Mix puts Kadri in tough spot
De facto bouncer cool with role as Matthews returns to practice
Perhaps the Leafs are a team that doesn’t need edge.
Speed and skill and goals by the sackfull more than compensate for ornery quotient, no? That muscle-flexing pest-y dimension.
Walking tall in the NHL in this era skews to the imperious strut rather than the knuckle-dragging galumph.
But it’s not a complete absence of sinew and brawn in Toronto. Nazem Kadri, for one, still brings the moxie. Or at least he’s braced for the provocation when targeted.
That was evident in San Jose last Thursday when the Sharks came out hell-bent on exacting a pound of flesh from Kadri, belated payback for an episode last season wherein Kadri ended up with a fistful of Joe Thornton’s ZZ Top beard.
“Complete accident,” insists Kadri of the inadvertent depilation of Jumbo Joe. “At that point his beard was almost at his (chest) logo. For me to fight a guy that’s six inches and 50, 60 pounds heavier than me … I tried to get a hold of him. It just happened to be his beard. I didn’t enjoy it any more than he did.”
Kadri is no longer the hothead of salad days, although there have been gusts to rashness and ill-timed temper, most notably the three-game suspension for a charging head hit along the boards against Tommy Wingels in the playoffs last spring, which cost the Leafs dearly.
But no team can expect to succeed as snowflakes. Somebody’s got to hold the grudge line, protect the goods, or at least be willing to beat the chest when necessary. On a team that dumped hard-nosed relics Matt Martin, Roman Polak and Leo Komarov, that job has somewhat devolved to Kadri.
“It depends on how you define tough,” Kadri was saying after practice Sunday morning. “I think everyone in here is tough in their own way. With me, it just happens to be more of an openness, more of a physical style that’s a little bit more noticeable. I’m not the type of player to be running after people and trying to fight them. That’s the differ-
ence. I shouldn’t be in the penalty box for an extended period of time.
“But sometimes you’ve got to look after your teammates. If I have to be one of those guys, I’ll certainly do it.”
Enforcer lite, maybe. Grit on demand, as befits the occasion. A notorious pain in the arse, a la Komarov, endlessly chirping on the ice, getting inside an opponent’s head. Kadri thrives on that reputation. “Yeah, I’m pretty vocal out there. That’s part of the reason why other teams may not like me much, but I’m not always the one instigating. I just get involved in these altercations …”
The halo does not rest lightly on this head.
“I don’t know if that’s normal or not. I appreciate guys who try to get under my skin, try to knock me off my game. It makes me play even better. I’m the type of guy that, if you come after me, I’m going to come after you. It doesn’t matter how many times you knock me down, I’ll be getting right back up. That’s always been my mentality.”
An un-thug, though, because muscleheads don’t score 32 goals as Kadri has put up in each of the past two seasons. Arguably, the 28-year-old centre is the most rounded of all Leafs as a matchup forward who plays a 200-foot game.
The depth of talent at centre, however, has pulled Kadri every which way on line combinations. Coach Mike Babcock’s disinclination to match lines through October — Auston Matthews and John Tavares could handle themselves against elite opposition — had cascading effects. Kadri’s role became less defined, his wingers of lesser quality. To a large extent, that accounted for his plunge in production. Then Matthews got injured, lines were reconfigured, and Kadri found himself pivoting for smooth speed operators in Patrick Marleau and Kasperi Kapanen.
Seven goals in the last 10 games. Hardly a surprising upsurge. Kadri has been as bountiful for masterful wingmen as they’ve been for him. Mitch Marner clicked along at a 90-point pace during the 37 games he played alongside Kadri in the second half of 2017-18.
Toronto hasn’t ailed in the absence of Matthews, winning six of the nine games that he’s been out recovering from a shoulder injury, including a rare California sweep. The 21-year-old superstar was on the ice Sunday for his first full practice with the team, albeit red-shirted — no contact. He’s close to resuming game labours.
“It’s obviously going to be tough on the lungs,” admitted Matthews afterwards, “just getting to that pace of play and getting the feel for the puck in that kind of setting. Obviously it’s nice to be back out with the guys. It beats skating by yourself.”
The small motor skills and puck deftness are rusty. “Not all there, the little mechanics of it. The strength of your arm, it’s still coming back. Accuracy is a little off, but that stuff will come back pretty soon,” Matthews assured. What becomes of Kadri then? Babcock will have some time yet to ponder his combinations and of course the boss cleaves doggedly to his one-grinderper-line gospel. So he wasn’t giving huge extra chops to Kadri for his seamless fit with Marleau and Kapanen, and stepping up to the game-expanding opportunity Matthews’ injury provided.
“It’s not about who’s out and who’s in,” said Babcock. “You’ve got to look after yourself. When you haven’t played well, if it hasn’t gone good, you want to dig in. The most important thing about the game is you work hard every day, you keep your runs longer when it’s going good and shorter when it’s going bad. So Naz has done a good job.”
It surely would not befit Kadri well to cast him back into a mixed bag of wingers such as Connor Brown, Par Lindholm and Josh Leivo. Which, of course, Kadri would never say.
“(Babcock) is just trying to get everyone more involved. It can be tough as a head coach, spreading everything out. But we have selfless guys in this dressing room. No one’s going to be concerned about who’s playing where as long as we’re winning games.”
He’s ripened, has Kadri, no longer needs to be smacked upside the head by a coach or GM for poor judgment, arriving late to practice, walking a bit on the wild side.
“There were a lot of things over the course of my career where you look back and think, what was I doing? Wondering, what was I thinking? But that’s probably every young adult, that’s part of growing up.
“Unfortunately, I was put under the microscope at a very young age. I didn’t realize the significance of it. It’s something you’ve got to learn. I feel like I’m making the right decisions now.”