Now the real work begins
No NHL exhibition game has ever meant so much as matchup against Habs
Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and the rest of the Maple Leafs have always felt they have a lot to prove.
Beginning tonight at 8 at Scotiabank Arena in an exhibition game against the Montreal Canadiens, they’ll get a chance to start proving themselves all over again.
“We’ve been together for a long time,” said Marner, mentioning most of the Leafs have been skating together since the end of May. “So I think we’re really hungry to start this thing up. We’re hungry to prove ourselves out here, and I think we just want to make sure we’re ready to go.”
There were plenty of questions about the Leafs when the season paused March 12 because of the pandemic: Great some nights, terrible others. A parade of players to the injury list. Hot and cold scoring. Hot and cold defence.
They were in the late stages of the regular season and preparing to answer those questions in the playoffs. Now, they’re less than a week away from facing Columbus in a best-of-five qualifying round — part of the playoffs, statistically, as far as the NHL record book is concerned.
And they have tonight’s exhibition game to get prepared.
“I’m certainly expecting it to be not your typical exhibition game, given what’s at stake and what’s around the corner, and being the only dress rehearsal to prepare for the real thing,” said coach Sheldon Keefe. “Certainly with our team, we’re expecting them to have a much higher level of intensity and competitiveness.
“The ultimate goal is to come out of it healthy (with) everybody ready to play.”
Never will a single NHL exhibition game have meant so much.
“The intensity will be great,” said Matthews. “You only have one game to pretty much get ready for a playoff series, so I assume teams are going to be going pretty hard because you’re just jumping right into it.”
Sure, there will be a few notable differences: no fans, and significantly more advertising and television cameras.
The Leafs will also use the visitors dressing room and bench for the first time since moving into the building in 1999.
“We haven’t been in there yet (since the shutdown), but we’ve seen pictures, so it’s definitely going to be different — lots of screens,” said Matthews.
“With no fans, I think they’re going to try some different stuff that we maybe haven’t seen before, trying to make it as fun as possible some.”
But those are sidebars — possibly distractions — to the bigger hockey conversations surrounding this team.
“I think we have a lot to prove,” general manager Kyle Dubas said Monday.
“I don’t think that anyone questions the talent of the group. I firmly believe that we need to continue to take steps with our defensive play,” he said. “The players know the doubts that are on them, whether it’s from media or from other teams, so they know what they have to prove. And I’m acknowledging it and talking about it. It’s a good sign, because they’re not negative about it.
“They’re not upset that people say that about them. They know what they have to prove, and that’s what we’ll get to here in the coming weeks and years,” Dubas added.
In some ways, the Leafs will only go as far as their leadership will take them, Matthews and Marner chief among the core that includes captain John Tavares, winger William Nylander, defenceman Morgan Rielly and goalie Frederik Andersen.
“They’re still very young players in the league,” Dubas said of Matthews and Marner. “They’re both going into the end of their fourth season, and they’re just entering their prime. They’re very different in terms of how they are as people — as I think everybody knows who observes them — but they’re equally important to us reaching our potential.
“(It’s) the way that they drive this and learn from our veteran players, but continue to take on more and more of a leadership role, especially as they go from being the young guys to now having to mentor younger players that are coming in,” Dubas said.