TORONTO | The Maple Leafs now have enough depth in the middle with Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari to put John Tavares on the left wing. In the Canadian camp, Alex Belzile found himself in the center of one of the front three rows in the absence of the still-ill Kirby Dach.
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If you just compare talent to middle position, it was a heavyweight vs. bantamweight battle. The heaviest on the scales won.
The Maple Leafs welcomed the debut of the two former St. Louis Blues with an easy 5-1 win over the CH at the Scotiabank Arena on Saturday. The Leafs lost in their first two games on the ice at the Bell Center and earned their first win over their old rivals this season.
“I think we have ten NHL players on our injury list right now,” Martin St-Louis said after the game. We really focus on how we want to play and I analyze that.
For once, St-Louis showed a sign of impatience, glancing toward the infirmary to explain his people’s backlash. He was answering a question about whether the past two games against the Hurricanes and the Leafs, two of the NHL’s best teams, could serve as a barometer for him.
The Habs head coach was not exaggerating when he spoke of ten injuries. For the Toronto visit he had to do without a roof, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkosvksy, Brendan Gallagher, Sean Monahan, Jake Evans, Joel Edmundson, Arber Xhekaj and Kaiden Guhle. And if we add Paul Byron, who has been on the injured list since day one of the calendar, that brings us to ten players.
Everything collapses
The CH lasted more than 20 minutes against the Leafs. Josh Anderson even scored the first goal of the game by deflecting a shot from Mike Matheson.
But the home side found a way to bounce back and turn things around by scoring five goals in a row.
“The Leafs are a good team and you can’t give them too many chances,” noted winger Jonathan Drouin. We also knew that with the big Friday night exchange there would be a lot of energy in the building. We were there for a while but in the end we missed too many chances.
For the Leafs, Michael Bunting led the offense with two goals. Auston Matthews was also working on his magic but showed his passing skills with two assists. William Nylander, on the other hand, continued his momentum and scored his 31st goal of the season.
In his first game with his hometown side, O’Reilly received an assist late in the second half for Bunting’s second goal.
“I was really looking forward to this game, I just had a pretty crazy 24 hours,” O’Reilly told his Toronto colleagues. I still can’t understand what is happening to me. I now find myself in a very good team. When I made my debut here, I had family in the stands. It’s something special for me.”
O’Reilly had a good night in the face-off circle, going 12-for-14 for 86%. Kyle Dubas has added an experienced player but also a masterful faceoff to his team. That could pay off in the playoffs. When the Leafs can finally fend off their first-round demons.
The absences of Ilya Samsonov (ill) and Matt Murray (injured) gave goaltender Justin Woll a first win in his second start of the season with the Maple Leafs.
what we notice
Dangerous against the leaves
Originally from Burlington, a town that’s 45 minutes from Toronto when there’s no traffic, Josh Anderson has the Maple Leafs number. For the third time this season, Anderson scored against his youth team. He diverted a shot from Mike Matheson in the second period to hit Joseph Woll. In 17 games for the Canadiens, the tall winger scored nine goals against Toronto.
A first game for Schueneman
Corey Schueneman, who was recalled from the Laval Rocket in the morning, attended a first meeting with the CH this season. The 27-year-old defender has formed a duo with David Savard. For a player who spent an entire season in the American League, Schueneman did pretty well against one of the NHL’s best offenses. Chris Wideman watched the game from the press catwalk. Wideman finished Thursday in Raleigh with a record -4 against the Hurricanes.
Seven shots for Drouin
Jonathan Drouin hasn’t scored his first goal of the season yet, but he did have seven shots at Woll. “If I keep getting seven-shot games, I’ll end up scoring,” said Drouin. We lost 5 to 1, but I still liked the work of our trio. The number 27 played again on the left wing with Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia.
Five shots, five controls
Noel Acciari, the other newcomer, performed well in his Leafs debut. He finished the game with five shots against Jake Allen but also had five goals.
Thumb
Most: Mike Matheson
Matheson finished the game with an assist, +1 and six hits. With a playing time of 23:55 he was also the most used player.
Least: Johnathan Kovacevic
Kovacevic made a big turnover on Pierre Engvall’s goal, the Leafs’ second in the game. He also lost a fight behind his net to Auston Matthews in the second half. The American then served a perfect relay to Nylander, who hit the target.
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