Another Domi riding shotgun with super sniper
MAX MORE OF A PLAYMAKER THAN DAD WAS DURING SUNDIN ERA IN TORONTO
They’re the common Domi denominator for significant scoring numbers by two generations of elite Maple Leaf centres.
Of course, Tie Domi had a much different role in a much different NHL with Mats Sundin than son Max does with Auston Matthews. Tie kept the sailing lanes safe for Sundin and a lot of other skilled Leafs, often called Toronto’s nuclear deterrent to anyone who’d dare mess with the captain as he climbed to the franchise lead in points. Tie, in turn, is the Leafs penalty minute leader.
Max is a more refined playmaker, finding the seams for Matthews’ optimum shots as he closes in on an astounding 70 goals.
Many can’t believe Mitch Marner won’t end up on Matthews’ right side when playoffs begin and Marner fully recovers from an ankle injury. But right now, with the Domi DNA in use forcing play and retrieving pucks but showing the required patience to find Matthews or Tyler Bertuzzi, coach Sheldon Keefe won’t mess with success.
“(Max) has such great vision,” Matthews told reporters Tuesday night in Newark after Domi set up him for his 66th goal and helped on Bertuzzi’s 20th before that in a 5-2 win. “He can just thread needles out there and a super easy guy to play with. We just try and feed off each other. There’s not a whole lot of one-on-one out there, it’s just a lot of give and go and moving into space.
“(Bertuzzi) is playing with a lot more confidence. Early on, it’s a new team, new everything and he’s trying to get the hang of things. He works so hard and really good in the corners.
“Between him, myself and Max, we just try to hunt pucks, dog the defence, create turnovers and try to attack the other way. It has been a lot of fun with those guys.”
Keefe is encouraged how the trio gels in games that aren’t going the Leafs’ way. Sometimes it’s not until the second or third period that they hit their stride.
“I see the chemistry is good that way,” said the coach. “I think they really enjoy being together, you can see it. Because of the way they play, they have high expectations of themselves already.
“When it’s not going well, like in the first period (Tuesday), they want to make adjustments. Like our team, once the second period began offensively, we had to get way more pace and once we found our legs, that line led the charge.”
Domi found Matthews from behind the net for a middle period chance that only a 10-bell save from Jake Allen prevented before Domi waited for Matthews in prime position for the third-period blast for 66.
Sundin became an integral part of Max’s upbringing, as Tie brought him to many Leaf games, practices and social events. Max, a first-round pick of the Coyotes in 2013, eventually wore Sundin’s No. 13 in the NHL, though it was long retired by the time he came to Toronto as a free agent last summer.
“I think Mats is still underrated when history looks at him,” Max told nhl.com earlier this season. “And think about this — my dad and Mats, for all the great things they did, they never got to win a Stanley Cup with the Leafs.”
Now that is something that would top his pop.
Another interesting coincidence, now that Matthews has Mario Lemieux’s 69 goals as his next objective, the most by an NHLER in the past 30 years, is that Tie and Super Mario were great friends in the 1990s. That unlikely relationship started in warm-up before a Pittsburgh road game in New York, when Domi was a Ranger and Lemieux skated over to ask if he could get the Pens into an exclusive Manhattan nightclub. That kinship later saw them take a behind the scenes role in league affairs such as trying to settle labour disputes.
“We have a very close relationship with him,” Max said. “Great people, great family and Mario’s one of the best ever.”