Leafs Penalty Kill Provides the Offense

 

Photo From CP24

Before I talk about last nights Leaf game I want to mention that my York Simcoe Express U16 team won their play-in game last night and has earned a spot in this weekends OMHA Championships so there will be no write up for Saturday’s game against Montreal and Sunday against Florida all depends on if we play Sunday or not but honestly the plan is to try and win the OMHA’s so I will only post updates on Facebook.

So, the trade deadline has passed but due too the hold up at the league office over the Evgeni Dadonov trade and the confusion that came with it there have been some minor transactions that came through tonight. The Toronto Marlies have added Defenseman Philippe Myers who is on load from the Nashville Predators. Myers is a 6-foot 3 defenseman who registered 4 points in 27 games. It’s worth noting that his 2.55-million-dollar price tag will remain on the Nashville payroll because his being loaned to the Marlies is only to provide him with a situation where he can benefit with plenty of playing time. Lastly the Leafs made a minor trade sending Brennan Menell to the Philadelphia Flyers for Future Considerations, Menell simply just slid down the Leaf depth chart and ending up losing his spot in the Marlies lineup due to his struggling play that saw him collect just 5 points in 20 games. So hopefully for Menell a change of scenery will spark his game and for the Leafs this opens yet another contract spot for Dubas to possibly add another College player in a week or so.

Last night the Leafs played their first game after Monday’s trade deadline, and they returned home to host the New Jersey Devils who were playing their second game of a back-to-back after blowing out the New York Rangers the night before. For the New Jersey Devils they would start Nico Dawes who heading into this matchup had a record of 7-6.  For the Leafs they would go with Petr Mrazek as their starting goalie which likely came as a surprise to every Leaf fan because as we know Mrazek’s struggling play led to him being place on Waivers, but he ended up clearing meaning Toronto could quickly recall him, but Mrazek is now eligible to play for the Marlies in the Calder Cup playoffs.

Photo From Hockey News

This would be the Leafs Next Generation game where the Leafs focus on the young kids in their fanbase, for the special occasion Leafs super fan and friend of the team Justin Bieber had a collaboration with MLSE that saw Justin design the teams’ jerseys for this game. I posted  a picture of the jersey with this article, but I have to admit if I had the finances, I would buy one of these jersey’s because the Black and Blue side that the Leafs wore on the ice looked sharp and won me over, but who am I kidding if Leaf jersey’s weren’t so expensive I would buy one all the time. This game had a sense of excitement with it as Colin Blackwell and Mark Giordano would be making their debut for their new team.

The first period saw the Leafs come out flying and fans saw their team control the play for the entire twenty minutes of the opening frame. The fans in attendance would see chances from Matthews turned aside by strong play in goal, Marner, and Tavares would both find themselves searching for answers to solve Dawes. Unfortunately, despite outshooting their opponents 10-3 the Leafs and Devils would head into the first intermission with the game scoreless, but Leaf fans were surely very satisfied with the way their team started this game.

The second period however would start with the Leafs struggling to even make a simple pass and the sluggish start to the second period would end up costing the Maple Leafs. Pierre Engvall would be serving a tripping minor and the Devils powerplay would manage to open the scoring. New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt would gather a bouncing puck in the Leafs zone and then send the puck over to Damon Severson. Ilya Lyubushkin would be in the slot; Severson would send attempt to pass to Jack Hughes, but Lyubushkin would do the right thing and drop to block a shot unfortunately the puck would take a favorable bounce for the visiting Devils as the shot from Severson would deflect Ilya Lyubushkin’s skate and squeak through Mrazek and thanks to Damon Severson scoring his 9^th goal of the season New Jersey would lead the game 1-0. Midway through the second period Toronto would find themselves short handed as Auston Matthews would be sent off for hooking. With the Devils on the man advantage Alex Kerfoot would force a turnover at center ice sending Ilya Mikheyev in all alone because with his speed he would easily beat defender PK Subban and Mikheyev would slide the puck by Dawes on the backhand scoring his 13th goal of the season tying the game at ones. Less then two minutes later the Devils would retake the lead in this game. Jersey would have the puck in the Leafs zone Jesper Bratt would have the puck at the right point, he would send a pass over too Dougie Hamilton who would set up Jack Hughes for a one timed shot that Petr Mrazek would turn aside with a great sprawling save but sadly Nico Hischier would shovel in a loose puck giving him 18 goals this season and New Jersey would regain the lead 2-1. Toronto would tie the game a second time less then one minute later as the Leafs top line went to work as the puck would get to Michael Bunting who was behind the Devils net, he would then work the puck to Auston Matthews in the left corner. Matthews would send a perfect pass out front to Mitch Marner who would send a one timed shot into the back of the New Jersey net tying the game at two’s and giving Marner 27 goals this season. After the Leafs tied the game this second time, they would begin to regain control of the game as they headed into the room for the second intermission.

 

I am going to take a few minutes to talk about the post game show on TSN 1050, Toronto Sun Steve Simmons was filling in as a co-host and my first question is simply why? Because this “reporter” gave one if the worst suggestions I have ever heard. He believes Auston Matthews should pay attention to the game of Ilya Mikheyev because over this latest stretch of games Simmons claims that Mikheyev has been more productive than Auston Matthews. Auston has 80 points this season thanks to his assist tonight but has also scored 46 goals. Mikheyev on the other hand has 18 points on the season, don’t get me wrong Ilya Mikheyev has performed very well this season but only has three points in the last six games while Matthews has collected ten points in the last six games. How does this guy have a job? Anyone in their right mind would know that Auston Matthews is the best player on the Leafs roster, but this guy thinks Auston’s play has dropped off in this recent stretch of games. After hearing Steve Simmons give this ridiculous suggestion honestly, I had to turn the show off.

The final twenty minutes would see fatigue begin to set in which is common when a team is on the second game of a back-to-back and Toronto would take advantage of a tired New Jersey team by applying pressure in the New Jersey zone, but Dawes would continue to shut the door on the Leafs. As time in the third period would continue to expire the Leafs would be shorthanded once again as Ilya Mikheyev would be given a double minor for high sticking giving the Devils a huge opportunity to regain the lead and possibly for good. Just like earlier Toronto would force a turnover just outside of the Leafs zone and Pierre Engvall would go a shorthanded two on one rush as William Nylander would join him. When Engvall entered the zone, he saw Nylander driving to the net, Engvall would use Nylander as a decoy but then send a quick wrist shot on goal that would beat Dawes on the glove side and with the Leafs second shorthanded goal of the game and Engvall’s 11^th goal of the season the Leafs would lead the game for the first time with the score 3-2. Toronto would then start playing a shutdown style of hockey causing the clock to expire and Toronto would win this game giving Mrazek his 11^th win of the season.

I thought both Blackwell and Giordano despite only taking part in one practice with their new team before making their debut played well. Blackwell finished with a total of six hits and had a few opportunities for his first point as a Leaf as he set up a few teammates thanks to some great passes. Mark Giordano played just over 18 minutes last night and defensively he was very strong. He knew the right moment to try and knock the puck away from his opponent and when the play was in the Leafs end when he would have the puck, he would remain calm and make the simple play leading too an opportunity to either go on the attack or dump the puck down the ice chewing more time off the clock.

Lastly, Petr Mrazek in my latest articles everyone has seen me criticize the play of Mrazek and I think it was 100% fair for me to say the things I did, but at the same time I must give credit when it’s due. Last night Petr looked like the goalie the Leafs and their fans saw in January. Mrazek last night played with a ton of confidence, he seemed to be much calmer in goal and with this win the team, the fans, and management can hope that this win will give a boost to Mrazek and hopefully the team can go on a run.

Well, that’s it for this one thanks as always for reading remember there won’t be any articles for this weekend’s games against Montreal and Florida so my next article will likely come after the game against the Bruins on March 29.