Stolarz and Hildeby shine in Toronto Maple Leafs pre-season loss
The Toronto Maple Leafs dropped their second consecutive pre-season game to the Ottawa Senators, this time losing 2-1.
This after the Toronto Maple Leafs iced a strong lineup in a 6-5 overtime loss on Monday. Last night's game was a different story, with the Leafs dressing a much more "training camp" style team.
The only NHL players in the lineup for the Leafs last night were Simon Benoit, Pontus Holmberg, Nick Robertson, David Kampf, Mathew Knies, Bobby McMann and Anthony Stolarz.
Ottawa dressed a lineup with a mix of guys in the NHL like Stuzle and Tkachuk, as well as prospects like Tyler Boucher and Zack Ostapchuk.
Takeaways from the 2nd Toronto maple Leafs pre-season game
It was a very physical game where we saw Pontus Holmberg of all people, willingly dropping the gloves and getting into a scrap with Cole Reinhardt. That wasn't the only physical play we saw throughout the game. Marshall Rifai and Nick Cousins got into a few scrums with each other as well as Simon Benoit and Brady Tkachuk.
The goaltending was great for the Leafs tonight. Stolarz was excellent, making a few saves in high-danger positions and only allowing one goal on 16 shots. He couldn't do anything on the goal he allowed.
A bad shift for the Leafs hemmed them in their zone, resulting in Sanderson being left alone in the high slot. Sanderson beat Stolarz, who was screened by his defenseman, Phillippe Meyers. Hildeby was solid in his own right, stopping 10 of 11 shots (Stats from TheScore.com). Much like the goal Stolarz allowed, there was not much Hildeby could do to stop it. Nicolas Mattinen gave the puck away along the boards, leaving Zack Ostapchuk one-on-one with Hildeby.
Aside from the goaltending and fight shown by this Leafs roster, there wasn't much to be impressed with. I thought Nikita Grebenkin put together a decent game. I like Grebenkin's size, and he does the little things on the ice well. I'm excited to see some more of him throughout the preseason and potentially into the regular season. Robertson also showed some flashes at times, but I thought his overall game was fine, nothing special.
Holmberg on top of his fight, had a solid game. I think if the Leafs can, they need to move Kampf and play Holmberg at the fourth-line centre role. This isn't a thought I've had from preseason performances, but one that I have developed through last season.
The disappointment in this game for me were Easton Cowan and Nikita Grebenkin. Not because of their play however, beacuse of their lack of ice-time. Though the pre-season would seem like the optimal time to get these guys some experience, the Leafs played David Kampf for nearly 15 minutes, while Cowan and Grebenkin were paired together on a fourth line that saw only 8 minutes of 5v5 ice-time. Their numbers were not good in any way.
Cowan did lead the Leafs in power-play ice-time, but failed to get off a shot, though the Leafs did seem to have control of the puck most of the time when he was out there. Overall, Cowan failed to impress this game, although aside from the power-play, he didn't get much of a chance to try and do so. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
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The Leafs play again on Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens in Toronto.