Leafs fluster Oilers to open road trip
Improved defensive play of Toronto’s youngsters pays dividends in 4-2 win over Edmonton
EDMONTON — The Oilers have been at this worst-to-first rebuild plan a lot longer than Toronto.
But if the Maple Leafs play a modicum of defence, they can nudge ahead the long process, which they showed at Rogers Place on Tuesday night. NHL leading scorer Connor McDavid was just one of many flustered Oilers as the Leafs closed ranks, holding him to a second assist and one late goal.
In addition to blocking 31 shots, they leaped on Edmonton errors and scored four on their initial 14 shots through 40 minutes. It gave them a 4-2 win to start a western Canadian road trip and moved them to 10-8-4 overall.
“(Defence) is an area we talk about a lot and take a lot of pride in,” said Morgan Rielly.
“You play Alexander Ovechkin one night (Saturday’s win over the Capitals) and McDavid the next, you can’t help talking about defence going into the game.
“The blocked shots are important. When we talk to each other between periods we talk about a gritty and greasy road period.”
It was a delight for the loudest Leaf fan contingents heard here in years. Toronto had scored four goals on four occasions on the road this season and lost, winning only one away game overall.
Toronto, which chose Auston Matthews with the No. 1 overall a year after McDavid came here, saw their teen get the opening goal and play an effective game. Angry at taking his first NHL penalty and the razzing he received from a fan at rinkside, Matthews scored upon exiting the box on a perfect pass from William Nylander.
“I came out of there pretty motivated,” said Matthews, who now has goals in three straight games.
Matthews became the first Leaf to 10 goals, but Nazem Kadri and James van Riemsdyk soon joined him. This time it wasn’t just Nazem Kadri bugging McDavid, as the Leafs killed six power plays on the night.
“It was being smart tonight, not turning pucks over,” Kadri said. “We’ve bought in.” Don’t blame Oiler goalie Cam Talbot, who was pulled for ex-Leaf Jonas Gustavsson to start the third. The Leafs showed a lot of hustle, Nikita Soshnikov’s middle-period backcheck on a 2-1 with McDavid on the rush as a prime example.
The Leafs block party went into high gear in killing a 5-on-3 for 1:05 in the second.
Zach Hyman scored after his penalty, but McDavid finally broke through with that Bobby Orr speed Mike Babcock has been talking about, a blue line bullet train who burned Rielly to make it 4-2 early the third.
However, he was also called for a minor to disrupt his team’s mojo. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was also effectively tied up by the Leaf tactics.
Earlier in the match, the Leafs held a brief 2-0 lead, after atrocious Oilers coverage, overloading two men on Mitch Marner, let Tyler Bozak loose to feed a wide open van Riemsdyk. With a couple of whacks, van Riemsdyk scored his 99th as a Leaf.
McDavid got down to business moments later, winning a draw from Kadri that Andrej Sekera drove past Frederick Andersen through traffic.
But Matthew Benning was picked off by Leo Komarov, who returned it to Kadri for a goal.
Andersen, who made 28 saves, said the defence had more big saves than he did, but still made a couple of huge ones at critical moments.
“The difference between the two teams tonight was that they valued checking,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s OK not to score sometimes, but not OK to neglect your responsibilities defensively.”
Toronto, getting closer to Babcock’s quest of positive goal differential, is in Calgary Wednesday night, then gets a two-day break before facing the Canucks.