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The Toronto Maple Leafs played a near perfect road game in Nashville, handing the President’s Trophy frontrunners their first regulation loss in nearly five weeks with a comprehensive 5-2 victory on Thursday night.

Post-game notes:

 Before we get into Auston Matthews’ return, Mitch Marner, with another multi-point game, now has 28 points in his last 22 games, which is tied for 10th in the NHL since February 1. The Leafs are 15-5-2 over that span, and Matthews has played in just 12 of those games. Marner found a new level and carried this team offensively with its superstar out of the lineup while the league got tougher and tighter down the stretch. He’s now bested his rookie season in both goals (20) and assists (43) with eight games to go. We talked about it before this season, but sophomore slumps rarely affect talents this special – they’re going to find a way.

–  I counted the number of mentions of “speed,” “faster” and “quicker” in Peter Laviolette’s post-game post-mortem: 23. The Leafs were wading into games often in the middle part of the season, but they’re coming out like gangbusters and flat-out overwhelming teams right now, regardless of the opponent. They’ve now scored first in six consecutive games.

–  Against a team like Nashville with a defense group so mobile and active about sealing off the walls, short outlet passes through the middle with multiple options is essential to breaking out successfully. The Leafs did a good job of this throughout the game.

Here’s Travis Dermott executing brilliantly on the breakout in the first period – as has been talked about plenty, it’s impressive how he well he sees the game and how poised he is 31 games into his NHL career. He’s a seasoned problem solver back there already at the age of 21, which makes you curious about just how good he’ll be at 26-27.

 

The simple play here was to ring it along the boards, where PK Subban was waiting in the weeds and would’ve forced Patrick Marleau into a tough play on the half wall; best case, it’s chipped out and the Predators likely recover the puck in neutral zone. Instead, after a bit of ingenuity by Dermott, the Leafs are moving up the ice through the middle with speed and numbers. Marner nearly broke through for a prime scoring chance at the other end.

That’s why Dermott was never coming out of the lineup again once he got his chance. Dermott is on a 30-point pace over 82 games right now, to go along with a +15.

–  The Leafs needed bounce-back games from Morgan Rielly, Ron Hainsey and Frederik Andersen after the third-period in Tampa Bay and got that from all three. Rielly picked up three assists and Hainsey played a whopping eight minutes on the 5-for-6 PK; in addition, with Rielly and Hainsey on the ice, Ryan Johansen’s line put just three shots on goal at 5v5 and didn’t generate much of note. The Leafs did a fine job limiting the Predators to just 26 shots, but Andersen had a big segment in the first half of the second period to limit the Predators to just the one goal on the power play – it looked like the Leafs could’ve let the game slip there briefly — and then in the first five minutes of the third to snuff out any hopes of a Nashville comeback.

–  With a two-point game, Tyler Bozak is now up to seven points in his last six and 13 points in his last 17. Bozak can be a frustrating player throughout the ebbs and flows of a regular season, but to his credit, he generally finds another gear down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Last season, Bozak finished with 16 points in his final 20 and then added two goals and four points in the first four games of the series versus Washington. He also finished the 2012-13 season — the other year the Leafs made the postseason during his career — with 14 points in 19 games and scored a big goal in the Boston series to force a Game 6.

It was an adjustment for him moving out of his man-in-the-middle spot on the power play, but Bozak is starting to find his groove on the far side of the Leafs’ PP set up that runs through Marner and JVR on the right side/net front, and he is obviously benefitting from the fact that those two are blazing hot right now. He’s also raised his own game and has competed well of late, starting on the faceoff dot, where he’s won 57% of his draws in the 17 games since his production has picked up. That’s 15th in the league in that time frame among players with 100 or more draws taken.

He was 60% on the dot tonight, including the draw win that set up that Morgan Rielly – Mitch Marner set play that iced the game for the Leafs early in the third.

–  Mike Babcock spoke after the game about how the addition of Tomas Plekanec has put him in a position where he can be playing a deep team on the road and not worry about matchups at all. Bozak’s improved play – and that of his line — helps, too. Bozak has won 57.7% of his defensive zone draws in the last 16 games and has taken nearly five per game in the d-zone. That’s up from 54% and about 3.5 per game before then. Moving a solid defensive conscience onto that line in Connor Brown is another contributing factor.

–  Connor Brown was at fault on the one Nashville goal – it was also just a really good play by PK Subban – but he responded in exactly the right way. He had the bit between his teeth to atone for the error — beating out icings, getting after it on the forecheck, and setting up Jake Gardiner’s 5-1 goal for the icing on the Leafs’ cake. It’s been a quiet end to the season for Brown offensively, but that is two good games from him vs. two tough opponents on the road this week.

– Hockey is better with Auston Matthews. The ice-tilting effect of his presence was in full effect in his first game back, to the tune of 63% possession — with 30% offensive zone starts — and a goal that was vintage Matthews: puck on a string amid a pile-up of traffic, curl and drag, back of the net. Matthews is now tied for fifth in even-strength goals, just four behind the leader in Connor McDavid, and he’s played 20 fewer games. Dating back to the start of last season, he still leads the entire NHL.


Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Nashville Predators


Game In Six