Maple Leafs are redefining toughness
A certain kind of hockey traditionalist might suggest the Maple Leafs are woefully short of muscle. Exhibit A came Thursday night. When Detroit defenceman Nik Kronwall tossed Auston Matthews into the boards, inducing an awkward fall that appeared to see Matthews land on or around his recently injured shoulder. Kronwall was penalized for boarding and Matthews, though winded, was otherwise unhurt.
And there was no further accounting for the incident. In other words, Kronwall threatened the well-being of Toronto’s best player with an undeniably dirty play and nobody in a blue and white sweater so much as feigned retaliation.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock, asked about this after Friday’s practice in Etobicoke, didn’t seem particularly disturbed by the lack of vengeance.
“You look at our personnel, you look at what we’ve got — we are what we are,” Babcock said.
What they are is a skill-first team that, in general manager Kyle Dubas’s rookie season, has been stripped of nearly all vestigial nods to hockey’s vigilante heritage. Even last season the Leafs employed a small cadre of players whose arsenal included physical intimidation, among them Matt Martin, Leo Komarov and Roman Polak, all of whom have since departed. It wasn’t long ago that Babcock lauded the likes of Martin for “keeping the flies off” Toronto’s young core.
But by the end of last season, Martin couldn’t find a place in the lineup. And this season the Maple Leafs don’t have anything resembling such a policeman, let alone a glorified mall cop.
So Saturday’s game in Boston will be both a contest between division rivals and a contrast in on-ice demeanours. The Leafs are the least-penalized team in the league. The Bruins are the second-most penalized. The player who led the Bruins in scoring the previous two seasons, Brad Marchand, leads the league in penalty minutes with 72. The top penalty getters on the Leafs, Nazem Kadri and Zach Hyman, have accrued a modest 16 penalty minutes apiece.
The Leafs have one fighting major this season, credited to the since-departed Josh Leivo, the second-fewest behind Arizona, which had yet to be penalized for fighting. Boston’s eight fighting majors are the secondmost behind the New York Rangers, who’ve been tagged with nine.
“Our toughness is our power play,” Babcock said.
Toronto’s power play is undeniably formidable, running at 33-per-cent efficiency with Auston Matthews in the lineup and 27 per cent overall, sixthbest. With that in mind, the coach offered a message to opponents who’d presume to push the Leafs around: “Take all the penalties you want.”
That’s not to say Babcock hasn’t repeatedly urged his team to play a “heavier” style on offence, relying less on the rush and more on the cycle.
“I would like our team to be physical on offence. What that means to me is, when you get the puck, you hang on to it. You get your ass out. You spend time heavy in the offensive zone,” said the coach. “To me, that’s physical for our group.”
Not that the Leafs are wholly averse to contact. On Friday, forwards William Nylander and Kasperi Kapanen were involved in what was described as a minor car accident near the team’s practice facility. Neither was injured. Still, the fender bender ensured that Nylander’s first practice day of the season went about as well as his first game. The 22-year-old got about 12 minutes of ice time in Thursday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Red Wings, his first NHL action since signing a six-year contract on Saturday. Though he began that game on a line with Matthews and Patrick Marleau, Friday saw Nylander practising alongside Marleau and centreman Kadri.
“Would I do it any different if I had the chance to do it today? No, I’d do it exactly the same way,” Babcock said, speaking of Nylander’s prompt return to game action. “Did I expect him to be any different than he was? Not really. Do I think this is going to take some time? For sure. But I don’t think Willie’s too wound up about it. I’m not too wound up about it.
“There’s eight exhibition games for a reason, and training camp for a reason. Then the league starts slow, whoops, and goes faster and faster. It’s hard to arrive late.”
The Bruins are expected to arrive at TD Garden on Saturday without the services of some key pieces. Top-line centreman Patrice Bergeron remains out with a rib injury. Workhorse defenceman Zdeno Chara is out with a left knee injury. Perhaps it’s no surprise the Bruins, who’ve lost four of their past five games, went into Friday clinging to the final wild-card playoff spot in the East. The Leafs, of course, weren’t making the mistake of underestimating the team that ousted them from the first round last spring.
“They’ve always played us tough every time we’ve played ’em,” Babcock said of the Bruins.
As much as the Leafs wear it as a point of pride not to take penalties — “The last thing you want to do is be revengeful,” said Kadri, explaining the lack of response to the Kronwall hit — they’ve also had a tough time drawing them. They’re dead last in power-play opportunities. Is there an anti-Toronto conspiracy among NHL referees?
“I’d like to say there is,” said Morgan Rielly, the Leafs’ alternate captain, “but I can’t do that to (the officials).”
It was only back in 2015-16 that Kadri led the league by drawing 64 penalties in 76 games. But this season he’s drawn a modest seven penalties in 29 games, tied for the team lead with Mitch Marner and John Tavares. Asked a while back what’s changed in Kadri’s approach, Rielly smiled. “Less diving,” Rielly said. It was suggested Kadri needs to dig out the old Speedo and return to his roots.
“Maybe. I’ll talk to Naz about being a rat again,” he said.
But Kadri, laughing at the suggestion, said the Leafs have made a point of avoiding the attention-drawing antics once considered game-night staples. The Leafs don’t hit much. They rarely fight. They’ve been whistled for a league-low three roughing minors, a little more than a week’s work for the Bruins, who lead the NHL with 22. A certain kind of traditionalist would suggest Toronto’s gentility could prove a liability come the playoffs. Then again, the NHL’s least-penalized team came into Friday as its second-best team as measured by points percentage.
As Kadri said Friday, in today’s NHL being bereft of tough guys doesn’t mean you’re not tough.
“We’ve shown in the past that regardless of how teams want to play, we’re not going to be pushed around,” Kadri said. “We don’t have the most physical guys in terms of running you through the end boards. But if we get hit, we’re going to get back up. It’s that relentless mentality, to mentally and physically not be fazed, and just carry on.”