Maple Leafs focusing on positives after salvaging a point against Bruins
Even thought the Maple Leafs came away with the loss in Boston, they were all-in on the positives after overcoming a sluggish start and their troublesome special teams to salvage a point.
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BOSTON — Hey, they’ll take it.
The way the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ week had been going — back-to-back regulation losses, getting outscored 11-3 by a couple of non-playoff teams and watching a home fan toss a jersey on the ice in small-sample-size disgust — an overtime loss to the bitterest of rivals in a hostile barn feels almost like a win.
Does that mean the bar has been lowered? Or that the group’s confidence needs to be built back up?
“Good hard-fought point,” coach Craig Berube praised, following a 4-3 decision to the equally unconvincing Boston Bruins in extra time.
“We didn’t break. Weathered the storm.”
For large swaths of the night, and the entire first period, the home side appeared more determined and relentless, and the speedier Bruins outshot their visitors 34-23.
“It’s not always going to be a perfect start,” Morgan Rielly said, “but I thought we did a good job of hanging on and leaving the period with a tie.”
Were it not for another Grade-A start by Anthony Stolarz in net, his sixth, things could’ve got out of hand early.
“You look down each other and you see (Jeremy) Swayman, you know you’re gonna have to put together a sharp game,” Stolarz said.
“Getting a point out of this and coming back late, it’s a step in the right direction for our group.”
A baby step maybe, but tangible progress nonetheless.
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Led by a three-assist performance by Mitch Marner, the Maple Leafs held their own in the back-and-forth action of the second and third periods — and stole a point with a classic Marner-to-Auston Matthews connection with Stolarz pulled and 77 ticks left in regulation.
Toronto held leads of 1-0 and 2-1, sapping some energy from a raucous Halloween weekend crowd at TD Garden, but a two-goal burst from Boston bottom-sixers Justin Brazeau (a former Leafs prospect) and Mark Kastelic midway through the second swayed momentum.
“Offensively we can do more,” said Berube, who has watched his high-end skaters be kept to three goals or fewer in four of their past five outings.
The coach is seeing shifts of sustained O-zone pressure, but he wants quicker releases and his point men to find ways to get their long shots through lanes to the traffic in front of the goaltender.
“It’s a new system,” Steven Lorentz said. “So, it takes time for guys to adjust a little bit. We’re kind of going through that right now. But we know what we have to do. We just have to do things harder, a little bit faster. And if we do that, we’ll be OK.”
Yes, even as the Maple Leafs dropped their eighth consecutive regular-season game to the Bruins (four in OT), they were all-in on the positives that should be gleaned.
Heck, Berube even refused to express frustration with a disastrous power play that went 0-for-3, failed to generate momentum on a 5-on-3 opportunity, and fell to a miserable 10 per cent success rate on the season (3-for-30).
“It’ll come. I’m confident in this team. And they’re going to get it going, the power play,” Berube said, calmly.
Behind the scenes, the Maple Leafs have been sweating the issue, devoting an inordinate amount of time in practice and morning skates on 5-on-4 situations and scouring the video and analytics of a once-great strength that has flipped into a costly weakness.
On Saturday, Berube changed his first-unit QB from Oliver Ekman-Larsson back to Morgan Rielly, who started Game 1 in that spot. How come?
“Just to see if something could happen, you know?” Berube said.
Yep, we’re throwing darts, assuming eventually the power-play and the offence will click into place before too much standings ground gets lost.
“It’s not going to click perfectly right away,” Matthews said. “I think you just want to take positive steps in the right direction. And I thought tonight was competitively much better game than we had the previous two.”
The captain isn’t wrong.
The Maple Leafs did battle hard. They overcame a sluggish start and their troublesome special teams to salvage a point.
But who would have guessed they’d be flying next to Winnipeg as the clear underdog in Monday’s all-Canadian showdown?
Fox’s Fast Five
• Not only did Brad Marchand score his first goal of the season and the OT winner, but according to Elliotte Friedman, the Boston captain is closing in on a three-year extension that would take him through to age 40 and essentially make him a lifelong Bruin.
Marchand said postgame that the report was “false.” We’ll see.
• Matt Poitras has essentially played centre his entire life, but with the Bruins averaging fewer than three goals per game, Jim Montgomery shifted the 20-year-old to right wing on the top line alongside Charlie Coyle and Brad Marchand.
“Everybody that knows him, that’s been associated with him since he was seven years old in hockey is going to be watching him play tonight against the Maple Leafs,” the coach said. “That’s a great opportunity for him.”
Poitras assisted on former Leafs prospect Justin Brazeau’s tying goal.
“All my buddies are Leafs fans,” said the Ajax, Ont., native. “They watch every game. Knowing friends and family are watching, you want to be your best.”
• Ryan Reaves missed Freddie Freeman’s historic extra-innings walk-off grand slam Friday night because he forgot the World Series was on.
“To be honest, I’m not a huge baseball guy,” Reaves says. A pause. A smile. “There’s no contact in baseball, so it’s not really for me.”
• Maple Leafs are dressing league leaders in three individual categories: Matthews leads in shots (42), Marner is tops in takeaways (12), and Chris Tanev is the NHL’s shot block king (34), throwing down another six Saturday.
• Berube has been taking a page from the ol’ Sheldon Keefe playbook this week and loading up a Nylander – Matthews – Marner line for key offensive-zone draws when Toronto needs a goal.
