Leafs head home with narrow victory after near-meltdown
EDMONTON— Funny game, hockey. All night the Leafs had applied themselves and beaten the Edmonton Oilers down. When they played Feb. 27, the Leafs needed about 15 minutes of real work and fancy skating to beat Edmonton. This time, Oilers goaltender Mikko Koskinen was absent, and you could have forgiven the Leafs for taking it lightly.
But after a blown lead in Vancouver three nights earlier, the Leafs applied themselves more or less all night long. Auston Matthews shoved against Connor McDavid all night, and John Tavares was a load, and Nazem Kadri was back. Morgan Rielly scored his league-leading 18th goal among defencemen, on his 25th birthday. They led 3-0 with two minutes left.
Then Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored with 1:39 left, and Oscar Klefbom with 53 seconds left, and Frederik Andersen had to stop Zack Kassian in the final 30 seconds. The Oilers had more chances late; it was like the Leafs started thinking that their last Western road trip of the year was just about done, and began to think about the flight home. Suddenly it was a fire drill.
Well, the Leafs held on, and came away with a 3-2 win that involved some unexpectedly heavy breathing. It must be very dispiriting, being an Oiler. Meanwhile, when all the parts work, the Leafs are pretty good.
Emergency goalie: The Oilers were also short Milan Lucic, who missed his first game in Edmonton with a hip issue. But more, Koskinen had the flu. “He’s in the building, but (Anthony) Stolarz is going to be the starting goalie,” said Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock. “The emergency backup’s in the building, too. So if we run into a problem we’ve got two guys who are in the lounge now.”
He was asked, is it Kenny Cameron, who had played three games with an .868 save percentage for the University of Alberta this season, and has started nine games in three years there? “I have no idea,” said Hitchcock. “He wears green and gold, that’s all I know.” It was Stolarz’s first start since Feb. 12. How many goals would it have required for the Oilers to break the goalie glass in case of emergency? Eight? 10? If Carey Price can be left in goal for eight in Anaheim, you figured Stolarz was staying in there unless he got hurt, or decided to quit hockey.
Never mind: Remember when Leafs coach Mike Babcock said Andersen would start 56 games or something on Wednesday? Eh. “I misspoke,” said Babcock. “No one misquoted me, just so you understand that. So when I asked the question about the math, the math was wrong. This is on me. Whatever number it is, we got the schedule all laid out. I feel that he’s going to get to be around that — 60. But who knows? The 56 is on me. How’s that?” He had basically brought up 56 unprompted. It was a little strange.
The takeaway: Toronto should beat Edmonton, but hey, since the last time they played Tampa Bay on Jan. 17, the Leafs have lost to Florida, Arizona, Detroit (in overtime), the Rangers, Arizona again, St. Louis, Washington, the Islanders and Vancouver in OT. That’s three playoff teams, six non-playoff teams and four of the worst teams in hockey. Really, games like these can’t be taken for granted. Down the stretch, Toronto has six games against playoff teams and eight against non-playoff squads. Crucifying the nohopers seems like a prerequisite if you want to finish ahead of the Bruins.
Up next: Home to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night. Hey, a real game.