsburgh would close to within a goal after the Maple Leafs went up 3-1 early in the third period. Evgeni Malkin gloved down a high clear by Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the neutral zone and skated it into the Toronto zone. Instead of shooting from the middle of the high slot, Malkin dropped to a trailing Rickard Rackell. Rackell one-timed the puck over Stolarz’s blocker into the top corner of the net.
The other bad thing was that the Maple Leafs took four more penalties in this game, giving them 14 infractions over three games. Some of the calls were questionable. Benoit’s tripping call was borderline. Later in the match, Benoit is a victim of former Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting’s acting skills. During an altercation in front of the Toronto net, Bunting saw that Benoit had his stick up and whipped his head back as if he had been hit with the stick. The replay confirmed Benoit’s stick never came close to making contact with Bunting’s face. Toronto killed off that infraction. Toronto has given up three goals in the 14 times they have been down a player.
The Good: Maple Leafs Make the Most of Their Chances Against the Penguins
At the start of the second period, Berube moved Domi up to center the second line, reuniting him and Nylander. That move paid dividends on their first shift together. With the Penguins on a line change, Jack St. Ivany passed the puck back toward the Pittsburgh zone to Matt Grzelcyk. The puck bounced over Grzelcyk’s stick, sending Domi, Nylander, and Matthews Knies in alone on Penguins goalie Joel Plomqvist. Domi faked a shot and then fed the puck to Nylander. Nylander snapped the puck over a sprawling Blomqvist to tie the game just 50 seconds into the second.
Matthew Knies would add another goal just 2:03 later. That play started with Marner ringing the puck around the boards behind the Pittsburgh goal from Blomqvist’s left to his right. The puck came back to Morgan Rielly at the point. He did not have a lane to the net, so Rielly tried to bounce the puck off the backboard before the goal. The puck bounced off the boards, then hit the side of the net and deflected right out to Knies. Before Blomqvist could react, Knies hammered the puck past him. They noted on the broadcast that Knies has faced the Penguins four times in his career and scored a goal in all four games.
Mitch Marner would up the score to 3-1 on a solo effort early in the third period. From Stolarz’s left, Bryan Rust dumped the puck around the boards in the Toronto zone. Knies timed contact perfectly with Sidney Crosby, preventing Crosby from playing the puck. The puck came to Marner just inside the Toronto blue line. Marner turned on the jets and headed up ice. He squeezed between the boards and Marcus Pettersson, entered the Pittsburgh zone, and picked the top corner over Blomqvist’s blocker.
Nylander would finish the scoring with an empty-net goal after taking a feed from Domi with 22 seconds left in the game. The play started with a turnover created by Chris Tanev behind the Toronto net. Tanev was not awarded an assist in the play, however.
Stolarz picked up his first win as a Maple Leaf. He stopped 21 of 23 shots, including two game-savers, with the Pittsburgh goalie pulled just before Nylander’s empty-netter. In his two starts, Stolarz has a 0.940 SV% and a 1.54 GAA.
In each of the three games to begin the season, the Maple Leafs have started slow and looked tentative in the first period. But they have taken over the games and played solid Berube-style hockey over the last two periods in each.
The Ugly: Where Did the Maple Leafs Power Play Disappear
The Toronto power play struggled in this game, going zero for three. The Maple Leafs have not yet scored a power-play goal this season on nine attempts. With Tavares out, Berube was forced to change the first unit. He started Pacioretty on it. After a terrible first-man advantage, Pacioretty was replaced by Knies. Ekman-Larsson replaced Rielly on their third attempt when they went zero for two. While the PP did look better with OEL on the backend, it still failed to score. Berube said they would continue to work on it after the game.
One good thing, though, is that it is early in the season. It is better to struggle with it now than at the end of the season like it did last year.
What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?
Toronto will have a few days to work on their power play, amongst other things. After beginning the season playing three games in four nights, they don’t play again until Wednesday night when they play their second of a four-game home stand. The Los Angeles Kings are in town. LA is 1-0-1 and will be playing the 4th game of a grueling seven-game road trip to start the season. The Kings will visit the Ottawa Senators on Monday night before venturing into Toronto. This game is slated to begin a half hour later than usual at 7:30 pm.
I expect Tavares to be back in the lineup for the next game. It will be interesting to see what Joseph Woll’s status is. After being placed on IR last week, he will be eligible to play Wednesday night.
One odd statistic. After three games, only four Maple Leafs players are without a point. Ryan Reaves, Nick Robertson, Benoit, and Matthews. It is only a matter of time before Matthews gets going. He was credited with a team-high eight shots on net in the Pittsburgh game.
