Maybe Leafs’ blue line isn’t so thin after all
At the end of his second straight day of on-ice work, including sharp cuts and side-to-side movement, Nikita Zaitsev picked up the toolbox full of pucks and carried it off the ice. It was just over a week since his suspected concussion, and despite what seemed like strong management pressure to get him back playing, the medical staff had waited. He tweeted a picture and said “see you soon Toronto!” then deleted it. He looked good, for whatever that was worth.
Which is a metaphor, in its way. One, getting Zaitsev back for Game 3 would alleviate some of the pressure felt after Roman Polak’s awful season-ending leg injury in Game 2 against the Washington Capitals. Two, the Leafs defence has had to carry a heavier load of late, and has looked good doing it. One by one, Mike Babcock went through his guys in the wake of a 4-3 double-overtime win over Washington, and he approved.
Matt Hunwick, who played 35:19? “He knows how to play and you know he’s going to bring it every day. He’s a dependable guy,” said Babs, as part of more praise. Martin Marincin, who has emerged from the doghouse and played 30:41? “Well I really like Marty. I think Marty’s a real good player. I think sometimes he gets in his own way. But confidence is a thing that gets in his way sometimes. He’s a talented, talented guy. He might be our best penalty killer.”
Before we could ask about Connor Carrick, who was used sparingly against his old team, Babcock said, “But I thought all our guys — I thought (Carrick) settled in last night. You’re going out there all the time, you got no choice, you just settle in and get playin’.”
They did that. But the most impressive thing may have been the work of Toronto’s two best defencemen, the former roommates, Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner. They combined to play 80:54 of the 92-minute game, almost never together: They shared 2:31 of five-on-five ice time, and otherwise were the anchors for various pairs.
Rielly spent the year being force-fed some of the toughest minutes in hockey, and between that and a lingering ankle injury he wore down, but you expected him to play a combined 19:35 at even strength against one or the other of Washington’s top two centres, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Gardiner, meanwhile, played 21:22 against Backstrom or Kuznetsov, and got more of Alexander Ovechkin.
Gardiner has always been a puck-possession darling who was, under Babcock, relatively sheltered; he had, and still occasionally has, a propensity for mistakes that stick in your mind, like watching someone drive a car into a fruit stand. But the man can skate and handle the puck, and he was brilliant in both Games 1 and 2 — driving into the slot to score in Game 1, and to create a goal for James van Riemsdyk in Game 2.
Notably, the Leafs are using forward support to get out of their own end — they have better speed than Washington, but when the Capitals pin them in the Leafs zone, it’s like a big brother sitting on his little brother and throwing punches. Gardiner can skate the puck out of trouble; Rielly, too. Of the two, it’s Gardiner who has come the furthest.
“Well, I think (Rielly) has been as good as he’s been since I got here,” said Babcock. “And like I said, Jake — the change in Jake, it’s incredible. It’s all confidence. He earned it, training this summer. He worked at it, he’s gotten better, he feels good about himself. Some of the things he does sometimes, you just shake your head a little bit. And then I say to (assistant coach D.J. Smith): get those boys back in the barn, they’re running all over and don’t know what they’re doing.”
“But they have the puck. So, they’re playing with confidence, they’re competitive and they want to win. And they’re great people. They’re easy to coach, they’ve got a good attitude, they like to laugh. Don’t mind giving them a good tightening once in a while to get it back on track. They’re good guys and they’re good players.”
As for their minutes, Babcock said, “I thought those guys got better as the game went on, to tell you the truth. Those guys skate easy. They glide. Some guys chug. They don’t.”
All season the song about the Leafs was the same: not enough defence. This was probably because of the blown leads and whatnot, which were common enough that you could joke about it before it happened, like a Donald Trump tweet from the past contradicting his current stance. The Leafs got leads, and the Leafs blew leads, and the result was a team that squeaked into eighth place by the non-existent hair on their chinny-chin-chins.
And now the Toronto Maple Leafs are tied 1-1 after two games with the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals, and the Capitals are saying this is a real series now. The Leafs are dictating the pace, especially at five-on-five; they are getting spectacular goaltending from Frederik Andersen, which has been a prerequisite to success all season. But maybe, like their defencemen, they’re better than almost anybody thought they were, too.