LEAFS BEAT OILERS 3-2
Tavares gets 3 points,
EDMONTON— In Nazem Kadri’s first game back, he didn’t get the tough stuff. He rarely saw 40-goal man Leon Draisaitl; Connor McDavid was, for the most part, a rumour. No, those guys saw Toronto’s first two centres, John Tavares and Auston Matthews. The biggest fish swam with the biggest fish.
As the Leafs enter the real stretch, their centres are back together, and if you don’t have centres in hockey the centre cannot hold. It’s the most enduring truism in hockey: Pittsburgh won a Cup with Ron Hainsey as their No. 1 defenceman, after the glory days of Drew Doughty and Zdeno Chara and Duncan Keith. Chicago had already won a title with the forgettable Antti Niemi crouching near the net.
But centres matter, and the Leafs are deep enough that Kadri, so important a year ago, has become a veritable luxury: the third-line centre on a team that’s as top-heavy as it is deep.
“They’re just … a good hockey team, they are solid all over, they never make mistakes, obviously skilled, they just come at you in waves,” said Oilers star Connor McDavid.
“He’s a great player, he understands what great teams are,” said Kadri, in his first game back after missing eight games with a concussion. “Shows a lot of respect coming from him. That’s the type of team we want to be.”
On this night, the Leafs were the better team, despite a 90-second hiccup at the end. The Matthews line was territorially dominant: 13 shot attempts for and one against at five-on-five in the first, Matthews was at 25 and 10 for the night, and played most of his time against McDavid.
“I thought Matthews’ line was really strong, played a lot against the McDavid group and did a real good job,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock.
Tavares totalled three points: a second-period goal and two assists, and has tied his career high with 38 goals and 14 games left to go.
“I just want to keep trying to improve my game, all parts of the ice,” said Tavares. “I believe in myself, and playing with pretty good players all through the lineup … you’re going to get great opportunities, and trying to be as prepared as I can be for ’em. And never be satisfied.”
And Kadri, who scored 30 goals in each of the last two seasons and has 15
this year, fit in. He shifted William Nylander to the wing, and pushed the Leafs a little closer to what they’re supposed to be.
“It was a long time coming. It was just nice being around the guys,” said Kadri.
Centres are the thing. If you are an Oilers fan, the one thing you can tell yourself — other than the idea that nothing matters and the sun will one day explode — is that you have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and Ryan NugentHopkins. And if you had a single winger that wasn’t a sack of flour, you wouldn’t have to play at least two of them together more than McDavid plays with anybody else.
As for the Leafs, Kadri is still a defensive dynamo and a valuable insurance policy in case of injury, and the one Leaf who can probably trash-talk Brad Marchand without getting smoked. But he’s less the straw that is stirring the drink than he was, because that’s where they are so strong.
“They’re so good at firstoption passing, at having numbers back on the puck, they’re so good at that, you’ve got to put them in uncomfortable positions,” said Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock. “And I would say, if we played them more, we would feel more comfortable, but their talent level and their skill level, especially when you’re strong in the middle of the ice, that’s always uncomfortable to play against.
“And that’s what they are: They’re awesome in the middle of the ice, so they make you uncomfortable. You feel like you’re one step away from being on the wrong side of the puck. I mean, even in the first period (of their previous meeting on Feb. 27) we gave up two breakaways because we were just one step off, and they’ve got speed and tenacity in the middle of the ice, and when you’ve got that, that’s like gold in the league now.”
Of all the hockey truisms, having great centres beats just about everything. Working backwards to Babcock’s last Cup, the list is stellar: Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov with Washington, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin with Pittsburgh, Jonathan Toews with Chicago, L.A.’s Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter. Oh, and Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci with the Bruins. Which, in Toronto, should ring a bell.
Kadri used to be the guy the Leafs sicced on McDavid, to drive him nuts; Kadri’s gamewinner against Edmonton in 2016, where he stripped the Oilers superstar in overtime and scored, was a career highlight. He talked about wanting to get the game’s best players. And when he was suspended for three games after Game 1 of Toronto’s playoff series against Boston last season, that absence was one of the what-ifs when it was over.
Now, Kadri isn’t as integral anymore. He’s the longesttenured Leaf; he’s one of the best third-line centres in hockey. But he’s something else, too. As much as anything, Nazem Kadri being a luxury is a measure of how far this team has come.