Early takeaways — Tavares never stops, Kadri shortchanged
No, it’s not going to be 7-6 every night.
The NHL will soon settle down, as it does every year, and the wild shootout that happened Sunday night between the Leafs and Blackhawks will not be a regular feature of the league this season. To some — those who think goals and more goals aren’t entertaining — that’s a relief. To others who wish the NHL was a lot more like 25 years ago, the last time the league averaged more seven goals every game, that’s a disappointment.
For the Leafs, it’s fair to say all three of their games — two overtime wins and a loss — have been very different. This is a team that’s still getting settled in.
Still, there are observations that can be made. Here are 10 of them:
The most noticeable characteristic about John Tavares so far (aside from the four goals) is that he seems completely unfamiliar with the lazy shift or partial effort. Seriously, this guy doesn’t take a shift off, and when he loses the puck it’s like somebody stole his wallet. That Tavares was able to sculpt this “full-out effort every shift” philosophy during all those lost years on Long Island, years when he could have become a selfish player, is a testament to his work ethic.
Don’t be too hard on Garret Sparks. Well, not yet. But it’s worth remembering that, at 25, he’s learning a new role, that of the NHL backup. It’s not easy to always get the tough road games on back-to-back nights, and it’s not easy to not know when your next game is. Sparks is used to being a starter, and he’s going to need some time to figure this out.
It’s not clear exactly what 27-year-old Par Lindholm is supposed to be. He’s a fourth-line centre getting 11 or 12 minutes at the moment, a smooth skater but otherwise a relatively non-descript part of the Leafs so far. Is he a grinder? A penalty killer par excellence? A disturber? A faceoff man? Or does he have offensive abilities yet to be unearthed? We wait anxiously for one of the newest Leafs to reveal his talents.
Last year, Josh Leivo could barely crack the lineup. He got into 16 games with the Leafs and scored one goal. Yet here we are at the start of the 2018-19 season and the 25-year-old winger is a point man on the second power-play unit. Granted, that’s sort of like being Tom Brady’s backup.
There’s still room for grit, for hitting, for getting in the other guy’s face.
You don’t get used much. Still, where did this come from? It’s the second most perplexing lineup move of the season by Mike Babcock so far.
The most perplexing lineup move was the installation of Tyler Ennis as Auston Matthews’ right winger for the first 21⁄ 2 games. Ennis is trying to piece his career back together, which is great. But it was odd to see him as William Nylander’s replacement alongside Matthews while Connor Brown and Kasperi Kapanen, both of whom have been waiting for higher profile offensive roles, didn’t get that chance. Well, at least until midway through Sunday’s game, when Kapanen jumped in beside Matthews and almost immediately scored, and then set up Matthews for a goal. If Ennis can’t play in an offensive role, this team may not be a fit.
Babcock is going to have to find more work for Nazem Kadri. Fifteen minutes a night is just not enough for a backto-back 32-goal scorer. It’s early, but right now Kadri is averaging more than a minute less in ice time compared to last year, and three to four shifts fewer a game. He’s got more to give, but needs the time to give it.
The Leafs have indeed looked scrambly over the first few games. There seems, at times, to be a lack of chemistry. Well, that shouldn’t be a surprise. From last year’s team, Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk, Leo Komarov, Dominic Moore, Roman Polak and Curtis McElhinney are all gone. You may not have adored all those players, but the fact is they were significant veterans who were very much part of the fabric of the dressing room. When you subtract that many vets at once, it’s going to take a little while to overcome their loss and for new players to fit in.
The Leafs are just not a hard team to play against right now, part of the reason they’re giving up a lot of goals. This is the new NHL, fighting is essentially gone and physical play isn’t what it once was. Still, there’s room for grit, for hitting, for defensively getting in the other guy’s face. Right now, we’re not seeing much of that from Babcock’s team. Not sure, other than Kadri, if many players on this team are going to play that way.
Defenceman Martin Marincin became a lightning rod for criticism two years back, and when he was demoted to the Marlies last year — and stayed there all season — it seemed like his NHL days might be over. Instead, there he was Sunday night back in the lineup replacing newcomer Igor Ozhiganov. Marincin’s return reveals two things. One, he didn’t give up or sulk. Two, the Leafs didn’t just write him off or slot him as a minorleaguer. In a salary-cap league where you need players making less than $1 million in your lineup and contributing, it behooves teams to remain open-minded about players.
Just like last year, Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev are getting more ice time than all other Leaf players. Babcock clearly believes they are his best. Yet they seem to draw an awful lot of criticism from Leaf nation, Gardiner in particular. The coach not only sees something the fans don’t, he seems to have a totally opposite impression of these two players to many in the audience. Odd, that.