The Anaheim Ducks rode into Toronto tonight posting a rather impressive 21-16-7 record for 49 points in 44 games. They are coming off solid road wins in Tampa Bay and Boston. And although Head Coach Dallas Eakins and nasty D-man Josh Manson were missing under COVID protocol, this club sports a pretty good looking roster led by the ageless Ryan Getzlaf, steady goaltending from John Gibson and an array of young potential stars like Troy Terry (23 goals), back of the net “flipper” Trevor Zegras and future star D-man Jamie Drysdale.
The host Toronto Maple Leafs meanwhile debuted their newly realigned forward combinations, basically playing musical chairs with their right wingers. Coach Sheldon Keefe’s objective was to distribute the goal scoring more amongst the top three lines. Ondre Kase was moved up to play alongside Mathews and Bunting, Marner moved in alongside Tavares and Mikaev and Nylander was installed to the “third” line to lead the offence in combo with Kampf and Kerfoot. Pre-game, I liked it a lot.
The Leaf new alignments were a little tentative and lacked cohesion during their first real test against NHL level, hi test competition. In fact, they had an own goal just 3 minutes in. Later in the period as the Leafs applied their dominance, Anaheim’s desperation caused some dumb penalties. A great dive by Mickaev led to Mitch Marner actually shooting and surprising Ducks’ Gibson on a power play, to tie the game up. That goal signified Morgan Reilly’s 100th career PP assist. With just 38 seconds left, Nylander popped in his 17th on another PP goal from Captain John Tavares and Mathews. SOG 17-5 for Toronto – 2-1 after 1.
The second period followed a similar pattern to the first in that the new Toronto combos were still feeling each other out. A standout was the low cycle game of the Tavares, Marner Michaev line. The Leafs eventually got out with their familiar PP compliment to move the score to 3-1 as Tavares roofed a nice feed from Marner and Mathews. Shortly thereafter, Jacob Silverberg came right out of the penalty box to make things close again. The Leafs were probably happy to get out of that period with the 3-2 lead. Goalie Gibson was full measure for holding his squad in the game despite the 31-11 SOG disadvantage.
Kevin Shattenkirk made life very interesting for all concerned after a rather soft goal to tie it at 3’s. The Ducks weren’t about to quit either as they pressed the Leafs despite being outshot 40- to 19 at the end of regulation. 3 on 3 solved nothing even though Tavares, Mathews, Nylander (x 2) and Sandin (goal post) were all over Gibson. The ensuing shootout went thusly, Spezza goal, Zegras goal, Mathews goal, Campbell save, Gibson save, Campbell save. Final 4-3 Leafs.
HOPPER NOTES: About the new line combos for the Leafs ? Well, as Jim Carrey said in “Dumb and Dumber” I like it a lot…hadn’t mentioned the LEAFS 4th line, but they are at their strongest now with Spezza centering Engvall and Simmonds…PP and PK units were also strong throughout…especially like the PK combos of Kase/Engvall and Marner/Kampf…always enjoy the clever use of Tavares, Nylander and Mathews immediately following the PK…Guys I wish I had on my team, Jamie Drysdale…
Cheers – enjoy – feel free to comment !
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