At his most outgoing, Nikita Zaitsev is impassive, a granitic Russian stone-face. A search of the team’s video archive failed to produce a single smile.
In the run-up to a pivotal game against the Lightning in Tampa Thursday night, however, Zaitsev seemed rocked, shaken. You’d have thought his team had just been eliminated from the playoffs when, in fact, they were just a point behind the Bolts and Islanders in the race for the last playoffs spot in the Eastern Conference.
When asked if it helps to have a short memory after being routed 7-2 by Florida in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday night, Zaitsev didn’t raise his head while he stood beside his dressing-room stall.
“I don’t have a short memory,” he said. “Maybe that’s my problem.”
What was lingering in Zaitsev’s mind was a nightmare outing against the Panthers. It wasn’t just that he went minus-four. It was the way it played out. When Jonathan Huberdeau set up Alexander Barkov for the opening goal 18 seconds in, Zaitsev wasn’t even in the frame. That was tough to swallow but would have been easier to move by than a misplay later in the first period. Zaitsev was on the point on the powerplay and the Panthers were trying to clear the puck out of their own end. He could have pinched or he could have played it safe and retreated, but he did neither.
He took a slapstick pratfall that led to Colton Sceviour’s shorthanded breakaway goal.
It was all downhill from there.
Zaitsev’s numbers were bad but he had company—Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov were also minus-four and Nazem Kadri wasn’t playing himself into Selke Trophy conversation going minus-five. Still, it was a night that veterans move past more easily than a rookie.
Coach Mike Babcock shuffled his blueline as the game got away from his team—Zaitsev had been playing beside Morgan Rielly on the No. 1 pairing for most of the season, but as the night darkened he was thrown out with Jake Gardiner. Whether that shuffle stands against the Bolts and through the stretch run remains to be seen.
There’s no need to pile on Zaitsev.
If you have a short memory, then you’ve forgotten where this season started, with Zaitsev being an utterly unknown commodity, an undrafted free agent signed out of the KHL at age 24. Yeah, he lined up for the Russians in the World Cup but, then again, they were pretty thin for star candidates to carry the flag on the back end.
If you have a short memory, then you’ve forgotten how Zaitsev landed on Rielly’s side and was matched against opponents’ top lines, faring better than you could reasonably expect of a player who was seeing the league for the first time. That Zaitsev had hung in there so long before things went sideways for a night is one of the lesser miracles in a Toronto Maple Leafs season that doesn’t lack bigger ones.
A lot of players have been given the opportunities of their young lifetimes—I’m pretty sure that at some point Zach Hyman will tell his kids about the days he played beside Auston Matthews. You wouldn’t say that of Zaitsev though. He was put in a position to fail and didn’t for a long time, at least not spectacularly so until the thumping by the Panthers.
If the Maple Leafs make the playoffs, short memories will give way to a collective amnesia among fans. This should be remembered whether they land in the post-season or fall short: The team got an awfully long way with an awfully thin blue line corps. It’s safe to say that Toronto would rank in the bottom five in the league when it comes to game and skill and experience through three pairings.
How many NHL teams would either Roman Polak or Martin Marincin take a regular shift for, even those who are riddled with injuries? Maybe a few would have one of them as the last possible option. How many teams would have both in the lineup? The Leafs and your best guess at another.
Nikita Zaitsev’s problem isn’t his memory. In fact, it would take a strong sense of recall to remember much better nights. He has been asked to do way too much way too soon. There isn’t much doubt that he can play in the NHL and will have, barring injury, a good long career. But Zaitsev’s ceiling is probably in the range of second pairing on a winning team, which means he’s been breaking into the league trying to play way over his head.
That’s Zaitsev’s problem and it’s a symptom of the Leafs’ biggest problem.
