Toronto Maple Leafs – Somehow – get by Without Matthews
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota Wild last night by a score of 4-2.
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was the first games they’d played without star centre and franchise player Auston Matthews since he came into the NHL. Matthews has been – by far – the Leafs best player this year, with ten goals and 19 points in the team’s first 16 games. With Matthews on the ice 5v5 the Leafs have outscored the opposition 19-5 this year, so a game without him was going to be challenge, to say the least.
And how were the Leafs without their best player? Let’s just say Freddie Andersen picked a great time to have a great game.
The first period was pretty even, but after that, the Wild dominated. Minnesota finished the night having controlled nearly 60% of the play, but because of Andersen, the Leafs prevailed.
With Matthews out, Leo Komarov led the team in total ice time (among forwards) with 18 minutes. Kadri took the role of #1 centre, scored a goal and put a 51% CF (significant since the team overall was near 40%). William Nylander was also effective leading the Leafs in 5v5 ice time and possession.
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Not impressive was Tyler Bozak, whose line with Mitch Marner and Connor Brown was routinely trapped in their own end. Babcock has to get Marner away from Bozak and playing with some guys who can help him be more effective.
Despite Brown notching a goal and an assists, the line was in the 30% possession range and was easily the worst the Leafs had to offer all night.
Marleau
Patrick Marleau didn’t have a great game. He was a 38% possession player last night, but he did score a goal. It was the 514th of his career and it moved him past Jeremy Roenick and into 39th on the all-time list. For the future Hall of Famer, this was a huge goal.
By the end of this season, Marleau will almost certainly pass Pierre Turgeon, Dale Howerchuck, Pat Verbeek, Brian Trottier and Marian Hossa to move into 34th place, all-time. Should he score an addition 20 goals, he can move into 33rd ahead of Frank Mahovlich.
Should Marleau stick around long enough to score another 64 goals, he can pass Mark Recchi and enter the top 20. Marleau is the third highest active goal scorer, behind only Jagr and Ovechkin.
Next: Marner on the 4th Line Has to End
Next Up
Coming up next is a rare Friday night game, against the Boston Bruins. This will be the first of back-to-back against the Bruins this weekend. Based on the way the Leafs played without Matthews, let us hope his injury is not long term and that he’ll be back in the lineup on Saturday.
stast from naturalstattrick.com and hockeyreference.com