Kadri’s two-way play earns Leafs win
McDavid-Matthews matchup underwhelms, both scoreless
Nazem Kadri drew an assignment Tuesday night against the Edmonton Oilers that would naturally strike some fear into the heart of any NHL player — checking Connor McDavid.
Kadri responded with excellent defence and his best offensive night of the year as the Leafs won 3-2 in overtime.
It was Kadri, scoring12 seconds into the extra period — his second of the game — who actually dominated a night in which McDavid and Auston Matthews, the Leafs’ No. 1 pick in June, received marquee billing.
The game was a chance for the 26year-old to show off another new wrinkle in his role with the team: leader by example to the core of young players, seven of whom are in their rookie seasons.
“I’m not here to be just a role player,” said Kadri, who now has five goals on the season. “I want to help this team win, I want to do all that I can to help this team win. And in doing that, help the kids, pave the road, show them what it takes to be a player in this league.”
Kadri was in for a night filled with hard work at both ends of the ice. The Oilers often double-shifted McDavid, or staggered his shifts, to create favourable line matchups and get him away from Kadri, who did a superb job in limiting chances for the NHL’s leading scorer.
“I didn’t feel like getting embarrassed tonight,” said Kadri.
McDavid finished up leading all forwards with 32 shifts. Kadri logged 27 himself, and posted more than 14 minutes in total ice time. McDavid, in trying to find those matchups, logged 22:46 overall, again, tops among all forwards.
Particularly telling was the abovenormal 8:07 of ice time McDavid re- ceived in the first period.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock noted Edmonton’s efforts to push McDavid into favourable matchups and felt that may have taken some of the zip out of his play. The always dangerous McDavid finished with no points, four shots, and a minus-2 rating.
He was also on the ice for Kadri’s goal in overtime, and felt, along with his coaching staff, that Kadri should have received a holding penalty on the play.
Kadri indeed got his arm inside McDavid as he outdueled him for the puck at the Oilers’ blue line, before fighting the superstar off on his way to the net, where he jammed in a backhander.
“I have an opinion on it,” McDavid said of Kadri’s play on the game winning goal. “I don’t really want to share it all that much, the ref saw what he saw. Kadri made a good play.”
McDavid was complimentary of Kadri’s efforts. “He’s a good player. He played me hard, good for him.”
Kadri and the Leafs also rebounded from a two-loss weekend with a strong overall game that resulted in just the third loss in 10 games for Edmonton, and their first loss on the road in four games.
Babcock, meanwhile, was also impressed with the work of Nikita Soshnikov, who was summoned from the Marlies earlier in the day and played his first game of the season after missing training camp with hamstring troubles.
“I thought he was great,” Babcock said of Soshnikov, who had a nifty assist on Ben Smith’s first goal of the season, and worked with high energy all game long.
“He was greasy, pissed a lot of people off, and he works his own team up . . . I thought he was great.”