After late-season struggles, Andersen finds his form

Kristen Shilton

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

Follow| Archive

With their playoff hopes on the line, the New Jersey Devils had an urgent need to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday. And they played with a sense of urgency on this night, downing the Leafs 2-1 to secure one of the final Eastern Conference bids to the postseason. With nothing to play for themselves, the Leafs didn’t match the intensity of the Devils in their penultimate regular-season game, scoring only one goal for the second time in their last three games. The loss moves Toronto to 48-26-7 on the season. 

TAKEAWAYS

Freddie has most of the answers

If the Leafs are going to have any success in the postseason, then Frederik Andersen has to be their backbone. It’s a role he’s become accustomed to since arriving in Toronto in the summer of 2016, and he’s played the part well for much of this campaign.

But a sub-.900 save percentage over his last six weeks of play has put Andersen in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, and getting him back on track has to be Toronto’s top priority. He looked a lot like his mid-season self in the early goings against New Jersey, a team desperate to clinch a playoff berth of their own. Andersen had a terrific opening five minutes to keep the Devils from jumping out to an early lead while the Leafs were getting outshot 7-1 and helped his team to a 1-0 advantage after the first period while Toronto was out-attempted 31-11 by New Jersey.

Andersen looked more confident and sure in his crease after weeks of being leakier than he’d shown since a brutal month of October. In the second period, he made an incredible read on the Devils’ first power play, when there was a traffic jam in front of him and he still managed to send the puck aside while splayed out on the ice. For the game’s first 38 minutes, Andersen had all the answers – until near the midway point of the second period when Pavel Zacha capitalized on Andersen failing to seal his post and tied the game with a shortside strike. He didn’t let the soft goal rattle him, though, making a point-blank stop off speedy winger Michael Grabner minutes later to keep the game tied.

But the desperate Devils kept on top of the Leafs and Miles Wood, against whom Andersen had made a brilliant stop from in-tight back in the first, had the Devils out ahead to start the final period. He was solid the rest of the way for Toronto, turning aside a total of 37 shots on the night.

In defeat, however, Andersen missed out on his chance to become the winningest goaltender in Leafs’ franchise history by failing to secure his 38th victory of the season. Regardless, it was a positive night for the Leafs starter as he looked more calm and efficient in net, while holding an opponent to two or fewer goals for the first time since March 22 in Nashville. 

The kids are all right

Next to Andersen, the most important pieces for Toronto in the postseason will be their Big Three forwards – William Nylander, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Nylander had been going through a quiet stretch on the scoresheet prior to last Monday’s game against Buffalo, but he exploded that night with a two-goal, three-point performance for Toronto, in a game where his power-play unit also generated its first multi-goal game of the season.

Nylander and that power-play group were back at it early in New Jersey, with Nylander needing his 11 seconds of power-play time to snipe his fifth extra-man goal this season, and 20th overall. While Nylander had downplayed the significance of hitting that 20-goal plateau (for the second consecutive year), it did activate a $212,000 contract bonus with one game remaining for Toronto in the regular season. After that early score, the only one Toronto would post, Nylander’s line with Matthews and Zach Hyman had an average outing against the Devils, posting a combined seven shots on goal with 38 per cent possession. 

But beyond just his bonus, Nylander also joined his fellow sophomores Marner and Matthews at the 60-point milestone this season. That makes them the first three players in franchise history to reach the 60-point mark in each of their first two NHL seasons. Nylander was also the sixth Leaf to hit 20 goals this year, the first time that many players have hit the mark since 1998-99. In addition to Nylander, Matthews and Marner, James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri and Patrick Marleau have also scored at least 20. 

Matthews’ point streak was also stretched to eight games with an assist on Nylander’s goal. The 20-year-old has at least a single point in each contest since returning to the Leafs lineup on March 22 following a 10-game absence with a shoulder injury. 

Second-period blues

There is something about the middle frame for Toronto lately, with a mediocre showing in that period proving costly again on Thursday. As a team, the Leafs are excellent in the first period, so strong their 90 first-period goals are tied for most in the NHL this season. The third period is also consistently good for the Leafs, especially since they’ve managed to curtail the number of blown third-period leads since last season; now they’re outscoring opponents 88-75 in that frame.

But the second is the Leafs’ weakest by far, and it was a problem again for them against the Devils. Toronto held a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes, but by the game’s 40-minute mark they were trailing 2-1 and being outshot 28-20 overall (14-11 in the second).

Head coach Mike Babcock has pointed out the second period as being a weak spot for the Leafs after a few recent games, but when asked specifically earlier this week if he saw a pattern emerging he said that wasn’t the case. On the season, though, Toronto is only narrowly ahead in goals-for in that period (83-82) and there has been a noticeable dip in the Leafs’ second-period play lately as well. Just using a recent small sample size, the problem has been clear: In the Leafs’ last five games, they’ve been outscored 8-4 in the middle frame, while breaking even in goals scored for and against in the first and third periods combined. Toronto has a 3-2 record in that stretch, over which they knew a playoff spot was locked up, but that doesn’t bode well for them in the postseason if the trend continues.

Fourth-line folly

With Travis Dermott due back for the Leafs on Saturday against Montreal (barring any further setback from the lower-body injury he suffered on Monday), there is only one real personnel question the Leafs are facing ahead of the postseason – who will play on the fourth line? But perhaps another question that will have to be answered early on in the playoffs is who should be on that line?

On Thursday against New Jersey, a fourth line of Leo Komarov, Tomas Plekanec and Kasperi Kapanen barely saw the ice after the first period; from the second period on, with Toronto tied or trailing for most of it, Babcock deployed that line for only eight more shifts. That line’s 36 per cent possession was the Leafs’ worst of the night, with Komarov trailing all skaters at an individual 35 per cent.

Komarov returning to the Leafs’ lineup from an upper-body injury last week forced speedy rookie Andreas Johnsson (who has two goals and one assist in nine games so far) from a regular spot. But Babcock isn’t one to bank on advanced stats (or most stats, really) and getting Komarov settled in again was necessary from his perspective because of Komarov’s physicality and his penalty-kill prowess. In losing Johnsson though, the Leafs go without a player who makes Plekanec better (he said he’s loved playing with Johnsson since day one) and who makes that line dangerous from both sides when he’s opposite Kapanen.

Babcock said before Thursday’s game that the end of this regular season would be important for Komarov to get back up to speed, but he hasn’t looked strong in his two games back (Komarov had one shot on goal in 10:17 of ice time against the Winnipeg Jets last Saturday) and there isn’t much time for the Leafs to gamble with when it comes to icing their best lineup.

Without revealing who it was, Babcock said he already knows whether Kapanen or Johnsson will start on the fourth line in Game 1 of the playoffs. But either way, one player will sit for Komarov, and given that both Johnsson and Kapanen can also kill penalties, it could be a tough sell not to have both their offensive talents involved if the Leafs struggle out of the gate in the postseason. 

Next game

The Leafs return home for their regular-season finale against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. ​