Toronto Maple Leafs News and Notes, Player Stats and Quotes, Week 4.

News and Notes

This Spezza hatrick shows evidence that the fountain of youth is hidden somewhere on Maple Leafs property.  In fact, that second goal highlights everything that was so impressive about the game in general; the perfect 3 on 2 by the new 4th line, the crazy awesome pass Brodie makes to get it started, and the amazing saucer pass by Nick Petan.  Not many 4th lines in the NHL can look like that.

The Leafs play Montreal twice this coming week, and so the battle for the division will intensify.  The Habs are good.  In fact, they might be really good.  When was the last time the Leafs and Habs went toe-to-toe for a division title?  1967?  Nope.  Toronto beat Montreal for the Cup that season, but the Chicago Black Hawks actually won the division.  It was way back in 1946-47, the Habs won the division, finishing 6 points ahead of the Leafs.

The idea of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal playing each other 10 times is pretty awesome.  The fact that they are the two best teams in the division, and will probably battle right til the end to see who finishes on top, well, that’s just the stuff hockey dreams are made of.  Watch these games people.  Enjoy them.  We may never see anything like this again.

Is Matthews having a Hart trophy season?  8 straight games with a goal.  Leads the NHL with 11 goals on the year.  As wonderful as all the highlights have been, I’ve started noticing something very consistent in his game this year.  I’ve been noticing his defensive contributions.  Not just a couple here and there that can be used by the broadcast to promote his defensive game, I’m talking about noticing him having a positive defensive impact on the game on almost every single shift.

I take notes while watching games.  I scrolled through my notes for every game this year and his name kept coming up.  I actually mentioned him more often defensively than I mentioned him offensively.  That’s crazy right?  Maybe not.  It’s important to note that offense is rare in the NHL, as in players don’t really score all that much considering the games are 60 minutes long (or more).

A player actually has many more opportunities to impact the game defensively than they do offensively.  So, the fact that I scribble #34 so frequently for his defensive plays, and less for his offensive ones, just means that he’s adding value whenever he takes a shift, regardless of where that shift takes place.

A lot of my notes have him playing down low and helping the D retrieve the puck, using his body to win a puck battle defensively, intercepting passes by being in the right spot, stripping pucks and hounding puck carriers into mistakes, protecting pucks and using patience to avoid fore-checkers, and always moving to provide an outlet for his D.  He doesn’t do fly-bys in the defensive zone.  He stops and battles, supports both his D, and covers the front of the net.

Add to that the fact that he back-checks consistently, leads all Leafs in takeaways, and has won 53.7% of face-offs, and he really doesn’t get enough credit for his 200 ft game.

Considering how dominant he is offensively, the fact that he is becoming such a good two-way player down the middle is even more impressive.  He’s going to put himself into the conversation for the both the Hart and the Selke if he continues to show improvements like these in his game.  He is simply becoming a genuine force all over the ice and getting to watch his evolution as a player has been a real treat.