LEAFS WIN IT BY A FIELD GOAL !

Have you ever  ?

The great Detroit Red Wings/Toronto Maple Leafs rivalry heated up again tonight at Detroit’s Little Ceasars Arena.  Who could have possibly imagined such an outcome ?

GM Stevie Yzerman’s re-build is nearing completion as his club hovers around .500 and boasts some offensive strength from Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi,  an outstanding rookie defenceman in Moritz Seider (32 assists – tops amongst rookies) and right winger Lucas Raymond.  Stevie Y has plenty in the prospect cupboard as well that he can use once they become a fully legitimate contender.  Tonight’s game did not get off to a traditional 7pm HNIC start because the Pistons played an afternoon basketball game.

The Leafs had been fighting a stomach flu bug that affected players like John Tavares, Ilya Michaev, Pierre Engvall and others.  This was part of the reason we got our first look at 20 year old prospect Nick Robertson.  Some say it’s to show him off as trade bait – others, including Coach Sheldon Keefe, believe the youngster has earned his shot with 8 points in his last 9 Marlie games after returning from a broken leg.

The Leafs “started on time” with strong forechecking and superior use of their speed.  William Nylander placed a perfect slapper upstairs to get his squad on the board at the 3:52 mark.  Coach Keefe mixed up his d-pairs again tonight, putting Justin Holl with the now left d-man TJ Brodie, Liljgren with Reilly and newly acquired Lubushkin with Rasmus Sandin.  That seemed to pay off as Holl was in on the next 2 Leaf goals.  First it was Michael Bunting jamming in a Holl pass from behind the Detroit net.  After the Red Wings briefly got back into it with a goal from Raymond (his 40^th point to lead all rookies) off a juicy Campbell rebound, Holl sent a point shot that David Kampf deflected in just :33 seconds later.  Detroit pulled starting goalie Alex Nedeljkovic for Thomas Greiss right after that play.

One wonders what all those Marner haters are thinking these days.  The no shoot, always pass superstar has completely changed his approach.  Witness tonight’s “true” hat trick when Mitchell pumped in 3 in a row to start off the second stanza.  He almost looked embarrassed as his good fortune (and positioning) allowed him to score his 18^th, 19^th and 20^th.  These were his 30^th points in his last 17 games.  All 3 goals were assisted by his trusty line mates Mathews and Bunting.  Sam Gagner stopped some of the bleeding to make it 6-2 with Campbell way out of his net.  Not to be outdone, NHL goal scoring leader Mathews jumped back into the lead with his 37^th off a laser feed from TJ Brodie.  That put Brodie +5 on the night !  7-2 Leafs.

Detroit obviously didn’t appreciate the sh** kickin’ it was being handed.  Two soft deflection goals got the Wings back within shouting distance just as third was barely 2 minutes old.  By the time the carnage was over, the Red Wings had scored 4 goals in just over 5 minutes to shock the home crowd into believing their team actually had a chance.  Campbell gone – Mzaerk in.  Ilya Michaev had been his usual dormant self until he turned on the jets and put Toronto up by two.  The aforementioned rookie of the year of the candidate, Lucas Raymond, made it 8-7, (Mzarek’s second GA in 3 shots).  A shorty by Kase from his pal Kampf made it 9-7.  Bunting copied the famous Marner play from a couple of games ago to take his opponent out while leaving a kick in for Marner’s 4^th of the night.  What an amazing game – the likes of which I cannot remember seeing – even back in the ‘80’s !

HOPPER NOTES:  my headline must have changed about 3-4 times…among my original thoughts were Marner/Bunting/Matty Get ‘er Done , to Holy “CRAP” Jack and Get Out the Calculator….Leafs top troika combined for an amazing 15 points….speculators may be thinking that Nick Robertson to Dallas to play with his big brother Jason might be part of a good package to obtain John Klingberg…Leon Draisitl scored his 36^th this afternoon vs Florida – I’m sure that put a little extra pep in to Mathews’ step…Captain Johnny where are you ? question for Coach Keefe – how’d those new defensive pairings work out  ?

CHEERS – Discuss – comments always welcome !