New line works wonders for Leafs in D.C.
Connor Mcdavid and Auston Matthews might actually be the easiest pre-scouting assignments for the respective staffs of the Maple Leafs and Oilers in Saturday’s highly anticipated meeting.
It’s trying to figure out what the rest of the band is up to on each team that presents a challenge.
On Wednesday, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe again struck gold keeping Max Domi shifted from centre to left wing with Matthews and putting Tyler Bertuzzi on the right. It yielded the trio nine even-strength points in a 7-3 win over Washington and saw Bobby Mcmann, Matthew Knies and Nick Robertson moved around effectively.
Mitch Marner, Matthews’s steady right-winger, has to get back into a practice or two before he returns, so Friday’s workout lines will be heavily scrutinized to judge if solo skates this week accelerate his return from a sprained ankle.
Regarding Toronto’s defence, TJ Brodie being a healthy scratch Wednesday and the physical effort put out by Simon Benoit the past couple of games in Ilya Lyabushkin’s absence, changes the look. In goal, though it would appear to be Ilya Samsonov’s start on Saturday, Joseph Woll stopped just about everyone not named Ovechkin in Washington. There’s a back-to-back in Carolina on
Sunday for Keefe to consider changing the split or maybe even getting Martin Jones back in versus the Canes.
The Leafs will be watching Edmonton’s Thursday home game against Buffalo to see how coach Kris Knoblauch utilizes key trade deadline pickup Adam Henrique. After time on the left side, Henrique centred Ryan Nugent-hopkins and Derek Ryan earlier in the week. The Oilers eventually must determine a third line pivot to augment the Connor Mcdavid-leon Draisaitl onetwo punch in playoffs, either Henrique or RNH.
The Leafs had a 2-0 lead in Edmonton on Jan. 16 before Draisaitl scored and Mcdavid assisted on Ryan Mcleod’s 4-2 winner.
IRON MAN
Saturday will pit NHL goal leader Matthews (57) against top assist man Mcdavid (82). Head-to-head versus Edmonton, Matthews has 12 goals in 18 games, Mcdavid 21 helpers in 22 against the Leafs.
Matthews leads the pack in a more quirky category this year, hitting posts and crossbar. Sportsnet stats tracked a couple this week to bring Matthews to 16 pings, one short of the purported league record held by Steve Stamkos in 2010-11. That was the year Stamkos fell five goals short of a second straight season at 50.
Matthews, three shy of breaking his own franchise single season goal record, would be heading for 70 had even half those ironmonger shots dropped in.
THREE TIMES TEN
The Leafs utilizing three or more goaltenders at times in the past 50-plus regular seasons has rarely resulted in a trio of them having good years in the win column during that span. But with Woll’s 10th victory on Wednesday, Toronto now has a franchise first of three in double figures, with Samsonov’s 18 and Jones’s 11.
NHL stats lists the Hurricanes and Canucks with three 10-game winners last season, Vegas the year before, and the 1977-78 Bruins the first team to do it with Ron Grahame, Gilles Gilbert and Gerry Cheevers.
WILSON HEARING
Washington’s Tom Wilson is looking at his seventh NHL suspension after he whacked Leafs forward Noah Gregor across the face Wednesday night.
The intentional high stick late in a game that was out of reach resulted in a double minor, during which the Leafs scored. But the league’s department of player safety announced Wilson had a hearing and would be offered the ominous in-person version, not good news for a repeat offender.
Wilson was hit with 20 games in 2018 for an illegal hit on Oskar Sundqvist of St. Louis, which cost him more than US$1 million in salary.