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Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews, the Power-Play Dominate Habs

By William Cann

TORONTO, ONTARIO - NOVEMBER 15: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates against the Boston Bruins at the Scotiabank Arena on November 15, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO - NOVEMBER 15: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates against the Boston Bruins at the Scotiabank Arena on November 15, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
Apr 12, 2021; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) celebrates his goal against Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen (34) with teammates during the second period at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports /

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens

Keefe made sure the guys were ready to go right from puck drop by inserting Simmonds on the wing with Matthews for the opening face-off.  Twitter reacted to this and it was kind of funny because I thought it was very obvious as to why Keefe did this.

Anderson was on the ice for the Habs and Keefe was sending a message right away, he wasn’t going to let him run around like a wrecking ball and give the Habs the momentum.  Anderson has been Montreal’s best player so far and is a legitimate force, so Simmonds was there to keep him in check and drop a message into his head…not tonight big guy.  I thought it was a great move and it just set the tone for the rest of the game.

Montreal out-hit Toronto 44-36 last night.  For what it’s worth, the Habs out-hit the Leafs 55-27 in game 1.  The Habs led the league in hitting in the regular season while the Leafs were at the bottom.

What this shows is that the Toronto Maple Leafs came to play hard hockey last night and they weren’t going to avoid any of the physical play.  That’s more of a state of mind than anything else, and it was good to see the team respond in that way.

The Habs took 8 minor penalties in this game.  One of them was a botched coach’s challenge on the Sandin goal that failed miserably, and I can’t help but think that decision came from Bergevin himself.  It ended up being the 5th straight penalty the Habs took.  They would take their 6th in a row early in the 3rd.  Very undisciplined performance by the bad guys, and for once, the referees actually made them pay for it.

I’ve seen some Habs fans saying the refs won this game for Toronto.  I beg to differ.  Here’s the 5v5 stats for the game (via naturalstattrick.com):

CF%             SCF%           HDCF%         xGF%

56.79         63.16          77.78           68.23          Leafs

43.21         36.84          22.22           31.77          Habs

Again, these were the 5v5 numbers.  They did not include the PP numbers.  The score was 5-1 and it could have been 8-1 if not for Price being the Canadiens best player.  This game was not close.  The penalties made it difficult for the Habs to get anything going offensively, but they got crushed at even strength regardless.

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