The Toronto Maple Leafs got off to a good start in their preseason on Sunday, beating a veteran-heavy Ottawa Senators lineup 4–3. Heading into preseason game #2, the Leafs iced a veteran-heavy lineup of their own against Ottawa’s rookie lineup.
Last night, we got our first look at the possible first line of Matthew Knies–Auston Matthews–Matias Maccelli. Joseph Woll was absent, having taken a leave of absence for a family-related matter. Dennis Hildeby started in last night’s game, with Artur Akhtyamov playing the third period.
Unfortunately, the Leafs blew a 2–0 lead and lost the game in overtime 3–2. Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from last night’s
A new shiny first line
Last night, we saw a first line without Mitch Marner. With the injury to Max Domi, Matias Maccelli got the first crack with Matthews and Knies. Defensively, the Matthews line was hemmed in a lot, especially in the first period. We could see the players still trying to work together as a cohesive unit.
Offensively, it was a different story. Matthews looked like himself, or at the very least, better than last year, by how he shot the puck. He received a pass from Oliver Ekman-Larsson in a give-and-go to make the game 1–0:
Maccelli picked up an assist on both Leafs’ goals on the night. We could see his creative instincts on the night, with a spin-o-rama pass to Matthews for a wonderful scoring opportunity. It was one preseason game, so it’s hard to draw any conclusions. But what we saw was encouraging, despite the loss.
Players looking to prove themselves
Even though it was a near NHL roster iced for the Leafs, there were still a couple of players looking to prove themselves. Easton Cowan started on the fourth line, but did play on the power play and on other lines as the night progressed.
Cowan generated several scoring chances in the offensive zone. On the power play, Cowan looked dominant. This is to be expected, as he has scored a lot of points on the power play for the London Knights over the three years he played. He set up Bobby McMann for the backhand goal and did a good job not overly telegraphing the pass:
The other two players looking to prove themselves were the two netminders. Both Dennis Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov are competing for the third goaltender position on the Leafs, as well as for starter minutes on the Toronto Marlies. Hildeby was sharp throughout the two periods that he played, and was sharp early on when the Senators ran the shot clock up in the first four minutes of the game.
Although the Senators did get three past Akhtyamov, he was hardly to blame. Akhtyamov made several acrobatic saves in the third period and gave the Leafs an opportunity to win the game. Unfortunately, the Senators got revenge for the loss on Sunday.
Activate the defence
What stood out was that, unlike prior years, the defence was active on many rushes. Even Ben Danford had a few opportunities. Craig Berube seems to be allowing the Leafs to play less of a dump-and-chase game and allowing the players to make plays off the rush.
The Leafs’ defence accounted for more than 20% of their shots on the night, with Morgan Rielly having four. Rielly is a good candidate for a bounce-back season, and it seems that he has been given the green light to focus more on offence.
The Leafs will need to figure out how to generate more offence with the departure of Marner. While I don’t expect the team to replace all 102 of Marner’s points, the Leafs need a defence that can score. We have seen in tough games, especially in the playoffs, that offence from the defence is paramount to success.
Onto the next
The Leafs don’t play the Senators until December 27th, so the Battle of Ontario will have to wait a few months. The Leafs play their third preseason game on Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens.
While the Leafs blew the 2–0 lead and lost in overtime, it’s hard to draw any conclusions from one game, let alone a preseason game. While losing to a rival stings, there were aspects of last night’s performance that were encouraging.
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