TORONTO – It says something about the Twitter age and a passionate fan base that the unexpected news of Frankie Corrado’s pending return to the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup may have overshadowed a 6-3 win over Philadelphia on Friday.
But here we are.
Corrado apparently will be freed from press box purgatory on Saturday in Pittsburgh. Anything is possible.
That seemed like a fitting mantra at the end of a night where four players scored their first goal of the season, Morgan Rielly saw time on the power play and the Leafs rallied for their first victory when trailing after 40 minutes.
“We didn’t think we played that poorly and we found ourselves behind,” said coach Mike Babcock.
There was a hint of resilience at play here, especially when you consider the 7-0 beating Los Angeles laid down earlier in the week. The Leafs essentially found themselves in a 50-50 game against a Flyers team with similar inclinations – i.e. stretches of casual play and shaky goaltending – and found a way to deliver two points.
That no doubt made the atmosphere on a short flight to Pennsylvania a little better with the second half of a back-to-back looming.
Babcock indicated that Corrado would likely draw in for his season debut after being a healthy scratch for 14 games. Segments of the fanbase have clamoured to see the 23-year-old defenceman – starting a #FreeFrankie movement – and they’ll seemingly get their wish against Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Co.
He was expected to be joined in the lineup by fellow scratches Matt Hunwick and Peter Holland.
“Almost 100 per cent I think that’s what we’re going to do, just for fresher bodies,” said Babcock.
The biggest surprise in a game full of them against the Flyers was seeing Rielly get a shot with the man advantage. The coach threw him out during a first-period 5-on-3 and saw him outwait Flyers defenceman Nick Schultz while cutting across the high slot and beating Steve Mason with a laser beam.
Rielly has been deployed primarily on a matchup/shutdown pairing this season and was surprised to get sent out at that point in the game.
“A little bit, yeah,” he said. “It hasn’t been happening much and I’ve been OK with that.”
It earned him more time on the Leafs next power play and Rielly wound up chasing Wayne Simmonds down the ice early in the second period when he scored to make it 3-2 for Philadelphia. Compounding matters, it affected his availability when the game returned to even strength.
“The problem with doing that is right behind they come with (Claude) Giroux and he’s exhausted and you can’t put him out there,” Babcock explained. “So it’s great if you score, and not as great if you don’t.”
In other words – this likely won’t become a new trend.
Another difficult one to duplicate will be the source of their spirited comeback, with Martin Marincin, Zach Hyman and Leo Komarov each scoring their first goal of the season during an eight-minute span.
A huge collective weight was lifted from those men in the process. Komarov is coming off a 19-goal season and skating on an effective line with Nazem Kadri, and had started to wonder if he used up all of his scoring luck a year ago.
“You always feel pressure,” said Komarov. “You always want to be a goal-scorer and you always want to score goals. Last year when it went my way, and it kind of bounced my way, it felt easy.
“But this year it’s a little bit difficult.”
This can be a hard league.
But so far it hasn’t been enough to keep an exuberant young group down. Mitch Marner gleefully skipped across the ice to celebrate Rielly’s goal – and took some heat from teammates on Twitter afterwards – while Hyman was pumping his fists madly after diving to knock a loose puck home in a goal-mouth scramble.
“I’ve had so many chances,” said Hyman. “It’s always fun scoring goals and it’s been awhile. The first one’s always the hardest for me. It felt good to get that one out of the way.”
You need to start somewhere.
