TAVARES PLANS TO BE FRONT AND CENTRE ON POWER PLAY
Mike Babcock received a bit of news when the Maple Leafs coach was recruiting John Tavares late in June before the star centre eventually signed a sevenyear contract with Toronto.
“I asked him in what spot did he want to play on the power play and he said net front,” Babcock said Thursday after practice.
“That surprised me, to be honest with you. I didn’t know that was what he was going to say. We were going to move Matty (Auston Matthews) there.”
As the plan goes now, the Leafs’ top power-play unit will include Matthews, Tavares, Nazem Kadri, Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly. Babcock indicated the group will get its first test in the Leafs’ fifth preseason game, after further cuts have been made, which would be Monday night at Scotiabank Arena against the Montreal Canadiens.
Matthews will be among the players not in the lineup Friday night when the Leafs play their first pre-season game at Scotiabank Arena, formerly known as the Air Canada Centre, against the Buffalo Sabres. The line of Tavares between Zach Hyman and Mitch Marner will be in uniform, as will the Josh Leivokadri-connor Brown trio.
On defence, the lone regular pair slated to suit up is Rielly and Ron Hainsey, while Connor Carrick, Martin Marincin, Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin are scheduled to play. Curtis Mcelhinney and Garret Sparks will be in goal.
The power play was not a problem for the Leafs last season as they scored at a rate of 25 per cent, good for second in the league behind only the Pittsburgh Penguins, who scored on 26.1 per cent of their power plays.
Kadri led the Leafs with 12 power-play goals, but Toronto will need to replace the 11 scored by James van Riemsdyk, who signed with the Philadelphia Flyers. Also gone is new St. Louis Blue Tyler Bozak after producing 13 points on the man advantage.
Marner led the Leafs with 27 power-play points last season with Rielly behind him at 25.
There’s going to be a boost for Matthews, who averaged two minutes nine seconds of power-play time last season, putting him in 204th in the NHL (and 154th among forwards). It remains head-scratching that Matthews was not first among Leafs forwards in power-play ice time; he was fourth.
Tavares, in 2017-18, scored 12 power-play goals for the New York Islanders, one off his career high of 13 in 2014-15.
“I played a lot through the middle of the ice, whether it was in front of the net or in the highslot area,” Tavares said of his power-play time with the Isles last season. “I was around the net a lot more than maybe in years past.”
You can bet Matthews will do everything in his control to make the unit work. He didn’t buy into the idea that too much of a good thing is a problem.
“When you get the top guys on one unit, it makes for some pretty creative plays,” Matthews said. “Mitch is really good at facilitating the puck and Nazem scored plenty of goals there in that middle spot.
“I think JT (can) control down low and when I get the puck, I can shoot it, I can crash the net for rebounds. A lot of dangerous options on that unit and it sounds good now. Hopefully we can make it work.”