The Toronto Maple Leafs were full value for a blowout win on the opening night of the 2017-18 regular season. Both sides of special teams, multiple forward lines, and Frederik Andersen were firing on all cylinders as the Leafs laid the boots to the Jets in Winnipeg’s home opener.
All told, 12 of the Leafs’ 18 skaters opened their point-scoring accounts, led by three-point games from Auston Matthews and JVR and a two-goal game from Patrick Marleau in his Leaf debut. Hard to script a better opening night than that.
Your game in ten:
1) The consensus on the Sportsnet broadcast was that Winnipeg carried the first 15 minutes of the game, but it was a matter of the silly penalties rather than the 5v5 play. The first real scoring chance of the game went to Shawn Matthias a minute and change into the game, but the Kadri line started the Leafs off on decent footing with a pair of strong shifts. The penalty trouble started at the 17:20 mark with three minors in a ten-minute span. After generating the first-period push that blew the game open inside three minutes, the Leafs finished the first 20 ahead in even-strength shot attempts, 14-13.
2) This was about as sharp as we’ve seen Frederik Andersen look in a Leafs jersey. It was a shame the penalties were so unrelenting as he was on track for a well-deserved shutout. Totally in control, tracking pucks extremely well and giving out little in the way of second opportunities, he looks very confident in his game at the moment coming out of a strong training camp and preseason (as well as a strong finish to 2016-17). Above league-average goaltending, with the way the Leafs have been scoring goals in the last year, makes them legitimate contenders in the East. It’s very early days and health is everything, but Andersen looks up to taking a step this Fall.
3) While they didn’t get in on the points party, credit to a heavy offensive-zone shift by the Leafs’ fourth line — starting with a good effort by Eric Fehr to support the puck down low defensively, break the zone, and get in on the forecheck — against the Jets’ third line of Adam Lowry, Joel Armia and Shawn Matthias with three minutes left in the first period. Taken in combination with Blake Wheeler’s faux pas off of the ensuing o-zone draw, it set the stage for JVR’s 2-0 strike.
4) Patrick Marleau’s Leafs debut, in a little less than 15 minutes TOI: five shots on goal, two goals, two-plus minutes on the power play, two-plus minutes shorthanded. Wanted to wait until we saw him in regular season action to point out what seemed apparent in preseason: He’s got a ton of hockey left in him from the looks of it. It’s all so effortless (the soft hands, the way he glides around the ice, his understanding of the game, his release). He also adds a noticeable heaviness to the lineup as a 220-pound veteran who has been around the block in the Western Conference during the highly-competitive, “heavy hockey” years on that side of the league. His strength on the puck is apparent out there.
5) The Leafs’ ice-time distribution tonight up front: excluding Matt Martin (7:35), Connor Brown – in his first game on the fourth line since last October — was the leader at 16:48, and Tyler Bozak was at the low end at 11:37 among the top 11 forwards. All of the special teams time plus the blowout nature of the game skewed the numbers. But, generally speaking, the Leafs are going to be able to roll three high-skill lines and a solid fourth unit at opponents with short shifts played at a very high pace.
6) The Jets didn’t have too many issues getting the zone set up on most of their eight unsuccessful power plays, nor did the Leafs start that well on the kill despite not conceding. They gave up some easy entries and a few clean walks in on net early; Andersen was the story on those first couple of penalties. That said, once they adjusted, the Leafs did a good job of closing off passing and shooting lanes, boxing out, and clearing away second opportunities (Nikita Zaitsev’s stick on the penalty kill, in particular, was really good tonight). The Leafs received huge efforts from Zaitsev, Hainsey (12+ minutes shorthanded!), Hyman, Fehr and Brown on the PK, which got better as the game progressed.
7) This was actually a pretty quiet game for the majority of Matthews’ 15:19 of ice time – he was fighting the puck a little bit at times, and didn’t have a shot on goal before his tip for his goal halfway through the third. And yet he walked away with a goal and two assists. File that under, “hallmarks of a generational talent.”
8) The power play picked up where it left off last year, except without the zone entry struggles from the playoff series against Washington. Morgan Rielly on the first power play unit is a big asset in this regard, which we saw on the 1-0 goal as well as different times throughout the game. The PP units don’t need a big shot from their point man with the structure and the shooting talent already present; they just need somebody who can help them set up the zone, facilitate puck movement, and get a shot through. Rielly can provide all three effectively.
Methodical puck movement, funnelling pucks to the net, creating outnumbered situations in the low slot — it felt like a matter of time with the man advantage tonight as the Leafs continue to terrorize PK units, especially in their home rinks (best road PP team in 2016-17, 2 for 4 tonight).
9) Was that the first time we’ve seen The Big Three — Nylander, Matthews and Marner — take a full 5v5 shift together? The amount of shorthanded time in this game meant we witnessed some fun experimentation when it came to stacking lines coming off of kills. The Marleau goal was set up by Marner – Matthews, with a third assist to the quick-up by Connor Carrick. Marner was having a quiet game at 5v5 and it’s a great way to get skilled players engaged and going on those sorts of nights. There is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the options at Babcock’s disposal here.
If you thought the storyline was already beaten to death, after Marleau tidily tucked away that Matthews feed for his first goal, the you-know-what debate is only getting started.
10) Speed-round thoughts to wrap up the night: What a sell on the fake by Gardiner leading to the easiest goal Nylander may ever score in the NHL; impressive to see Andreas Borgman showing no signs of shying away physically in his first real NHL action, dropping Mark Scheifele on his very first shift, although there are some warts to sort out defensively here (getting walked around too easily at least once a game); the third pairing will be a work in progress; Kadri continues to do it all as the team’s energizer bunny — banging in a goal in his office on the power play, drawing two penalties, throwing a big hit in the third period, as well as a 57% on the faceoff dot; a nice shot-for-tip from Connor Carrick on Matthews’ goal, following his play on the Marleau goal earlier; Carrick’s AHL numbers suggest he should have a little more to give offensively than what he’s shown in the NHL so far… his preseason plus tonight’s game mark a good start in that regard.
Game Flow – 5v5 Corsi
