National Post

Leafs dialing up the power on power plays

SPECIALTY UNIT BACK TO LEADING NHL IN EFFICIENCY

- lance hornby

Here’s something else for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ to-do list to keep their regular season meaningful as they await a shot at playoff redemption.

Try to be the first Toronto team to end the season leading the NHL in power play percentage since detailed records began in 1977-78. Taking great umbrage at being knocked out of top spot earlier this week by Edmonton, the Leafs put three past the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday — all of their goals in regulation time — in an eventual 4-3 shootout win.

Those goals, part of a 19for-47 run with the man advantage since early December, brought the Leafs’ power play up to 30.6 per cent to the Oilers’ 29.6 per cent, before Edmonton played host to Nashville on Thursday.

“The power play was working tonight,” enthused Mitch Marner, who had a goal and an assist. “We’d have liked to leave the game with a 5-on-5 goal (especially on 40-plus shots), but the puck was moving fast, guys were locked in and getting into spots quickly. When we didn’t score we got the puck back quickly.”

Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares scored, Auston Matthews had two assists and Morgan Rielly one, as all five members of the first unit got a piece of the action.

Last year’s power play, featuring the same cast in a weaker division, barely converted 20 per cent and was well back of the first place Oilers, led by Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl. That prompted coach Sheldon Keefe to transfer the portfolio from assistant Manny Malhotra to newcomer Spencer Carbery at camp. After some failed experiment­s with personnel and tactics, pure talent has won out. Having Marner back after his injury helps, as does a good second unit that includes Jason Spezza and Ilya Mikheyev.

SPEZZA: SHOOTOUT SPECIALIST

Spezza has not scored in regulation in almost two months, but when Keefe filled out his shootout card Wednesday he had no hesitation leading off with the 37-year-old. Spezza is now 29-for-78 in his career, after beating John Gibson.

“In my time here, he’s been as consistent as we’ve had,” Keefe said. “He missed one earlier this year, but he’s a reliable guy, he’s experience­d.

“I like his ability to go first, a combinatio­n of the fact that he is that experience­d and poised, to try and get you ahead. But also you come out of the overtime and Matthews and Nylander are our second and third shooters and those guys could use the extra breather, I find.

“Spez going first and setting the table (Matthews scored, Nylander didn’t), he did a tremendous job.”

Goalie Jack Campbell was also appreciati­ve of the Leafs winning their second shootout for him this year, on a night he was beaten three times on less than 20 shots, but made two 1-on-1 stops himself to preserve his milestone 20th.

“(Spezza) has shown it for a long time, that was a huge goal to get us going. I’m lucky to have such great weapons in front of me in the shootout.”

WAYNE’S WORLD A HARD ONE

Wayne Simmonds was asked how much his off-ice work on behalf of the Hockey Diversity Alliance competes with his day job as a Leafs’ winger. Since being formed last year by prominent figures such as himself, Matt Dumba and Nazem Kadri, they’ve been in constant convo — and often conflict — with the NHL and hockey bodies around the world as evidence of racial discrimina­tion mounts.

“It’s definitely a lot more work than we thought,” Simmonds said. “We knew we’d have a lot of stuff to combat. Unfortunat­ely, in our line of work, we’re the minority. Things that will happen — especially the last couple of weeks, but you could go back forever quite frankly — is why we formed. We all want to combat racism in this great game and we’re still seeing these (incidents).”

“But I think (offenders) are being outed a little bit more. Fortunatel­y for us, there are camera phones and mics everywhere. People are becoming more aware because of the social media times we live in. We’re going to continue to do as much work as possible to eradicate racism from our game. We know it will take a lot of time, but slowly and surely, we’ll get on the right side of things. I feel we’re starting to gain more allies in our cause.”

LOOSE LEAFS

Winger Nick Robertson participat­ed in his first full practice with the AHL Marlies on Wednesday since a fractured knee in late October ... The Leafs had Thursday off and play in Detroit on Saturday ... The win over Anaheim kept alive the chance that Keefe’s Leafs tie their own team record for most victories at the 40-game mark. They need to beat the Red Wings to equal the 27 from last season, which was one more than Mike Babcock’s 2018-19 club.

 ?? DAN HAMILTON / USA TODAY SPORTS ?? Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist on power plays Wednesday against Anaheim at Scotiabank Arena, helping the Leafs regain their ranking with the man advantage. William Nylander and John Tavares also scored on power plays, Auston Matthews had two assists and Morgan Rielly one.
DAN HAMILTON / USA TODAY SPORTS Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist on power plays Wednesday against Anaheim at Scotiabank Arena, helping the Leafs regain their ranking with the man advantage. William Nylander and John Tavares also scored on power plays, Auston Matthews had two assists and Morgan Rielly one.

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