Kallgren Shines Bright Against the Stars

 

Photo From San Diego Tribune

We’re going to start this one a little differently Monday afternoon the NHL’s Department of Player Safety handed Leafs star Auston Matthews a two-game suspension for cross checking Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin in the third period of the Heritage Classic on Sunday. Honestly, I am fine with him getting two games but now I hope that from now on for an incident like that in the future the minimum number of games is at least that, two games. Although anyone hockey fan reading this knows that the NHL will continue to be inconsistent when handing out future punishment.

 

Last night Toronto hosted the Dallas Stars who like the Leafs are going through goalie struggles of their own as Anton Khudobin will be out long term after having hip surgery and Brayden Holtby will likely remain with Dallas after Monday’s trade deadline, but he is recovering from a minor injury although he will return in the coming days. So, last night with Matthews serving the first game of his suspension John Tavares would move up to the top line with Mitch Marner and Michael Bunting, Wayne Simmonds would sit this game out meaning Kyle Clifford steps in, and a decision that created a lot of buzz around Scotiabank Arena was the fact that rookie goalie Erik Kallgren who made his debut last week salvaging a point in an overtime loss to Arizona would get his first NHL start as a member of the Leafs.

The first period early on would see Dallas register the first four shots on goal but all four would be turned aside by the rookie and with each save made the Leaf fans would show their appreciation with cheers. It wouldn’t take long for Toronto to get to work in this one though because just seven minutes into the first period the Leafs would open the scoring. Before I talk about the goal, I have to mention how this goal started. With the play in the Leafs end of the rink Rasmus Sandin would throw a big hit on Stars forward Alex Radulov he would then make his way up the ice as John Tavares and Marner were on the attack. The play would enter the Stars zone when Tavares would drop the puck back to Marner, Mitch seeing Sandin on the left-wing wall would send the puck over to him and Rasmus Sandin would show off some skill but cutting in and beating goalie Jake Oettinger, the Dallas starter with a backhand shot for his 5^th goal of this season. A few short minutes later Toronto would double their lead and Sheldon Keefe was a huge factor in this goal. Before the faceoff with his first line on the ice Sheldon would keep Michael Bunting on the bench and in his place would be William Nylander. Tavares would win the faceoff back to Timothy Liljegren who would quickly send the puck to Nylander at the top of the slot. William would see Tavares heading towards the front of the Dallas goal and Nylander would send a wrist shot towards goal that John Tavares would redirect into the goal for his 20^th goal of the season and already his second point of the evening giving the Leafs a well deserved 2-0 advantage. Over the past few days Sheldon Keefe has stated he would like to see more production for Willy and with assists in his last few games hopefully his confidence continues to grow because the more confident Nylander gets the better his production rate becomes, and of course we know about the struggles Tavares has had throughout the season but with him collecting five points in his last five games John is still putting points up at a rapid pace which supports my argument when I  said countless times the criticism and panic over John Tavares’s was absolutely ridiculous Tavares now has 57 points in 59 games he is someone that is too good to worry about production issues. In the final seconds of the opening frame Dallas would have a dangerous scoring chance that saw Kallgren down on his stomach, but he would have his pads along both sides of his glove side post and somehow managed to keep Dallas from scoring their first goal of the night.

With Toronto leading 2-0 after twenty minutes of play we would see Dallas test the Leafs and Kallgren as Dallas would have multiple opportunities on the powerplay but thanks to strong defensive play along with confident goaltending by the Leafs youngster Toronto managed to kill off every Dallas powerplay. Throughout this period which each save made by Kallgren the Leaf fans cheers would get louder and louder and while writing this article I have seen comments from people online saying the Leaf fans were disrespectful to Mrazek last night by cheering so loudly every time the rookie made a save. To those people I simply say you don’t understand the Leaf fanbase at all. Even though they are far from perfect Leaf fans are a group that have no problem letting you know when they are happy with your play and when they aren’t happy. Last night we fans watched Toronto’s AHL starter step in against a Dallas team that has some talent on their roster and play as if he had been in the NHL for many years, and pretty much since Mrazek became a Leaf his play has been well below par and Leaf fans understandably have no confidence at all in Petr Mrazek and that’s why last night they let their frustration be known. The score would remain 2-0 as the teams headed back to the ice for the third but Toronto would have a power play and with Roope Hintz still serving a two-minute minor for hooking the Leafs would cash in on their second powerplay of the game. The Leafs would have possession in the Dallas zone and Morgan Rielly would see his wrist shot blocked but he would gather the puck once again, he and Mitch Marner would play catch with the puck before Rielly would centre a pass to Ondrej Kase in the middle of the slot Kase would see his attempt on goal find the back of the net for his 13^th goal of the season and the Leafs would grab a stranglehold on this game leading it now 3-0. Toronto would play this third period in my opinion perfectly, they didn’t try and turn the game into a high scoring blow out instead they just kept their game simple by chipping the puck into the Dallas Stars end and would follow it up by going to work on the forecheck keeping the play away from the Leaf net but when Dallas managed to enter the offensive zone Kallgren would continue to shut the door.

The Leafs would ice the game when with just a few minutes left Morgan Rielly would collect another assist as Ilya Mikheyev would score his 11^th goal of the season sending the puck into the open cage. With the win locked up the only question to be answered was would the shutout remain intact? The question would be answered as Toronto would drain the remaining minutes of regulation and with the 4-0 victory Erik Kallgren becomes the first Swedish born goalie and the fourth in franchise history to get a shutout in his debut start with the Leafs. This accomplishment adds him to a list that includes Garret Sparks who shutout the Oilers on November 30^th of 2015, Al Rollins who on March 25, 1950, shutout the Bruins, and lastly Benny Grant who on March 9, 1929, shutout shut out the Detroit Cougars. I have to say I thought Erik Kallgren did a great job all night in goal he managed to track the puck well and had no problem with slowing the play down by freezing the puck and letting his team reset on the faceoff. I know everyone is excited for the rookie but by no means does one start mean the Leafs goalie issues are solved because they aren’t but last nights win definitely helps the team breath a little easier because Kallgren surely played well and has been rewarded because on Thursday when the Carolina Hurricanes come to town after practice this morning Sheldon Keefe announced that Kallgren will get his second start. It also needs mentioned that last night was Sheldon Keefe’s 100^th win as Leaf bench boss and he is the fastest coach to reach 100 wins doing it in 163 games breaking the original record held by Dick Irvin and the beloved Pat Quin who both managed 100 in wins in 184 games.

 

I also want to talk about the latest trade rumors linked to Toronto and with the deadline just five days away there will be plenty. We have discussed goalie options enough so this time I want to talk about Tyler Motte of the Vancouver Canucks and Jacob Middleton from the San Jose Sharks. It is no secret that Kyle Dubas would like to boost his forward group and Motte would add some more grit to the bottom six forward group. Tyler Motte doesn’t have many points this season, only registering 15 points in 48 appearances but he is a player that likes to play physical and has a strong defensive game as well. Tyler comes with a salary of 1.225 million dollars and his is a free agent next season. If the Leafs are looking to add Tyler Motte obviously a forward would have to be moved out. In regards of cap relief of course Alex Kerfoot could be the forward that exits because he is under contract for the rest of this season and all of next with a cap hit of 3.5 million however with Kerfoot registering 43 points I would find that very difficult to walk away from. I think if Kyle Dubas can move Pierre Engvall this would be an equal trade because Engvall who is a Restricted Free Agent at seasons end carries a cap hit of 1.25 million dollars so money wise they are relatively the same and Engvall has scored a total of 22 points this season. Although Toronto would be giving up a player with slightly more production for the services of Motte remember that Toronto needs to add some more grit and physicality to the lineup and that is something the team will not get from Pierre Engvall. Then of course there are the Leaf fans that want Nylander traded, and everyone knows if Dubas did ship Nylander away in a trade it would take no time at all before those same fans were crying wishing he was still in the blue and white.

 

When Jake Muzzin went down with his second concussion resulting him being placed on Long Term Injury Reserve right away fans thought Dubas would go out and get a big-name defenseman that could slide into their top four. There are 32 teams in this league that would love to be able to add an elite piece on their blueline but in my opinion that’s not exactly what Toronto needs. To me Toronto could use another stay-at-home defense first addition. There were several insiders yesterday afternoon that said Toronto has interest in trading Jacob Middleton. Middleton does not have many points, but fans just need to remember points from a defenseman are bonus and the Leafs need more players that will strengthen their defensive play. Jacob Middleton of the San Jose Sharks carries a cap hit of $750,000 but stands over six feet tall and weighs 210 pounds. This is another defenseman that would play a stay-at-home physical role when paired with an offensive minded defenseman which I think would be beneficial to the Leafs as they push into the post season with the hopes of a long playoff run. We saw a good example of this last night when Ilya Lyubushkin was paired with Morgan Rielly, Morgan would engage himself into the play while Lyubushkin would stay back and happily throw his weight around when Dallas would try and set up shop in the Toronto end of the rink. Also, everyone needs to consider that it looks as if Jake Muzzin is likely going to return to the Leafs lineup because each day, he skates on the ice with conditioning coaches he seems to be feeling better and better so his contract will come back onto the books giving the Leafs less room on the cap. If Toronto wishes to add Middleton to their defense group someone needs to be sent out. I think it comes down to either Travis Dermott or Justin Holl. Word for the last little while has been that many teams like Holl for his defensive play in his team’s zone and for that I say…. please take him. Moving Holl frees up 2 million dollars whereas Dermott only gives 1.5 million dollars a year in cap space and every dollar that Leafs can free up in a frozen cap helps this team.

 

That’s all for this read thanks as always for reading and hopefully tomorrow’s game against Carolina goes well for Toronto but if it doesn’t because Carolina are a very good team lets remain calm and stay patient with Kallgren and this teams management with the trade deadline looming.