Leafs Double Up the Islanders

 

Photo From Tacoma News Tribune

Hopefully, everyone has had a safe and happy Easter weekend, Our Maple Leafs after rallying to beat Ottawa in overtime Saturday night were back in action on Easter Sunday hosting the New York Islanders. Last night’s game would be a crucial for New York as they would need to win this game to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. Toronto before the game would announce that Auston Matthews was listed as day to day with an undisclosed injury, and I know some Leaf fans had alarm bells going because that is what a lot of them do, do not because Auston Matthews is fine and will play again very soon. This was the Maple Leafs version of “load management” like we saw with the Raptors and Kawai Leonard in their Championship season.

 

Your starting goalies for this game would be Jack Campbell for the Leafs whose play since returning from injury has been strong and for the visiting Islanders would be Ilya Sorokin who picked up a shutout in his last start against Montreal which also saw the return of Carey Price. Before I talk about the Leaf game, I want to side track a little bit and say welcome back Carey here’s hoping everything you were going through and dealing with is under control and you’re in a positive place and able to play hockey to the best of your ability because the game of hockey is so much better with you involved.

I’ll be honest with you this game got off to a very slow and sluggish start where neither team had any life and seemed to just be out for a skate, just three minutes into the game after Ross Johnston of the Islanders laid a big hit on Mark Giordano, he and Wayne Simmonds would drop the gloves with Wayne defending a teammate but also, he was hoping to spark his team.  Unfortunately, after the fight the Leafs would still be a step behind but their opponents, the Islanders would begin to find their legs and it would result in them going onto the powerplay as Michael Bunting would be sent off for Holding. Now, on the broadcast it was pointed out that recently the Islanders powerplay had been struggling and everyone knows that whenever it is mentioned it usually means a streak is about to end. It is just like when a goalie is playing with a shutout, if it is mentioned on the broadcast, you can almost guarantee a goal is about to be scored. Last night the Leafs would fall victim to the commentator curse as Anthony Beauvillier would score his 12^th goal of the season beating Campbell blocker side. Now, I saw people criticizing Jack for this goal going in and honestly, I shake my head at those who did because if you paid attention while watching the replay you would have clearly seen that Ilya Lyubushkin screened his goalie completely meaning Campbell had no idea at all where the shot came from.

With the Leafs trailing 1-0 it would only be a few minutes later and the Leafs would manage to tie the game. Michael Bunting would take the puck into the Islanders zone before centering a pass to Giordano, his shot would be stopped but the rebound would wind up on the stick of Mitch Marner who would send the puck into the back of the net for his 34^th goal of the season and in the process he matched his career best total in points with 94 needing just six more to become the fourth Leaf to reach 100 points in a season.

Despite a slow start the Leafs would find themselves tied at ones as the first intermission approached. Usually when a team has a slow start to a period in the locker room break its usually enough time for a team to reset but the second period would start like the first did, with the Leafs having to play catch up. Just thirty seconds into the middle frame the Leafs would find themselves trailing again. Timothy Liljegren would wind up turning the puck over behind the Leaf net too Josh Bailey who would try to jam the puck in passed Campbell, Alex Kerfoot would try to knock the loose puck away but instead he would end up knocking the puck into his own goal and the Islanders would regain the lead 2-1 as Josh Bailey would be credited with his 11^th goal of the season.  With Toronto once again trailing I am sure like me many fans thought this was going to be an off night for Toronto but as we have seen all season this team just needs once chance for the game to turn in their favour. That chance would come midway through the second when Justin Holl would send a stretch pass from his end of the ice, the Islander defenders would close in on Nylander leaving Kerfoot all alone to receive the pass and he would be joined by Pierre Engvall on the two on one rush, Alex Kerfoot would send a pass to Engvall who would slide the puck into the wide open net and thanks to Pierre’s 14^th goal of the season this game would be tied a second time as the score would now be 2-2. It also needs to be mentioned that with the assist Kerfoot reached the fifty-point total becoming the seventh player this season on the Leafs to achieve this. With the game now level once again Toronto would begin to take control of the game and minutes later Toronto would take the lead. Heading into last night’s matchup the Leafs powerplay was sitting at 0-17 in their recent stretch. Now unlike last season when the Leaf powerplay was on the ice it was waste of two minutes, this season despite not scoring at times they still seemed dangerous gathering many scoring chances. Any coach will tell you that of course you want to score on every powerplay your team gets but that just is not the case sometimes, but if you can keep momentum for your team even though you do not manage to score that is just as good. On this occasion with Casey Cizikas serving a minor for High Sticking the Leafs would end their scoring drought. With the play in the Islanders end Morgan Rielly would stumble trying to keep the puck from leaving the zone. Michael Bunting who picked up an assist earlier in the game on Marner’s goal would be involved once again as he threw a blind pass to John Tavares. The former Islander captain would center a pass to William Nylander who would not hesitate and send a wrist shot passed Sorokin for his 31^st goal of the season matching his career best. The Leafs who now lead the game 3-2 would continue pressing for more goals but Ilya Sorokin would keep the Islander deficit at one as the teams left the ice for the second intermission leaving just twenty minutes for the New York Islanders to tie and win this game or their hopes at making the playoffs would fade away like the memories of their glory years at Nassau Coliseum.

Now usually when a team is on the second night of a back-to-back like the Leafs were and their opponent happens to be rested like New York was in this case the third period usually winds up with the fresher team taking over. Last night in when the third period began, we saw the host Maple Leafs absolutely dominate their opponent as the Islanders were under attack for the entire twenty minutes. Toronto would end up outshooting their opponent 16-9 but to Sorokin’s credit he did an excellent job keeping his team within one goal. His biggest test would come late in the third when the Leafs would have a two-man advantage and despite facing countless shots from the likes of Marner, Tavares, and Nylander the Leafs would be unable to find the back of the net giving the Islanders one last chance to equalize this game. New York would pull their goalie in the final minute of play with the hopes of forcing overtime, but the Leafs would put the game away as David Kampf would score an empty net goal after chasing down a Nylander shot that went wide of the open goal. This would be Kampf’s 10^th goal of the season, Nylander would be awarded an assist and the Leafs would win this game 4-2 ending the Islanders chances of making the post season. More Importantly this win would make franchise history as Toronto for the first time ever has reached 106 points in the standings and collected fifty wins in a single season. With Toronto now only having six games left in the regular season there is no question a few more wins are on their way.

Before I wrap this one up, I would like to address something I have heard talked about on radio shows and by fans of this team. There are many fans that still believe Lou Lamoriello should have remained the GM of the Leafs instead of the position going to Kyle Dubas. Do not get me wrong Lou has done a lot in the game, he has won multiple Cups he is a Hall of Fame member but he like Dubas has had a few stumbles along the way. People go on and on about the contracts that Kyle Dubas gave “the big four” I have had people tell me that John Tavares isn’t worth 11 million dollars a year completely ignoring the fact the San Jose Sharks offered John 13 million and seem to ignore the important detail that in the four seasons he about to complete with Toronto he has collected 272 points including his assist last night. Matthews, Marner, and Nylander are on big money deals and if the salary cap were not frozen due to the pandemic those deals would not be an issue at all because with all the revenue coming in the NHL would have a salary cap knocking on the door of one hundred million dollars. I have said repeatedly when someone uses a player’s contract in a debate and never talks about the performance of the player on the ice, then they really have no argument because the four players are getting their money because the Leafs ownership feels that price is worth paying. I find it funny because the same Leaf fans crying about the “bad contracts” would be crying like a girl who had her heart broken on prom night if the Rangers or Bruins drafted and signed Matthews or Marner because then they would be saying “how come Toronto can’t get elite players like that” when the Leaf fans get to watch four highly skilled extremely talented players every other night and all they do is complain.

Now as I said Kyle Dubas as Leaf GM has had a few blunders in his time, the Petr Mrazek contract is obvious as Mrazek gets 3.8 million a year for the next two seasons and he is currently on the sidelines with his third injury this season. Others will say the Nick Ritchie contract was a bad one and I would agree because Nick just did not work out at all with the Maple Leafs but let us remember what ended up happening to that Nick Ritchie contract. It was traded to Arizona for Ilya Lyubushkin so to the Dubas critics I ask you Would you rather have a slow Nick Ritchie? Or would you rather Ilya Lyubushkin a physical shutdown defenseman?

Now let us look at Lou’s time as General Manager of the Leafs, Lou brought in Freddie Andersen on a five-year deal and honestly that was a great move because Freddie was great in goal for Toronto and there were many nights where he was the reason Toronto left the ice with two points. Let us also remember that he traded away second round picks back-to-back years, first for Brian Boyle and then for Tomas Plekanec. Those two players appeared in a combined thirty-eight games and registered a total of five points. However, Plekanec did perform better in the post season collecting four points in seven games in a round one loss to Boston while Boyle collected three assists in six games against Washington in round one.

Seeing as I mentioned contracts earlier, lets be nostalgic and look at some contracts Lou has overseen. Now, I have people tell me that Lou would not give Matthews his contract or Marner his, and they are right, but do you know what else Lou did not want to do? Give those players their deserved bonuses. Player bonuses were what held up Matthews signing his Entry Level deal, it did not get done untill Brendan Shanahan got involved and said sign him. So, from day one there was an issue, then Lou signed Nakita Zaitsev to a seven-year contract worth forty-nine million dollars, which came after Zaitsev played just one season in the NHL. Zaitsev did not even finish that contract as a member of the Leafs he was traded to Ottawa. Then there was Patrick Marleau, Lou offered him a three-year contract worth around six million dollars a season. I was a fan of Marleau and was happy he joined the Leafs and for his first season with Toronto he did well in my opinion collecting forty-seven points. He followed that up the following season with thirty-seven points, but you could see during his second year with Toronto he had hit a wall and he did not have he speed to keep up and be a factor like he once did. So, with one year left on his 6-million-dollar contract Kyle Dubas had no choice but to try and trade the third and final year for anything in return. Dubas had a deal that sent Patrick to Carolina, but he had to package a first-round draft pick to free up that contract. Now if Dubas gave Marleau the 3 years 18-million-dollar contract he would have been carved up for it but because Lou gave the contract no one says a word, why is that?

 

  Lou became Islanders GM at the start of the 18-19 season and signed former Leaf Leo Komarov for 4 years at four million dollars a season. Leo was loved by Leaf fans but as an Islander his best season would be his first where he registered twenty-six points in eighty-two games played. Each season after Leo would see his production decline and this season after just one game his contract would be waived and then ended and Komarov would return to play in his native Finland. Another contract that Lou would hand out would be the one given to be Matt Martin. Matt played two years with the Leafs where he was paid 2.5 million each season to play on the fourth line where he collected twenty-one points. If you look at all the contracts given out by Dubas to fourth line players and you readers can figure out who they are, but all of them are being paid under a million dollars.

With some examples given from both GMs in my opinion I think people need to stop looking at Lou Lamoriello and his time as a GM through rose coloured glasses because to me his best days are behind him, and I maintain Kyle Dubas although he hasn’t been perfect, I think he has done a better job as the Leafs boss and there will be more positives on the way.

 

That is all for this one thanks as always for reading the Leafs next game comes tomorrow night when the Leafs host the Philadelphia Flyers who quite frankly have been terrible this season, and in their latest stretch they have lost four straight games that saw them be out scored 23-8. I am not guaranteeing a Leaf win tomorrow I am just pointing out that it must be very hard to cheer for a team like the Flyers, and if they do happen to win against the Leafs because anything is possible, Leaf fans just please don’t panic our team will be just fine.