BUNTING HATTY’s A WIN !

Atlantic division and age-old rivals Detroit and Toronto went head to head as part of the Hockey Day in Canada festivities.  The Red Wings were coming off a shootout road win against the Penguins on Friday, moving their record to .500 at 19-19-6.  Tonight’s games was played in Detroit where the Wings sport a respectable 13-7-3 record.

The Maple Leafs have had a very light COVID related schedule lately, having played only 9 games since December 14.  That pace steps up considerably as they play 3 in 4 and then 11 games in the following 21 days.  Jake Muzzin was still out, while Liligren passed concussion protocol to rejoin the lineup and Petr Mrazek playing his first game of 2 in the next 4 days.

Most observers would have thought that the well rested/short travel Leafs would be the ones to come out guns a blazin’.  Unlike the Wings who had a late-night flight back from Pittsburgh.  Opposite.  The Red Wings started very assertively and took the lead with less than 2 minutes gone.  Captain Dylan Larkin took a nice breakaway feed to roof one on Mrazek after a deep pinch went bad for Morgan Rielly.  About halfway through the first, Coach Sheldon Keefe put on his juggling hat and in a span of about 5 minutes of playing time, he had combos like Bunting/Kampf/ Kase, Nylander/Marner/Mathews and Tavares/Mikaev/Kerfoot out there.  I always loved the genius of Scotty Bowman back in the 70’s and how he would juggle all that talent up front !

The only line Keefe didn’t mess with was the 4^th and they came through with a cheapie off Engvall from Reilly and Spezza to tie it at ones after one.

The Toronto squad tried to play off their late period momentum with a couple of close in chances to start the second.  But a HUGE 5-hole score moved the Wings back in front.  Not :55 seconds later Tyler Bertuzzi capitalized, undressing Marner at the Leafs line to move in with a wrister up top. 3-1.

Detroit didn’t stop there, pounding the Leafs with a rather embarrassing d-zone shift that had Sandin and Holl on for a mammoth 2:45 seconds.  Bunting tipped in a clever point shot to make it interesting but then a too many men on the Leafs allowed Larkin to pump in his 14^th on the ensuing power play.  4-2 end of second.

OK, who amongst Leafs’ Nation would have thought Toronto would win a 7-4 game after going in to the third down 4-2.  Core 4 – zero – no cohesion – questionable goaltending.  And yet, here’s this nice Scarborough boy pounding in 2 more to score his hat trick, Marner/Mathews and Taveres coming out of their slumber and Coach Keefe going back to his old standbys to make it all happen.  At around the 12 minute mark Keefe had seen enough.  Back he’d go to what brought him there to date.  Bunting with amazing eye/hand co-ordination put Leafs back in the game at 10:32 and then “bunts” in his hat trick goal to tie it from his mates Mathews and Marner.

Rasmus Sandin got on the scoreboard with the winner, Marner puts in an empty netter and then Captain Johhny flipped one in to make the final 7-4.  Great comeback.

HOPPER NOTES:  Sad to hear about HNIC Pioneer Ralph Mellanby’s passing.  He was THE Emmy winning executive producer, innovator of all things hockey production related and respected throughout the industry.  As some of you know, I got my start in local cable TV sports production and I finally got up the nerve to send Ralph a demo tape of my work to date.  I got the interview, and I was in heaven.  So, I’m waiting in his office and who should drop by but Mickey Redmond, Gary Dornhoffer, Don Cherry and a bunch of his other stars.  Our interview was short but he told me they were looking for a studio floor manager.  I got a call later from Frank Seke Jr. saying that they had “gone in another direction”.  One of the most devasting days of my life.  Anyways, is it just me or does Ilya Mickaev seem a little accident prone…a lot of the pundits seem to be feeling sorry for Nylander moving “down” to the third line….if anyone should be whining, shouldn’t it be Mathews who lost his best little pal in Marner ?…I just LOVE the Hockey Day in Canada initiative…call me old school, but why does Dylan Larkin wear his “C” on the wrong chest ? …guys I wish I had on my team (take your choice)  Meritz Syder or Lucas Raymond – BOTH future d-man stars…looks like Stevie Y’s patience is starting to pay off….

Cheers-thanks for tuning-comments welcome !