Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday Tidbits and Weekend Review
Two games over the weekend against championship-caliber opposition in the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes provided valuable feedback on the current plight of the Leafs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs faced off against two Stanley Cup contenders over the weekend, the Edmonton Oilers and the Carolina Hurricanes.
With Mitch Marner still sidelined with a high ankle sprain, Calle Jarnkrok out for the foreseeable future, Tyler Bertuzzi under the weather and T.J. Brodie a healthy scratch, it provided others the opportunity to get into the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup and perform.
For head coach Sheldon Keefe, the games against the Oilers and Hurricanes allowed him to assess his roster and try to further narrow possible line combinations and defense pairings in preparation for the first game of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Without further ado, here are some observations from the weekend that was for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Injury Concerns are Mounting
After missing Sunday's game against the Hurricanes, Marner has now missed the last seven games. While last week's report that he was "progressing" is encouraging, there has to be concern about the seriousness of the injury.
Remember that Timothy Liljegren and Joseph Woll took a long time to return from similar high ankle issues. The Leafs are rightfully being cautious with the injury and giving him all the time he needs to recover.
There is still plenty of time for rest, but in the not-too-distant future, Marner needs to get back on the ice. Getting in some reps with his teammates and returning to game shape is necessary before the playoffs start. Only then, can Leafs management and their fans exhale.
Equally important, is the status of the Leafs goaltending. It is once again in flux thanks to the injury suffered by Ilya Samsonov late in Saturday's game against the Oilers.
Post-game, Keefe downplayed the injury and said that it looked worse than it appeared. The Leafs can only hope that is the case.
Since his midseason demotion, Samsonov's play has improved, although he still allows three goals pretty much every time he plays. He may not always look efficient and graceful, but he wins. He leads the Leafs goalies in wins and is among the league leaders in win percentage and points-percentage.
Woll has the higher ceiling of the two goaltenders, but he has struggled since his return from a high-ankle sprain. Ideally, Samsonov's injury is short term and the Leafs can continue sharing the goaltending load and have both in peak form for the playoffs.
Against the Hurricanes, Woll had his best game since returning from his injury, making a season-high 41 saves. With Samsonov temporarily on the shelf, Woll has a golden opportunity to reclaim the job as the number-one netminder to start the postseason.
Depth Scoring Has Become a Leafs Strength
It wasn't that long ago that the Toronto Maple Leafs had no one outside of their top four forwards (Matthews, Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares) that had hit the double-digit mark in goals scored.
Bertuzzi's production didn't match his underlying numbers. Max Domi was putting up plenty of even-strength assists, but contributing little to goals. Matthew Knies has suffered from first-year inconsistencies despite playing often with Matthews and Marner.
That has all changed during the last few weeks.
Bobby McMann has become a regular in the lineup after it appeared he was working his way off the roster. Now, he is an invaluable piece who has been playing with Tavares in recent games.
McMann and Pontus Holmberg each scored twice against the Oilers. McMann is now up to 13 goals and 22 points on the season in only 46 games. In mostly fourth-line minutes, Holmberg has chipped in with six goals and 15 points in 42 games. Equally important, both are reliable defensively.
Bertuzzi is also finding the net with more regularity. He is up to 15 goals on the year after being stuck at six only a few weeks ago.
Domi has continued with his astute passing and has formed some nice chemistry with Matthews during Marner's absence. The two of them were a big part of a recent victory over the Washington Capitals. Domi only has eight goals, but he recently scored two beautiful bar-down goals to help the Leafs to shootout victories.
Once Marner returns, Domi should be given a shot at manning the left-side on the Leafs top line. He has a history with Marner from their junior days with the London Knights, plus the early return from his play with Matthews warrants a further look.
Nick Robertson scored the Leafs only goal against the Hurricanes to reach ten goals.
This forward depth is what the Leafs envisioned at the start of the season. It took a long time to develop, but it bodes well for the Leafs that production is coming from places other than their top players.
That will take on even greater importance once the playoffs start and the checking gets even tighter on the Leafs stars.
Toronto Maple Leafs Physical Play Helps Contain Opponents
Led by defensemen Joel Edmundson and Jake McCabe, the Leafs made a concerted effort to limit the space of the Edmonton Oilers star players on Saturday night.
They finished checks on both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl when the opportunity was there. They engaged them verbally and didn't back down during post-whistle scrums. The play of McCabe and Edmundson was a big reason the Leafs stormed out to a 5-0 lead, before ultimately winning 6-3.
The return of Ilya Lyubushkin against the Hurricanes added the element of more physical play on the back end. Yet, the Leafs, playing the second game of a back-to-back weren't as physical against the Hurricanes.
The Leafs were a step slow for most of the night versus Carolina which led to many neutral zone turnovers and odd-man rushes against. They also took some needless penalties and made mental errors.
Game Management and Special Teams Continue to be Problematic
The Leafs lost the game against the Hurricanes in the first period. They took bad penalties and a defensive zone turnover by McCabe led to an early deficit.
A neutral zone slash (Holmberg) and two offensive zone penalties (David Kampf and Robertson) are mistakes that must be tidied up, especially with the Leafs continued struggles in killing penalties.
The Leafs power play didn't generate much. The Hurricanes' second goal was scored on the power play, albeit on an unfortunate bounce off McCabe's shin pad. Regardless, neither unit is doing much to help the Leafs win games.
The weekend games provided an important benchmark for the Toronto Maple Leafs to see how they compare against rival title contenders. They proved they can play with anyone, but they've had problems with aggressive, hard-skating teams such as the Hurricanes and Boston Bruins.
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They have a dozen games remaining to get their pieces in order and improve their problem areas before the real games begin.