Toronto Maple Leafs Shut-Out Oilers, Nylander Plays Centre

The Toronto Maple Leafs got a hard-fought victory on Sunday night against the Oilers.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was their fourth shut-out of the season, and for Curtis McElhinney, his first.  There must be something in the water, because the Leafs goalies have been on fire lately. McElhinney has only played in five games this season, but he has a stellar save percentage of .925 and has been excellent when called upon. (Especially on a full, from centre ice, Connor McDavid breakaway).

It’s a good thing that McElhinney was on his game, because the Leafs were without Auston Matthews, who missed his fifth game of the year with an undisclosed injury that may or may not be related to the other four games he previously missed, and it showed.  Without their best player, the Leafs were pretty much dominated by the Oilers – especially in the third – and McElhinney had to be relied on to save 41 shots.  The Leafs possession stats for the game highlighted an anemic performance with the Leafs getting just 39% of the shot-attempts.

The Leafs continue to win games they really have no business winning.  This is great, because everyone loves winning, but winning games in this fashion tends to gloss over problems with the team that will eventually lead to losses.  I hate to be the pessimist, because I enjoy the winning, but the Leafs won’t get goaltending this good forever.  When you’re being vastly outshot on a game-to-game basis, there is no other way to win besides getting great goaltending.

More from Editor In Leaf

• Toronto Maple Leafs: Nick Robertson Healthy and Ready
• Ryan Reaves Will Have Zero Impact on Toronto Maple Leafs
• Toronto Maple Leafs: Playing Max Domi In Top-Six a HUGE Mistake
• Top 10 Scandals in the History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
• Toronto Maple Leafs: Results from the Traverse City Prospects Tournament

That is just a reality.

William Nylander

After playing for just eight + minutes Saturday in Pittsburgh, Nylander subbed in for Matthews last night and centred the Leafs top line with Zack Hyman and Connor Brown.  Nylander hasn’t played at centre in the NHL since his rookie season, and many people have been clambering for him to get a shot.

The logic behind Nylander at centre is simple: He’s miles better than Tyler Bozak, and running Matthews-Kadri-Nylander down the middle gives you something approximating the best group of centres in the NHL.  It also allows you to regularly play Kasperi Kapanen or Josh Leivo as replacements for Nylander on the wing.

It’s nice that Nylander got to play centre, but Babcock still used him sparingly.  Only three other Leafs forwards got less total ice time than Nylander last night.

While Nylander finished the game with a 40% CF rating, it is important to note that on this night when his team was thoroughly dominated, Nylander had a relative CF rating of +7%.  This means that when he was on the ice, the Leafs were better than when he wasn’t.

Next: How the Leafs Rebuilt in a Micro-Second

Nylander set up the game winning goal and overall I’d say had a somewhat successful debut as a centre.  Here is hoping he gets to stay there.

All stats form hockeydb.com and naturalhattrick.com