Matthews fine on the ice, but protecting him off it is key
McDavid and Laine get top billing, but Talbot and Letestu get job done
Mike Babcock can coach and cajole Auston Matthews all he wants, but the coach knows he only has the young star’s attention part of a 24hour day.
So for those hours when the team is off on its own, such as the past week’s road trip, the club wants to make sure Matthews is getting proper direction. With eight points in five games to lead all NHL rookies, there’s not a lot Matthews needs to be taught about offence, but there are many nuances that go into DNA of a well-rounded pro, one who could indeed be the face of the franchise the club has sought since Mats Sundin moved on.
“Absolutely, we’ve been very conscious of the people we keep around him,” Babcock said. “He’ll be surrounded by lots of people in his lifetime.
“He has to make good decisions. There are lots of people who will want to get to know him. But you have to decide who you are going to let into your immediate circle.
“Those people end up having an influence on you, who end up tightening you when you step out of line. It’s real important he makes good choices. But he’s a smart guy.”
During the Leafs’ stop in Winnipeg, Jets coach Paul Maurice was discussing the same thing regarding his boy wonder, Patrik Laine, who followed Matthews to the podium last June as the second overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft.
“I’m careful about talking to him too much,” Maurice said. “I want to make sure the players are talking to him as much as the coach does.”
While Babcock won’t go into detail about who the Matthews mafia might be, 27-year-old winger Matt Martin is on one side of him in the practice rink dressing room, as well as on the road.
“I don’t know if that’s by design, but I obviously spend a lot of time with him,” Martin said. “He’s a good kid and I enjoy talking to him — other than when the media comes in.”
Martin was joking about the large crowd awaiting Matthews after every practice and game day skates. But getting caught in the crush does make Martin a keen observer of how Matthews handles himself.
“I’ve said all along, he’s a mature kid,” Martin said. “He’s played some pretty important hockey in his career in Switzerland, in the world championships and the World Cup.
“There will come a time when his (82-game) season gets a little long. He’s off to a good start now, but if he ever goes through a slump. it’s up to everyone to be there for one another. Right now, we’re blowing a lot of leads (four times in five games in the third period). So this is a time we have to stay positive and be a family. He’s in this and we’re in all this together.”
Winger James van Riemsdyk was also ready to offer Matthews any guidance necessary upon meeting him in the summer, but is guessing that he’ll learn just as much by watching the elder Leafs in their day-to-day travails.
“‘Well done’ is always better than ‘well said’, that’s the best way I’ve found,” van Riemsdyk recalled of his early days as the NHL’s second overall pick in 2007. “Just looking around to older guys who have some experience. Different guys have different things you can pick up on.
“All our younger guys (Mitch Marner and defenceman Nikita Zaitsev are also brand new to the NHL), they’re like sponges right now and want to do everything they can to get better. It’s our job as older players to do what we can to set an example.”
Leo Komarov is one of four alternate captains on the team also keeping an eye on Matthews and the new group.
“I’m trying to help him, but he’s doing well so far,” laughed Komarov. “Probably, it has helped him a lot that he already played with men in Switzerland and he’s not coming up from a junior league.
“Life has changed (since Matthews arrived), but everybody is getting used to it. It’s not bad for us.”
A few more wins would make it even better. Three road losses, two with points, puts Toronto at 1-1-3. The Leafs host Tampa Bay on Tuesday night and the Florida Panthers Thursday.
Get past the comically loud boards, the eye-black-stained faces, tuque-topped goalies and 33,240 fans basking in Manitoba sunshine during a two-hour good weather delay, and it’s another game for two points.
Ironically enough, that’s exactly what makes it such a spectacle: twisting the normal course of National Hockey League business, which can get pretty darn mundane over an 82-game schedule.
The win cannot be a bonus on a night like this — it’s always the objective. But those two points come wrapped in a memorable package, and only a fool would look immediately past the pomp at Investors Group Field to the NHL standings, where the Edmonton Oilers are sitting pretty at 5-1.
There is time to appreciate both the scene and the result, and Oilers head coach Todd McLellan was definitely soaking it up after a rock-solid 3-0 win over the hometown Winnipeg Jets. Goaltender Cam Talbot made 31 saves for the shutout win.
“Tonight is a night full of memories for both teams,” McLellan said. “Win or lose, you have something you’re going to talk to your kids about, your family. You’re going to tell stories. Success or failure, you’ll remember good and bad things about it.
“These games are important for the fans, for the league, for hockey in general, but they’re important for the players, too. It’s a different night. They look forward to it. We do as well, as coaches.”
Oilers winger Benoit Pouliot is now 3-1 outdoors as a Ranger, Hab and Oiler, and the experience isn’t that different for him now. He’s become used to it, and he’s as glad when they’re behind him on the schedule as he is while looking forward to them.
“I think for the first or second time for guys, it’s awesome — the national anthem, the jets coming by, the fireworks,” he said. “It’s a sweet setting, a good setting.
“But I think we’re glad it’s early in the year. It’s over now, and we’ll move on. Chicago plays every year for some reason, but besides them, you get one game here and there and they’re always fun. It’s a different preparation, a different atmosphere.”
Different sums this one up pretty well, right down to the weather delay. The Oilers and Jets had to stay in their dressing rooms for an extra two hours as organizers cited player safety concerns and waited for the sun to move behind the stadium infrastructure. The teams watched some football, told some jokes, kept it loose.
Hockey players, like most athletes, are creatures of habit, and their routine was disrupted. But it wasn’t exactly traumatic, and the fact is that much of a weekend like this goes off-script.
McLellan is convinced the home teams are at a serious disadvantage during an outdoor extravaganza, because all the hoopla can add up over three or four days and become a massive distraction.
“It’s a bit of a circus sometimes,” he said.
Visitors are now 14-5 outdoors, so the stats back him up. But Jets head coach Paul Maurice said his team didn’t buckle under the pressure of hosting. Instead, he touched on the other outdoor reality, and it’s one that can certainly put those two points in jeopardy.
“The home teams have a tendency to want to put on a show a little bit, and it was the best outdoor ice I’ve ever skated on in my life,” he said.
“Still not quite NHL on a normal night. We did some things with the puck that the home team wants to do to make a play, and the visiting team got it right — keep it simple, keep it north and keep it going to the net and just wait for a bouncing puck or a broken play.”
Keep it simple was the Oilers’ mantra in Winnipeg. And funny enough, Mark Letestu was one of the players who figured that it wouldn’t be hard for him, because that’s his game. So there he was, killing a penalty with the game at 0-0, desperately in need of a hero. He pounced on a puck that bounced through Dustin Byfuglien’s legs and led to Letestu’s ice-length breakaway. It was definitely an outdoor hop.
“That’s not typical of what you’re going to get in every building,” Letestu said. “It’s just one of those ones that was dancing on him. I think he took two or three swipes at it and the puck just kept dancing for him. Luckily it settled down enough for me to get a shot off when I got down there.”
He buried it for a 1-0 lead, the Oilers were up 3-0 before the second period was over and Talbot slammed the door the rest of the way.
Hollywood might have written the ending differently, giving the NHL a night that belonged to the two teams’ young stars — Connor McDavid and Patrik Laine — but Letestu’s goal was followed by snipes from Darnell Nurse and Zack Kassian, not exactly the go-to gang on offence. So that was different, too. “That’s just icing on the cake,” Kassian said of his goal. “Going into it you want to enjoy the experience as much as you can, but most importantly you want to get the two points.”
Always.