The young Toronto Maple Leafs entered their first round series against the Washington Capitals as heavy underdogs. Washington, after all, are the Presidents’ Trophy winners and a team stacked from top to bottom, the result of building up for a Stanley Cup run over the past decade.
This may be the best Caps team to ever hit the ice, while the Maple Leafs are just getting started with a core of rookies including Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. It was a group that accumulated the third-most points in league history for a collection of freshmen.
If they’re going to get the upset, the Leafs will need lots of production from these guys.
As Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello said on Prime Time Sports Wednesday evening of their first round matchup:
“They’ve got a lot of experience. I think if you look at them and they’ve been built, if you want to say, for the playoffs, and they have been doing that for the last several years. The goals scored there’s not much of a difference as you can see — where the difference is the goals that have been given up. It’s going to be our job and our responsibility to make these tight games and allow the end result to take care of itself.”
The Leafs did a good job of keeping it close in Game 1, a 3-2 OT loss, although they squandered a two-goal first period lead. It didn’t take long for one of the rookies to get on the board, as Marner scored a minute-and-a-half into the first period.
Marner is no stranger to playoff production, as he scored 16 goals and an astounding 44 points in just 18 playoff games with the OHL’s London Knights last season. And in four games in the Memorial Cup tournament, Marner led all players with two goals and 14 points as part of a deadly line with Matthew Tkachuk and Christian Dvorak as the Knights won the CHL Championship.
Nylander recorded the most shots on goal among Toronto’s rookies in regulation, getting four on net, but he was kept off the score sheet. He was at the centre of one goal, though, as he lost his man around the hashmarks, allowing Justin Williams to swoop in and poke a puck past Frederik Andersen as it sat at his feet.
Each rookie got at least one shot (in fact, every Leaf got at least one except Morgan Rielly).
And what about Auston Matthews? Despite getting the most time on ice among all the rookies, he managed just one shot and won just 30 per cent of his faceoffs.
Of course one of Toronto’s rookies, Nikita Zaitsev, missed Game 1 with an injury.
Here’s a look at how all the rookies did in Game 1:
PLAYER | G | A | SOG | PIM | TOI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Auston Matthews | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18:09 |
Zach Hyman | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 17:06 |
Connor Brown | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14:47 |
Mitch Marner | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 17:51 |
Kasperi Kapanen | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11:00 |
William Nylander | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 16:59 |