Toronto Maple Leafs: Week 7 News and Notes, Stats and Quotes
By William Cann
Game of the Week: 3-0 win against McDavid and the Oilers on Monday night.
Michael Hutchinson was brought in during the off-season to be the team’s 4th goalie, basically to play in the AHL and steady the Marlies. The bonus being that he had NHL experience just in case the Leafs needed to call on him. They called on him alright, for the third time this season, and he made 31 saves to shut out McDavid and the Oilers.
Hutchinson needed to be good early in the first and he was, making several point-blank stops to keep the score at 0’s. Then Hyman scored 7 minutes into the game, the Leafs settled in, and they basically smothered a frustrated Oilers team from there on out.
Forwards routinely got in the way of McDavid and Draisaitl in the neutral zone, defenders stepped up to defend transition, and the Leafs did a good job of getting to pucks and exiting the defensive zone when needed.
One of the keys to stopping offensive star players is the notion that sometimes a good offense is a good defense. The new 3rd line of Mikheyev/Engvall/Hyman did plenty of that by hemming the Oilers’ top players in the defensive zone repeatedly and just making life miserable for them. Collectively, I would give the game puck to this trio.
After this game, I just came to the conclusion that the Leafs are a different team than what we’ve seen in years past. Everybody steps up and contributes when called upon. No Mathews. No Andersen. No Campbell. No problem. They just get it done.