The Toronto Maple Leafs played their fifth and final home preseason game against the Detroit Red Wings last night, and we got a preview of a possible Leafs’ opening night lineup. Max Domi got a crack on the top line with Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies, while Matias Maccelli played on the third line with fellow newcomers Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy.
With all the trade rumours surrounding Nick Robertson, it appears that Craig Berube intends for Easton Cowan to start on the fourth line with Steven Lorentz and Scott Laughton. This line looked good against the Montreal Canadiens earlier in the preseason, so it makes sense to give them another look.
While the Leafs did not play their best game, there were some positives. Let’s take a look at the main takeaways from last night’s 3–1 loss against the Red Wings.
Stolly the goalie is ready
The best player in last night’s game for the Leafs was Anthony Stolarz. He had an outstanding game, stopping 40 of 43 shots. What stood out was Stolarz’s ability to track pucks and not overreact to plays. When the Leafs spent nearly half of the second period on the penalty kill, Stolarz kept the 1–0 lead for the Leafs, making several big stops:
However, the two goals that got by Stolarz are goals he would likely want back. Stolarz let out a rebound that led to Dylan Larkin’s game-tying goal. On the Red Wing’s game-winning goal, he made a poor decision in trying to swat the puck away instead of covering it. Still, he gave the Leafs a chance to win, and the Leafs could not score.
With Joseph Woll on a leave of absence, Stolarz is the de facto number one goaltender. Fortunately, in preseason so far, he looks like the goalie who posted a .926 save percentage last season, which was the best in the NHL.
Stolarz recently signed a four-year, $3.75M contract that kicks in next year. To have both Stolarz and Woll for under $6.5M this year, and under $7.5M the following two years, is nothing short of spectacular work by general manager Brad Treliving.
Is the bottom-six set?
The bottom-six lines for the Leafs last night looked like they could be possible opening-night roster lines. The third line of Maccelli–Roy–Joshua looked decent together. Maccelli, in particular, was able to thread passes all night to his linemates and took advantage of the big bodies of Roy and Joshua to create space. His play earned him time on the second line in the third period.
Cowan was on the fourth line with Lorentz, centred by Laughton. After the eight minutes in penalties, Cowan showed energy and jump as you would expect of a fourth-line player. What stood out in this preseason for Cowan, beyond his previous training camps, has been his consistency.
He has shown a willingness to embrace the fourth line role, despite being used to playing top line minutes in junior. He hasn’t scored as many points so far as you would like, but he also doesn’t look that out of place defensively. The offence will come, and we could see flashes in last night’s game, but he has to show Berube that he can be trusted.
Special teams fixed?
The Leafs went one-for-three on the power play last night, with the Leafs’ only goal coming six seconds into their first power play. Matthews makes no mistake on the pass from Knies:
On their two remaining power plays, the Leafs got no shots on net. While this isn’t a good look, we are seeing an adjustment by power play coach Marc Savard: attack the net early. We saw how fast the Leafs converted on their first power play, and we could see the shot attempts early on in the two other power plays.
The penalty kill did not allow a single goal on six opportunities. This includes a two-man advantage, which led to a four-minute double minor. Chris Tanev, Laughton, and Morgan Rielly were blocking shots. The biggest question was how the Leafs would adjust on the penalty kill with no Mitch Marner, and what we saw last night from the penalty kill was encouraging.
Onto the next
Was this the Leafs’ best game? Absolutely not. However, it is preseason. It’s why these games are important for the new players coming to the Leafs’ organization, and for existing players to get acquainted with the system changes. It allows players to prepare for an 82-game season.
The Leafs play their final preseason game against the Red Wings on Saturday. Craig Berube and the coaching staff will have to make some decisions with the bottom-six, namely Cowan. However, with opening night just five days away, the Leafs’ roster looks almost ready.
