Rusty Leafs lack jump in Motown in Muzzin’s debut
Asked how his team looked Thursday in the wake of their first practice after an eight-day break, Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock seemed upbeat: “All right,” he said.
Babcock surely didn’t feel so satisfied watching the Leafs lose 3-2 in overtime to the subelite Red Wings in what was largely a snoozer of a Friday evening at Little Caesars Arena. The Leafs, if they looked sluggish for long stretches on a night they were outshot 33-21, at least displayed some resiliency, coming back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits.
The line of Auston Matthews, Patrick Marleau and Mitch Marner were responsible for both Toronto goals in regulation. Marleau batted in a kneehigh feed from Matthews to make it 2-2 with 2:19 to go and Freddie Andersen on the bench in favour of a sixth skater.
And Matthews made it 1-1 on the back of some dogged forechecking, burying a Marleau feed above goaltender Jimmy Howard’s blocker. Danny DeKeyser scored the overtime winner for the home team.
Bye-week rust? Maybe it’s because the Leafs hadn’t played in nine days that they didn’t register a shot on goal until the game was more than 13 minutes old, or that their first try on the power play was a two-minute debacle, failed zone entry stacked upon failed zone entry. While the visitors attempted to rediscover various fine motor skills, the Detroiters, who hadn’t played in 10 days, seemed to cope better, carving out a 1-0 lead on a Gustav Nyquist goal early in the second period.
Red number night: As 91-year- old Red Kelly’s No. 4 was raised to the rafters it was a great occasion to hear a handful of stories from the legendary Scotty Bowman, 85, who spoke of being a young man in Montreal when Kelly was a Norris Trophy-winning defenceman with the Red Wings in the 1950s. “Nobody skated like Red,” said Bowman of Kelly, who won four Stanley Cups on the blue line in Detroit before winning four more as a centreman in Toronto. While the tribute to Kelly began more than an hour before an 8:20 p.m. puck drop, various members of the Maple Leafs watched from the bench, among them Morgan Rielly, Nazem Kadri and Connor Brown. Muzzin mania: The debut of Jake Muzzin, acquired in a Monday trade, came about as advertised. Babcock had billed him as a competent, physical defender who’d come with “no flash.” And there Muzzin was on Friday, putting in a solid if unspectacular performance. “The biggest thing to understand — and I tried to say this (Thursday) — is he’s a big guy, can move the puck, plays a simple game, plays a hard game, a real important piece for us,” Babcock said. “(He’s) going to fit in real good here. It might take a little bit.”
Power outage: While Toronto found itself on the power play five times — more opportunities than they’d mustered in a single game in three months — they looked discombobulated with the man advantage. They managed just three shots on goal over 10 minutes with the extra skater. They’ve now scored in just three of their most recent 30 chances. At one point on Friday, Babcock shook up the personnel, moving William Nylander to the first unit in place of Kadri.
Up next: The Leafs are back home Saturday night to face the Pittsburgh Penguins.