Hello, Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland. We’re back. Hockey in July. Who’d a thunk it?
It’s still quite surreal after four and a half months off that 24 teams are in the two Canadian hub cities of Toronto and Edmonton, preparing for a two-plus-month run to the Stanley Cup. It’s even weirder watching games without fans in the stands. We’ve gone from zero to 100 instantly after Tuesday night’s exhibition games gave us our first taste of summer NHL hockey.
Throughout the evening, there were plenty of reminders about how strange this all is.
“It’s definitely quiet out there,” said Pittsburgh’s Conor Sheary. Remember, the artificial crowd noise you hear on the broadcast is not played for the players in the arena. “I think it almost feels like an outdoor game with how far back they push the stands, but I think it’s a lot easier to communicate out there between the guys on your lines.”
The host teams won’t always be the “home” teams, as both Toronto and Edmonton played visitor to rivals Montreal and Calgary in their own building. The Flames chose not to use the Oilers’ dressing room, but the Canadiens gave us one of the weirder clips of the day.
When Carey Price led his team from that room to the ice to start the game, he at first took a wrong turn.
We’re through the looking glass now.
But as Major League Baseball deals with new challenges of positive COVID-19 tests and faces an uncertain future of its own shortened season, Tuesday was a day of celebration for hockey-hungry fans. We’re only a few days away from these games taking on full meaning as we barrel ahead towards the playoffs.
Here is some of what we saw from the first game action in 140 days.
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GUENTZEL LOOKS GREAT
One positive in having playoff games four and a half months after the last regular season game (amid a sea of negatives that brought us to it) is that a lot of players who would have been injured are now good to go. Pittsburgh, in fact, got their leading scorer back.
As of Jan. 1, 2020, Jake Guentzel led the Penguins with 43 points in 39 games, but shoulder surgery after slamming awkwardly into the boards during game action forced him out of the lineup, with a four-to-six month timeline to return. Seven months later, Guentzel was back, and even though it was just an exhibition game, he looked fantastic. He recorded a primary assist on the first goal of the game (scored by Conor Sheary, who reminded us all he was traded back to Pittsburgh at the deadline) and was buzzing all game.
These are tune-ups remember, and as important as it is for those who last played in March to shake off some rust, Guentzel could use it a little more. He had 18:45 of ice time, second among Penguins forwards to only his linemate Sidney Crosby, who logged 19:03 after he was a game-time decision following a few missed practices in the past week.
The Penguins may have lost the game 3-2 in OT, but the result isn’t what was important here. They were a dangerous team already, but having Guentzel back at peak form adds another weapon the Montreal Canadiens will find hard to deal with.
WHO IS PITTSBURGH’S STARTING GOALIE?
Tristan Jarry was the better netminder by the numbers this season, but Matt Murray has backstopped the team to two Stanley Cups. Which one of them starts Game 1 against Montreal has been a storyline in Pittsburgh, and they split the lone exhibition game — Murray got the start and Jarry replaced him halfway through the second period.
Look at the stat line and see Murray allowed the only two regulation goals, but they were hardly his fault. The first came via an unfortunate deflection off the defender right in front of him, the other from a 1-on-1 slot showdown with Kevin Hayes who had intercepted a careless Evgeni Malkin pass.
When Jarry came into the crease he was immediately on the penalty kill and looked sharp right away. That penalty, by the way, was hilariously “pre-season sloppy” — a too-many-men call where 10 Penguins were caught on the ice at the same time.
There was no notable disappointing performance from either — Murray made 10 saves on 12 shots, Jarry nine saves on 10 shots — though Jarry perhaps made the best save of the night on an overtime breakaway opportunity.
Overall, this exhibition game itself didn’t give us much more clarity on who the Game 1 starter will be, but signs seem to be pointing in Murray’s direction. Speaking to The Athletic’s Josh Yohe last week, GM Jim Rutherford had this to say of who the starter should be:
“The coach will make that decision, but yes, I do (feel Murray will start). I know everyone wants to talk about him, and everyone wants to talk about the goaltending situation. It’s obviously important. It’s like a quarterback in football or a starting pitcher in baseball.
“I was watching him in (last Wednesday’s) practice closely. He was the goaltender of 2016 and 2017 during that practice. He really was. I saw the fundamentals, the ones that he shows when he’s really on. That was very encouraging. And plus, he has a little bit more time. I think he’s going to be just fine. Really good, in fact.”
We await the coach’s official word, but he may have tipped his hand by starting Murray and having Jarry on in relief this game. Murray didn’t do anything to play his way out of that spot — a rough outing may have opened the door for controversy, but Murray appears to have the inside track on the job right now.
ROBERTSON MAKES HIS CASE, MIKHEYEV AN UNDERRATED X-FACTOR
Leafs Nation is obsessed with the newest young offensive whiz in the stable as 18-year-old winger Nick Robertson attempts to fit into the Game 1 lineup. In Tuesday’s exhibition, he notably was given the nod on the third line with Kasperi Kapanen and Alex Kerfoot as Frederik Gauthier and Pierre Engvall rotated and played only a handful of minutes.
Robertson had one secondary assist and one glorious scoring opportunity in the game, logging 10:11 in total ice time. That number would have been higher if not for three third-period Maple Leafs penalties that kept the non-penalty killer on the bench. Robertson led all Leafs at 5-on-5 with a 75.0 Corsi-for percentage, 86.16 expected goals percentage, and when he was on the ice his line outshot the competition 4-1. The third line as a whole looked solid.
Sheldon Keefe wouldn’t commit to his roster decisions for Game 1 after the tune-up against the Habs, though Robertson didn’t appear to play his way out of anything.
Whatever Keefe does for the opener against Columbus, his lineups are likely to change as the need arises anyway. The decision to play or not play Robertson may come to this simple choice for that third-line spot in the lineup: do you want high upside and low floor, or something a little more conservative and safe?
Meanwhile, Toronto’s second line got to play its first game together since Dec. 27 and John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Ilya Mikheyev got off to a strong start, posting the first goal of the game.
It was especially promising for Leafs fans to see Mikheyev continue showing the flash he did in Phase 3 training camps, where he was named MVP of the scrimmage series. This was his first game action against another NHL team in 2020, returning from a wrist injury in December. At that point in the season, ‘Souperman’ was a tremendous surprise, scoring 23 points in 39 games and finding a home next to Tavares.
On that line, Mikheyev is very obviously the third-best option. Marner is one of the premier scoring wingers in the game. Tavares, who saw a dip in production this season to a still-strong 60 points in 63 games, is by all indications fully healthy now after dealing with a few injuries in 2019-20. Those two are expected to produce big numbers. But Mikheyev flies under the radar and because of that he could be a sneaky pick to have a big series against Columbus.
Any kind of momentum is important right now, and Mikheyev will be heading into Game 1 with plenty of it.
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MONTREAL’S POWER PLAY IN BIG TROUBLE
The Canadiens are underdogs in their qualifying round series against Pittsburgh for many reasons, but special teams may be the biggest concern. Their 17.7 power play percentage is the third-worst mark of any returning Eastern Conference team on the season, but the situation is worse than that — from Jan. 1 to the pause, the Canadiens’ power play clicked at a league-worst 10-per-cent rate.
Tuesday’s game against Toronto brought little promise that would improve. Montreal went 0-for-6 with the extra man in their 4-2 loss and allowed a couple of shorthanded markers against, both of which gave the Leafs two-goal leads.
It’s not as though Pittsburgh’s power play was elite this season, finishing in the middle of the pack and going 0-for-3 in their exhibition against Philadelphia, but they shouldn’t have any problem creating chances. Montreal will struggle with the matchups and may be hard-pressed to find room at 5-on-5. So if their power play can’t generate and even becomes this much of a liability, the whole series will basically be on Carey Price’s shoulders.
NOTHING CAN DIMINISH THE BATTLE OF ALBERTA
While there predictably wasn’t a whole lot of playoff-like physical play in the first two exhibition games, the Battle of Alberta stepped it up a bit.
We should have known. After everything these two teams have flung at each other this season, not even a rehearsal game could keep the animosity away. Give Matthew Tkachuk or Zack Kassian an opportunity, and they won’t shy away from making a statement. Tkachuk was a net-front nightmare to Edmonton’s goalies, and when Erik Gustafsson wasn’t aware who was on the ice with him, Kassian lowered the boom with this perfectly legal check.
James Neal, who cooled this season after a scorching hot first few weeks of the season, is always better when he plays with an edge and we saw some of that on Tuesday. An angry Neal is a motivated Neal and that’s a great sign for the Oilers.
Edmonton tapped a bunch of offence from Kailer Yamamoto later in the season when he joined Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Connor McDavid will produce with whoever he’s playing with. If Neal is angry enough to find some of the lightning he bottled early on, he’ll help add another scoring dimension.
The key will be to not overstep, though, and take bad penalties when the games matter.
We’ll admit the 60-minute intensity wasn’t as high as it would have been for a meaningful game, but this was the cherry on top of an exciting day. Edmonton-Calgary wasn’t your usual pre-season game. And we’re thankful for that.
WHO HIJACKED DAVID PASTRNAK’S TWITTER ACCOUNT?
The shenanigans appear to have begun at Hotel X in Toronto, where the Boston Bruins are staying. Who is the best goal scorer in the NHL? David Pastrnak had an odd tweet posted in the evening that caught a lot of eyeballs.
Naturally, Wilson and the Capitals jumped all over this one.
We’re assuming Pastrnak, a 48-goal scorer this season who tied Alex Ovechkin for the Rocket Richard Trophy, didn’t type this out himself. So who grabbed his phone? The odds-on favourite is Brad Marchand.
