Kadri’s frustrations continue in loss to Wings
> DETROIT 3 > TORONTO 2
True to his word, Nazem Kadri didn’t back off from the playing style that prompted the NHL to fine him $5,000 Friday for perceived acts of diving and embellishment.
In fact, after a heated exchange with Detroit’s Luke Glendening in the second period Saturday night, Kadri charged after him and decked him with a vicious cross check.
“We battled in the corner,” Kadri said. “We got into a wrestling match, my helmet came off. He’s my man going to the net, so I had to get back and cover him. My (cross) check got up on his shoulder . . .”
For Kadri, it seemed like an “I’ve had enough” moment after all the times he has been hacked, punched, mugged . . . and fined.
For the Leafs, though, it was part of another game where they didn’t have enough, falling 3-2 to the Red Wings despite bushel loads of scoring.
There were flashes of brilliance: William Nylander dazzled, circling the slot with speed no one could match, then dishing into the middle for an assist on a Colin Greening goal. Nylander then buried a nifty set up from Kadri to cut the lead to 3-2 with 67 seconds remaining in the game.
But Toronto, which outshot Detroit 34-26, has slid into a minor goalscoring slump. The Leafs had not scored more than one goal in three of their four games before Saturday.
Scoring will undoubtedly become a focal point in the off-season. Toronto ranks third-last in the NHL in goals, despite often out-chancing its opponents.
For now, there’s a mix of frustration and promise as Toronto’s prospect-heavy roster is driving shots at and creating scoring chances around the opposition net.
For Kadri, Saturday was mostly frustration. On top of that dangerous reaction to the Glendeninig dust-up, Kadri had the game-tying goal on his stick during a second-period power play – but tripped over Jimmy Howard’s pads as he tried to deke the goaltender and jam in a backhand.
Toronto now has four games remaining and, for Kadri, there’s no erasing the league’s decision to fine him and the impression that the NHL has branded him a diver.
“I didn’t agree with it, nor did I like it,” Kadri said Saturday morning. “I mean I’ve got to accept it though. That’s just how it is. Pay the fine and move on.”
Kadri accepted the fines but re- fused to accept the explanations behind them. He revisited a hard check March 21 in Calgary where he levelled the Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau, leading slashes from Josh Jooris and Gaudreau, and Kadri falling to the ice in pain.
“I looked at that particular play again and, I mean, the guy wound up so far his stick was out of the frame, I couldn’t even see it anymore,” said Kadri, whose collapse to the ice was seen as embellishment. “I had (a welt) on the back of my leg after that fact. Whoever’s making that decision, I’d like to see them take one of those . . . and see how it feels. I don’t know how I was supposed to react.”
Leafs coach Mike Babcock wondered if Kadri now has a reputation among NHL referees.
“My read on it is . . . don’t change, play hard, be mean, be good defensively, have a good summer, come back and be a better pro, and don’t dive,” Babcock said.
“But when someone trips you, you’ve been tripped. When you play hard and you play the way (Kadri) does, you don’t have to embellish anything.”
NOTE: The Pittsburgh Penguins clinched a playoff berth Saturday, which means they hand over their 2016 first-round pick to complete the Phil Kessel deal. Toronto now has 12 picks: two in the first round, two each in the second, third and fourth rounds, one in the fifth, two more in the sixth, and one in the seventh.