The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators kicked off the new NHL season Wednesday night.
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it must have felt like a training camp game, because the Ottawa roster was pretty rough and they destroyed it.
Sure, there were some rusty spots – the opening goal was particularly terrible, everyone from Muzzin to Marner had a brutal giveaway or two, and Martin Marincin cost the team a goal when he seemed to hit himself in the face with his stick.
But if you ignore some of the more glaring errors (Andersen was great early) this game was a complete and utter domination for the Leafs. They opened with three straight power plays, and other that the gifts they gave to Ottawa in the form of several one-off grade A scoring chances, they controlled play for most of the period.
Then in the second period, they completely destroyed Ottawa and it was glorious. If not for some good saves by their own Anderson, and a bit of luck, it would have already been 5-2 Toronto before Hainsey’s goal was called back.
It could have been 26-2 by the end of that period.
Toronto Maple Leafs Answer Questions
How Will Nylander look?
Amazing. He was the team’s second best player after Matthews and he could have easily finished the game with five points, doing nothing different. He lead the team in 5v5 ice time by a forward and put a solid 63% possession rating. And he got an assist.
In the first, the Leafs new look power play looked worth the hype – not scoring, but ringing two off the pipes – and then in Marner fed Matthews with a behind the back move straight out of NHL 20 for one that counted. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
How Will the New guys Look?
Tyson Barrie was exactly what you expected – fun to watch (loved his spinarama assist) and occasionally scary defensively.
Rasmas Sandin looked solid in limited minutes, while Illya Mikheyev was fantastic, along with Moore and Kerfoot, they drove play, scored a couple goals and were on the ice for few, if any, scoring chances against.
I don’t really have opinion on Shore or Timashov, as I didn’t notice them too much, which I guess is all you can ask from a fourth line.
The Power Play?
I thought the first unit looked incredible, but again, what is the point of loading one line up when you can’t play them for the full two minutes, without sabotaging your lines when the PP is over?
Hard to complain when they were as dominant as they were, but with Nylander and Barrie available I would like to see a more balanced set of two units.
The Toronto Maple Leafs played a great game, one that reminded us of how fun this team is to watch.