Leafs Rally Against the Oilers

 

Saturday night the Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the visiting Edmonton Oilers this would be Edmonton’s first game after the league postponed all three games, they were supposed to play against Montreal due to two Montreal players testing positive for Covid. Also, surprisingly enough this would be Connor McDavid’s first appearance on Hockey Night in Canada against the Maple Leafs. Jack Campbell would once again get the start, his sixth of the season and veteran Mike Smith would be in the opposite goal for the Oilers.

 

The opening period would see Toronto with a lot of energy at the start and they would be moving the puck quickly setting a fast pace for the game, but Mike Smith would stand tall in the Edmonton goal. The Leafs would also see an excellent chance turned aside as Jason Spezza who had scored a goal in each of the last three games had the puck in close only to see Smith dive across and keep the game scoreless. The horn would sound with zeros still on the board, but Toronto had a positive start to this contest out shooting their opponent 10-4.

 

We would not have to wait long for some offense in the second period as with just over four minutes played Leafs Forward Pierre Engvall would deflect the puck over the shoulder of Mike Smith to put Engvall and the Leafs ahead 1-0. This goal would originally be waived off because the officials thought the puck was directed in by Pierre’s hand but after a review although Engvall did reach for the puck with his hand contact was never made so the goal counted for his third of the season.

Now usually when a team scores a goal momentum usually stays with the team in the lead, but this is the Toronto Maple Leafs and they always make things interesting. After Toronto took the lead the dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl would begin to take over the game. Just two minutes after Toronto opened the scoring McDavid would use his speed through the neutral zone and TJ Brodie would slide over to try and slow McDavid down. Doing this though would leave Defenceman Darnell Nurse open for the pass and he would send the puck through the 5 hole of Jack Campbell for his 11^th of the year and we would see the game tied 1-1. After this goal Edmonton seemed to take over and the Leafs could not match the Oilers speed. This would be evident on the go-ahead goal as Connor McDavid would take the puck in his end and speed up the ice against Justin Holl who did all he could to keep McDavid at bay. Unfortunately, it was not enough as McDavid would send the puck to a wide-open Leon Draisaitl who would fire a shot passed a diving Jack Campbell and Edmonton would go up 2-1.

Toronto would head to the power play looking to level the game at two goals a piece. The power play for the Leafs going into this game was scoreless in their previous 16 attempts and this man advantage was also unable to find the back of the net but looked particularly good and to me showed signs that it would break though very soon as it managed 5 quality chances one would see Auston Matthews in a scoring drought of his own beat Mike Smith only to see his shot ring off the crossbar.

As we all know in hockey usually when you have a great scoring chance stopped at one end the puck usually ends up on the back of your net shortly after and that is exactly what happened to the Leafs. Edmonton would work the puck into the Toronto zone as former Leaf defenceman Tyson Barrie would send the puck behind the Leaf goal to a waiting Leon Draisaitl who would send a beautiful no look pass back to Barrie who would tuck in his 5^th goal and the visiting Oilers would head into the second intermission leading 3-1.

As we know this season for the Leafs if they are trailing heading into the final period things usually do not end well for Toronto and for the first half of this final period it looked as if Edmonton had done enough to get the win as Mike Smith continued to make big saves robbing both Mitch Marner and Auston Mathews leaving him wondering what he had to do to light the lamp again. Toronto though did not seem discouraged, and they kept pressing to try and get back into this game. Help would come from two players that a certain Toronto Sun reporter has criticized for reasons   only he would know but Toronto would cut into the Oilers lead as Alex Galchenyuk would feed John Tavares a between the legs pass worthy of the highlight reel for his 10^th goal of the season. Just minutes later William Nylander would tie the game at threes after Galchenyuk would see his centering pass go off the skate of Justin Holl and William Nylander would hammer the puck into the back of the net for his 13^th goal of the season. With only minutes left in the game both teams would each trade chances one being Connor McDavid yet again looking like he was going to pass to a teammate only to see his shot ring off the post and the game would remain tied after regulation and for the second straight game the Maple Leafs would need to play the overtime session.

 

In the overtime the wait would not be long as after an Oilers chance was turned away Auston Matthews would interfere with McDavid that was uncalled taking him out of the play Morgan Reilly would carry the puck in and send it to Matthews who would fire the puck and watch it deflect off both Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse and into the net for Auston’s league leading 22^nd goal and probably the ugliest goal of his career to win the game for Toronto.

 

My thoughts on this game:

 

Although the powerplay again went scoreless I really liked their zone time I found their chances were threatening and I am sure that the powerplay will fins the score sheet very soon. I thought defensively aside from the 2 mistakes by Brodie and Muzzin to hold this Oilers offence to just 20 shots are a real positive. Although Tavares and Nylander have faced criticism from Steve Simmons both have produced fairly well, Tavares in 34 for games has collected 28 points and William Nylander has picked up 26 points in his 34 games this season. I really liked the game of Alex Galchenyuk I thought he has provided a real spark to the line with Tavares and Nylander he has picked up 3 assists in his 4 Leaf appearances and with the chances he had on goal last night the puck will surely start to go in for Alex. Lastly, I must talk about a huge characteristic of this years Maple Leafs team. They do not quit in previous years if the Leafs were trailing halfway through the period a lot of the time, they would call it a day and focus on the next game. This season’s team however keeps playing till the final buzzer and I think that change in attitude is from the influence brought on by the likes of Joe Thornton, Wayne Simmonds, Jason Spezza, and Zach Bogosian. These are players that have experienced many highs and lows in their careers they have learned what it takes to win because they went through teaching moments themselves. So, I think having the group of veterans that Toronto has is going to continue to be a huge benefit to the young core of this Leaf team.

 

Toronto’s next game will come Monday night when the Leafs and Oilers square off for the final time this season so it should be interesting to see if Toronto’s recent strong play will continue or will the Oilers earn some redemption and split this two-game series.