Juggling gets mixed results, but point taken
Matthews-Marner pairing fails to spark offence in road loss to Panthers
SUNRISE, FLA.— It took 100 games, but Mitch Marner finally got to start with Auston Matthews.
But the hoped-for offence sputtered — not just with those two — and in the end the Maple Leafs had goalie Frederik Andersen to thank for earning a point in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers.
“He’s a great player to play with,” Marner, the latest impressive sophomore to reach the century mark in games played, said of Matthews. “So are a lot of guys on this team. Obviously we didn’t come out with the result we wanted to. So it’s time to focus on Carolina (on Friday) and make sure we come away with two points.”
Marner and Matthews have played parts of the last two games together, but the Leafs generated just a single goal in each. That line is not the problem — Matthews had eight shots on goal.
The issue is slow starts, which again backed the team into a corner. The Leafs started flat and could barely generate any offence, and waited for the third period to truly come to life.
Nick Bjugstad scored the opening goal on a lucky bounce in the second period and notched the shootout winner, the only blemishes for Andersen, who faced 42 shots.
“It trickled through me,” Andersen said of Bjugstad’s second-period marker that came from behind the net and deflected off defenceman Connor Carrick. “You have to expect the unexpected. We battled back and got a point.”
After Roberto Luongo — who faced 43 shots — spent the night frustrating Maple Leafs shooters, Nazem Kadri finally broke through, finish- ing a two-on-one with Connor Brown with 6:02 remaining.
Kadri extended his points streak to eight games, and it was his 14th career goal against the Panthers, a team he likes to beat up on.
“I like the Sunshine State and everything about it,” Kadri said earlier in the day. “It gives you energy to walk outside and see the sun. Recently in Toronto we haven’t seen a whole lot of sun.”
Babcock appeared to be playing mind games with his line matchups.
One day he’s putting his foot down that he’s the coach and making the decisions. Later, he apologizes for sounding like a “jackass.” He follows that up with an adamant statement that Marner and Matthews won’t play together, because he needs them to “drive” different units. Then voila, the next day they’re together.
But if he playing mind games, who is the target? The media, who seem to second-guess the combinations? The fans, who clamour online to see Matthews and Marner together? The players, who have to be used to the constant juggling?
How about the official statisticians, who were told before the game that Matt Martin was on the top line with Matthews and Marner, but then didn’t even start the game there.
Truly, the targets of his misdirection were the Panthers. Florida plays its top line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Evgenii Dadonov a lot, and Babcock said he would make changes to adjust to the Panthers, depending on how their top line was going.
“I was trying to make sure 16 (Barkov) was playing against the right people,” said Babcock. “They get to jump you (when) you’re on the road. We were trying to figure out what would make us go. We knew we were going to adjust as soon as we saw what they were going to do.” William Nylander was moved around the most in the first period, double-shifted at times and playing with three different centres, amassing seven minutes and 30 seconds of ice time in the first frame — the most by any forward on either team.
This trip to Florida started with new units, and ended with the Leafs offence spinning its wheels.
“I don’t think our first (period) was good enough,” said Babcock. “I thought we got competing and competing at a high level. We got a point. Let’s get out of here, and Happy Thanksgiving if you’re an American.”