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

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won a playoff game against the Montreal Canadiens since defeating them for the Stanley Cup in 1967.

Down 0-1 in the series, without their captain, and under a ton of pressure  the Toronto Maple Leafs rose from the ashes to beat the Habs 5-1 on hockey night in Canada.  They needed somebody to really step up.  That somebody was Auston Matthews.

 I’ll get to Matthews later, and the power-play.  First, I’m going to talk about the relentless effort that dominated the Canadiens 5v5 in the name of their captain.  They did this for JT.

With many fans reeling from the game 1 loss, and emotionally drained from watching Tavares leave the ice, it felt like a must win game for the blue and white.

Let’s be honest, it WAS a must win game.  Going to Montreal down 0-2 without your captain wasn’t really an option.

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.

The PP is back

I know it’s only one game, but unless you have been living under a rock somewhere, you know that the Toronto Maple Leafs PP hasn’t looked this good in a LONG time. Like as in 33 games.  The PP was 5-78 in that time…6.41%.

Last night it went 2-5 and made a real difference when it was on the ice.  While the Leafs had the man advantage they generated 9 scoring chances and had a 90.47 xGF%.  The top unit put together a dominant performance that had the Habs scrambling, and Price was the only reason this game did not become a blowout.

One of the PP goals was from Rasmus Sandin, his first career playoff goal.  It was a 98.2 mph one-timer off an entry that beat Price.  This kid can shoot.  I’ve been saying it over and over, but the more he shoots, the more space Matthews is going to get.  This is the main reason he is in the lineup over Dermott.

The real reason the PP was so good was that the effort level was through the roof.  They gained the zone with purpose, got pucks back, moved through hard areas, got in Price’s face, and fought the PK for every inch of the zone.

THAT was a powerplay.  It’s back, and the Habs need to fear it.