LEAFS STUFF THE NET IN DETROIT
Red Wings play without injured top scorer and had two ailing goaltenders in 6-0 loss
On the eve of American Thanksgiving, the Toronto Maple Leafs were treated to a wild turkey shoot.
They beat up big time on the Detroit Red Wings by a 6-0 score Wednesday, giving new coach Sheldon Keefe three wins, most by a Toronto in-season bench replacement since expansion and most since Pat Quinn debuted with three wins in 1998-99.
The rebuilding Wings are as bad as advertised, but also have an injured list that includes top scorer Anthony Mantha with the added misfortune of two ailing goalies in this mismatch. When it was mercifully over, the Leafs had outshot Detroit 54-25, had one shift in the Wings’ zone that lasted more than a minute, spent more than half the middle period inside Detroit’s blue line and increased the Red Wings’ league-worst goal differential to minus-45.
Oozing confidence after they seemed dead in the water at the start of six-straight road games, the Leafs climbed to plus-2 in the course of this rout. They had a 6-0 win last season under Mike Babcock against the Flyers. Somehow, Auston Matthews did not get a point Wednesday, though all Leafs lines had speed and were effective at both ends. However, Toronto is still not in a playoff position as it suffers from its poor start.
Frederik Andersen collected his 11th Leafs shutout and improved his record to 9-0-1 against Detroit, making a couple of impressive saves despite the disparity in play. The question now is whether Keefe decides that Friday in Buffalo is a good place to plug in Michael Hutchinson. Zero wins by a backup was another factor in Babcock’s firing a week ago.
A flu-ridden Jonathan Bernier was supposed to start, was able to warm up, but was not on the bench for Detroit after Jimmy Howard injured his groin stretching for a first-period
John Tavares rebound. Tavares knew opportunity was knocking and fired high with Howard unable to butterfly. With his first-period assist, it gave him 33 points in 24 games against Detroit.
There was a delay as Howard went to the room, bent over in pain and Bernier tried to refresh himself for game action. He was on his knees a couple of times trying to stretch and thankfully teammates were able to stave off the Leafs for most of the remaining minutes of the period.
But the 3-0 first-period assault included a Tyson Barrie banked shot off of a Red Wings player in the slot, making him the first defenceman in Leafs history to score in three straight regular season road games. It was also his second straight multi-point game in the Keefe era.
The first goal came 1:04 in at Little Caesars Arena, Travis Dermott getting a nice rebound that hit the skate of a Wings player who was battling Tavares and went in. Barrie’s goal followed a big push by Keefe’s all-marlie grad line of Frederik Gauthier, Dmytro Timashov and Pierre Engvall.
The Wings had their practice goalie ready in an adjoining room, but Bernier was all right to return in the second period, only to give up two early goals. Morgan Rielly and William Nylander completed some mid-air magic and then Andreas Johnsson was pushed into the net along with a Nylander rebound.
The Leafs power play, another sore point under Babcock this season in a series of close losses, got a no-pressure chance up 5-0. While the first unit didn’t get in on the fun, Jason Spezza found a streaking Johnsson to make it 6-0. Bernier came across for a big glove save on Kasperi Kapanen to at least keep the final period even.
“I feel like we’ve made some progress,” Keefe had said after the Leafs’ optional morning skate, preceded by two full practices at home. “A couple of things we focused on last week we’ve tried to add depth to, get extra reps before we start expanding.”
Alex Kerfoot began serving a two-game suspension for an illegal hit in Saturday’s game in Colorado, so Nic Petan moved up to the third line with Spezza and Kapanen.
Keefe, who is from Brampton, Ont., was in his first all-original Six game.
“It’s exciting. I hadn’t thought of it that much in that context, but playing here now this week, in the conference and in the division, it has been a little bit more normal in terms of the way the days have gone,” Keefe said. “We get to play a home game this week. There’s lots to look forward to.”
I feel like we’ve made some progress. A couple of things we focused on last week we’ve tried to add depth to