Young guns firing
Maple Leafs’ rookie trio have been just too much to handle for weary Capitals
Lineup options for Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock were limited before the regular season began.
Babcock knew he wanted to play Tyler Bozak with James van Riemsdyk and Nazem Kadri with Leo Komarov. That meant the prospect of lining up three rookies — Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Zach Hyman — on the very same line.
“So, there wasn’t a whole bunch more options,” Babcock said. “That’s basically what it was.”
The trio, which Babcock grew to both love and hate, was devastating in the Leafs’ 4-3 overtime win Monday night in Game 3 of their first-round series with Washington.
Matthews had a goal, an assist and six shots while Nylander scored once and fired nine attempts. Hyman played the familiar role of muscle, helping to set up a goal before drawing the Lars Eller highsticking penalty which led to Tyler Bozak’s overtime winner.
The unit dominated the puck all night long. The blend of speed and skill between Matthews and Nylander, along with the force and persistence of Hyman, were just too much for the Capitals to handle. Evenstrength shot attempts were 23-5 when Nylander was on the ice (82 per cent); 21-7 when Hyman was on the ice (75 per cent); and 20-10 with Matthews out there (67 per cent).
“I just thought they were good all night,” Babcock said after the win, which gave the Leafs a 2-1 series advantage heading into Game 4 tonight. “I thought they territorially controlled the play a lot. They had a lot of possession time. I thought they were dangerous. I thought they were skating.”
Babcock wasn’t always enamoured by those three players together. While he stuck with the combination of Matthews and Hyman all season, he often flipped Nylander for Connor Brown on the right wing - preferring the Toronto native as a more reliable defensive option.
The numbers, per Corsica Hockey, suggest the unit functioned far more effectively with the Swede on the wing:
PUCK POSSESSION Hyman/Matthews/Nylander: 55 per cent Hyman/Matthews/Brown: 49 per cent
SCORING CHANCE
PERCENTAGE Hyman/Matthews/Nylander: 57 per cent
Hyman/Matthews/Brown: 48 per cent
Babcock took advantage of home-ice in Game 3, getting the unit away from the Capitals’ top trio of defenders — John Carlson, Matt Niskanen, and Dmitry Orlov — and matching them a bit more against their third unit pairing of Kevin Shattenkirk and Brooks Orpik.
The coach also got his rookie trio more opportunity against Washington’s third and fourth forward units.
It was against the third line of Lars Eller, Brett Connolly and Andre Burakovsky and third defensive pairing that Nylander scored his goal.
Hyman lured Shattenkirk and Orpik with his hustle on the forecheck before Matthews picked it free and fed Nylander for his first career post-season goal.
The Matthews line saw little of Eller’s line in Games 1 and 2 and an almost overwhelming amount against the dangerous second unit of Evgeny Kuznetsov, Justin Williams and Marcus Johansson. Even that group, however, was overmatched by Toronto’s rookie unit on Monday night.
“I think we feel comfortable going out there against anybody,” Matthews said.