Power shortage threatens to dim outlook
Spare me another “COMEBACK KIDS” headline.
First of all, it’s dreadfully clichéd sports jargon. Secondly, it takes the emphasis off the other side of the equation — falling into a hole.
Which is what the Maple Leafs did on Saturday against the woebegone Canucks, a game they managed to knot late-ish in the third and win in a second consecutive shootout, Tyler Bozak the back-to-back hero. Bozak, who’d attracted no shortage of grumps over the first half of the 2017-18 campaign, is now 17-for-43 with the puck on his stick after overtime. He also accounted for that 2-2 marker, corralling his own rebound.
Some players just have a calm knack for that shootout pressure situation.
But all the analytics folderol suggested Toronto should not have found itself clawing back to avert a regulation loss to Vancouver, which arrived in town amidst a 2-9-1 tailspin, wracked by injuries, benighted by atrocious goaltending and saved from the Western Conference basement only by the grace of godawful Arizona.
Bit of a worrisome trend there, how the Leafs have left more than a fistful of points on the table when facing also-ran opposition, from Colorado a week earlier, to the likes of Detroit and Minnesota before that, Vancouver and Arizona in the weeks previous.
Yes, there is parity in the National Hockey League and any team can win on any night. Unexpected lights-out goaltending has a lot to do with it, except Freddie Andersen has been a consistent ace in the hole for Toronto, allowing two goals or less in 15 of his last 21 starts. So there’s no explanation for why the Leafs often come up flat against teams they should be feasting on, especially if they want to be taken seriously as contenders.
It’s kind of a weird thing that the Leafs are hardly any further ahead in the standings than they were at this juncture a year ago.
The sense has been that they’re a much improved lot as all those glittery rookies, circa 2016-17, have experience miles on them now. Auston Matthews, as an example, is averaging more points per game than he did in his Calder Trophywinning season and has struck for six goals in his past seven games since returning from his second injury absence.
The goal-scoring troubles of Mitch Marner and William Nylander, which had so many hands wringing, have largely resolved themselves as both have rediscovered their playmaking mojo. James van Riemsdyk has never had a sniff of a slump this year and Morgan Rielly — at least one assist in eight of the last 10 games — has been a force on the back end, increasingly jumping up into the play, rewarded with more PP minutes than ever before in his career. The baffler is why it took coach Mike Babcock so long to recognize that potency in Rielly’s game.
“He had good juice, for sure,” Babcock said of Reilly’s performance on Saturday. “He jumped. The way the game was, we ended up chasing the game, so he was very active, to say the least. I thought he played a solid game. He was real steady for us.”
Rielly led the Leafs with 26:31 of ice time on 39 shifts, with four shots on goal and seven shot attempts.
Babcock even came up with, or accepted, a novel pairing of Rielly and Marlies call-up Travis Dermott on the power-play points. In his NHL debut Dermott acquitted himself nicely, accounting for the secondary assist on Bozak’s goal.
“D.J. (Smith) is running the back end there and it’s what he feels is right,” said Babcock of the powerplay blue-line shift. “He must have been comfortable or (Dermott) would not have gone out there.”
Which begs the question: Whither Dermott now as Babcock continues pulling strings to accommodate the absence of minutes-eating D-man Nikita Zaitsev, not expected back from his shot-block foot injury until at least Jan. 16, following a span of six days off for Toronto.
“Go to practice the next time we practise and go from there,” said Babcock, vaguely, of Dermott’s immediate fate. “We’re just going to watch him like all guys. Everyone comes to the National Hockey League and their first game, everything is great. Then the next game, over a period of time, we’ll see if he’s a regular NHL player. If he can help us, he’ll play.”
Dermott was actually part way back on the bench when Bozak scored but came back out to join in the celebrations. “I saw Mo turn around to go back to the pile and I was like, I might as well get my plus. It was kind of a broken play by me at the blue line and they ended up helping me out and getting me an apple there.”
Translation available upon request.
There is one glaring factor that might shed light on why the Leafs have struggled over the past fortnight: a misfiring power play.
Toronto was on a 3-for-18 PP slide coming into Saturday and went 0-for-4 with the man advantage against Vancouver.
Still eighth-best in the league, with a 21.1-per-cent success rate. But dropping. And nowhere near what was expected of a team with bruited goal scoring prowess.
“Power play wasn’t good,” Babcock acknowledged flatly. (His terse post-game analysis usually runs the gamut from “good” to “not good.”)
“Even the one in overtime wasn’t very good, but we found a way to win a game down 2-0. It’s a real big win, a real big two points for us.”
Bozak, he of one (1) PPG this season, was equally displeased by the man advantage zilch Saturday. “Our power play should have had a couple of goals, which was unfortunate. There’s going to be a lot of close games here the rest of the way.”
To their credit, the Leafs didn’t appear overly frustrated by chances squandered as the clock ticked down. Didn’t go off all half-cocked, relying on individual efforts. That’s a sign of maturity.
“We just wanted to stick with it and be patient,” said Bozak. “We knew sooner or later that we are too skilled as a team. We knew we were going to get our chances and when you get those you’ve got to make sure you capitalize on them.”
In this cushy homestand phase of the schedule, the Leafs get to enjoy three more straight at the Air Canada Centre, with the Blue Jackets here Monday, followed by Ottawa and St. Louis.
When they finally get a full practice in again on Tuesday, some power-play instruction should be top of The Babcock Brain.