TORONTO – When Bruce Boudreau rolled into Toronto on a game day one week ago today, he was unaware that his opponent’s most dangerous weapon, Auston Matthews, would be sidelined for the first time in his young, dissected NHL career.
To a sage rink rat like the Minnesota head coach, however, it made no difference — and would, ultimately, provide no relief against a Maple Leafs squad victorious in regulation.
“They’ve got a lot of great players, not just Auston Matthews” Boudreau said. “If he’s out of the lineup, I guarantee one of the guys who doesn’t get all the attention when he’s in the lineup will get the attention.”
The hockey lifer has seen this scenario play out before. Injury begets opportunity. One man’s irritation is another man’s ice time.
[snippet id=3638225]
“It’s always frustrating to miss games. Just watching them sucks,” Matthews said Wednesday, following his first full team practice in 10 days. He’s still the Maple Leafs’ top goal- and point-getter after cautiously nursing an upper-body ailment that turned him into a couch potato while his pals went a perfect 3-0 in his absence. “You want to be out there.”
Want? Sure. But sometimes, you get what you need.
The Leafs had outscored starter Frederik Andersen’s bouts with inconsistency through the bulk of October, but it was Andersen who stole that Wild game for his club with a 35-save performance the excellent Devan Dubnyk just couldn’t match.
On Friday, it was much-critiqued winger Mitch Marner setting up both the game-tying and overtime-winning goals. It was James van Riemsdyk registering the first multi-goal outing of his critical contract year. And it was the unflappable Patrick Marleau moving to middle ice and potting career game-winner 101, a wink at the Hall of Famers in attendance that he’ll one day join their private club.
Less than 24 hours later, in Boston, journeyman backup Curtis McElhinney — doubtlessly feeling pressure from the franchise’s AHL goaltending strength — put on a 38-save show. Marner and JVR had multi-point nights again, and Morgan Rielly (goal, assist) underscored his status at Toronto’s top defenceman this autumn.
Indeed, the spotlight did not hang unclaimed.
“Those are good team victories,” said Dominic Moore, who believes Friday’s OT win helped demoralize the Bruins heading into Saturday. “Internally, we focus on who’s in. We play our game? We have a chance to win every night.”
Coming off a California tour that nicked their confidence, the Leafs benefitted by catching their next set of opponents at a low ebb.
Vegas was down to its fourth and fifth goalies. Minnesota was missing Zach Parise and Charlie Coyle and had just been blasted publicly by Boudreau for an embarrassing effort. Boston, a roster caught in transition at full health, has juggled a trunkload of injuries, and Tuukka Rask is posting the worst stats of his career.
A little lucky, a little ugly, probably, but the Leafs got the job done. Thrice.
“I like a lot of the things that happened when Matty hasn’t been playing. We had to dig in a little bit, and you have to play a different way,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said.
“We gave up shots when he was away, but our scoring chances against were way down, especially our high-quality [scoring chances against], which is important for us. It gives your goalies a better chance to be good.”
Like Boudreau, the smattering of veterans added to the inexperienced Leafs in the off-season — Moore, Marleau, and Ron Hainsey — know what winning without a star can do to a team’s collective psyche.
Hainsey, a former Penguin, lifted a Stanley Cup in June without a single playoff shift from Kris Letang. Moore thinks back to 2014-15, when the Rangers lost their best player for a quarter of the season and still rallied to within one game of the Stanley Cup Final.
“In New York we had Henrik Lundqvist out for 20-something games in the middle of the season. [Cam] Talbot came in and played great, and we went to the conference finals,” Moore said.
“You pull together. It’s important. You need a complete team and to play as team in this league to have success, no matter who’s in or who’s out.”
[relatedlinks]
Bummed that he’s been unable to contribute himself in a week, Matthews was nevertheless impressed watching in plainclothes. (Nice touch that his parents could still be seen in the ACC stands without their son in the game.)
“It was great,” Matthews said. “All three of those games, especially Boston back-to-back, were pretty physical games. We tightened up on defence, which is what we wanted to do.”
The trick, Babcock said, will be to not slack in their own end once they get their game-breaker back in the fold, which could be as soon as Thursday versus a dialed-in New Jersey squad that expects its own IR jolt with the return of centre Travis Zajac.
That Toronto is winning sans Matthews, however, eases the anxiety for a hasty return. Just as the better Charlie Lindgren plays in Montreal, the fewer questions there’ll be about Carey Price’s health. If Calgary can excel in spite of Mike Smith’s ailment, how much swagger will that give the Flames?
“We constantly talk about depth. We understand we’ve got a lot of guys who can pick up the slack. He’s irreplaceable, but that’s gonna happen when you lose an important piece. It’s a matter of the team sticking together and other guys stepping up,” said Nazem Kadri.
“I try to hold myself accountable for that and try to be more noticeable.”
You never wish harm on a player, but perhaps it’s best for the group and the player that Matthews has gone down in November, that the younger guys on the team understand early that they don’t need their best player on the ice to be victorious.
“We’ve played well here. We’ve won four in a row. We have a chance to play Jersey, who slapped us around last time,” Babcock said. “They play fast. They’re playing well.
“It’s all hands on deck.”
