Columnist image

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO – In what has been a season of many firsts for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Friday night may have contained the most firsts of all.

Morgan Rielly, Zach Hyman, Martin Marincin and Leo Komarov all scored their first goals of the season. Rielly had the first four-point night of his career (goal, three assists). And for the first time, the Maple Leafs won a game they trailed going into the third period, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3. Toronto moves to 6-5-3 on the season.

“I think maybe games in the past this season we’ve dropped off or sagged when we get down. We kept pushing the whole way tonight,” Rielly said. “[We] didn’t really take our foot off the gas at all. We went after it, didn’t change our game plan. We played better, that’s the most important thing.”

For Rielly, the win also marked two other milestones – his 250th career game and his 100th career point. He tallied number 99 off an assist on Nazem Kadri’s opening score, but hitting triple-digits he saved for his own power play snipe.

“I knew about [the milestone]. It had been brought up,” Rielly said. “But it’s like the 250 [games] thing – it’s not really a benchmark until you get up a bit higher. I’ve really not been thinking about it at all, I’ve just been trying to play my role, which is match-ups. All I did was pass the puck to [Mitch] Marner and Kadri and [Martin] Marincin, they did the rest.”

Friday was a much-needed bounce-back effort for Toronto, after they were blown out by the L.A. Kings on Tuesday. It was also a chance for Hyman to get the monkey off his back. His line, with Auston Matthews and William Nylander, hasn’t been producing on the score sheet lately, and Hyman has been criticized for having only one assist while playing with two of the team’s top scorers. Hyman’s goal came off a Matthews’ shot that hit the crossbar and the winger was able to bury the rebound.

“Yeah, definitely [relieved],” Hyman said. “I’ve had so many chances. It’s been awhile. The first one is always the hardest for me, so it felt good to get that one out of the way. I think it was a huge third period for us, [the Flyers]’ power play scored one early and we got a chance to redeem ourselves on the PK at the end. It was a huge bounce back win for us.”

Despite the victory, a disturbing pattern has been emerging for Toronto in terms of their shots on goal. They put 23 on Steve Mason on Friday, their second-lowest total of the season. The lowest was 19 against the Kings. The Maple Leafs were down 3-2 going into the final frame and were trailing in shots 27-14. They were previously 0-4-4 when losing after two periods.

“We didn’t think we played that poorly and we found ourselves behind,” head coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought we were tight there in the second period, refused to shoot the puck so we didn’t spend too much time in our zone. Once we got shooting the puck, things went better for us. Hyman and [Komarov] are real important players for us. To get their first was important for us.”

Toronto will have a chance to carry the positive momentum into a tough building in Pittsburgh on Saturday night. Babcock said he would possibly insert the team’s scratches from Friday – Peter Holland, Frank Corrado and Matt Hunwick – into the lineup for fresh bodies. But no matter who suits up, Rielly said his team is keeping its priorities straight.

“When it comes to [scoring points], you just want to win the game,” he said. “You just want to do whatever you can to help the team. It’s not about how many you have at the end of the night. We have to keep this good thing rolling, keep working hard. We have to keep this feeling and go into Pittsburgh.”


Takeaways

  • Toronto scored six goals for the second time in their first 14 games. They only scored six or more goals three times through 82 games a season ago.
  • The Maple Leafs’ power play has been called a momentum drainer by Babcock before, and with the exception of Rielly’s 5-on-3 score, it felt like that again frequently on Friday. They failed to get set up or generate many quality chances in three 5-on-4 opportunities and allowed the first shorthanded goal of the season to Wayne Simmonds. Marner scored a late goal with the man-advantage when the game was already out of hand for Philadelphia, but overall it’s a unit that still has strides to make when it’s needed most.
  • Frederik Andersen has more or less found his game after a difficult start in Toronto, but despite making some key saves, he also continues to give up weak goals to the opposition. Travis Konecny’s goal on Friday, which he flipped over Andersen’s pad, was very stoppable. Andersen turned aside 30 of 33 shots from the Flyers, and is still compensating for a lot of difficulties the defence has had. Finding that next gear for his game will help.
  • Early in the season, Toronto’s rookies had more room to move but teams have wised up to their speed and creativity and are consistently more able to shut them down. Particularly through the neutral zone, they are getting pushed to the outside and smothered in front of the net. The young stars did show great resiliency in the third against the Flyers, generating more space and chances than they did in the first two frames. It’s an encouraging sign for them moving forward.
  • Matthews’ scoring struggles continue, but it’s not as bad as it seems. As Babcock pointed out, he’s playing markedly better without the puck and that helped him come on in the third period. Early in that frame he took a great pass and caught Mason down in his stance with the top corner wide-open but sent the puck sailing high. He hit the crossbar – again - right before Hyman scored and registered his first even-strength point since Oct. 25 vs. Tampa Bay with the assist. As frustrating as it may be for the number one overall pick, he does more well than he struggles at. “He’s a great player and great players break out of slumps, everybody goes through it,” Hyman said. “He’s going to score a lot of goals in this league.”
  • Marincin’s first goal of the season started with a backwards drop pass by Rielly from the blue line. It was Marincin’s second goal as a Maple Leaf; his first was on March 19, 2016 against Buffalo. “I could see him coming and I just wanted to bring the [Flyers] closer to me so I could lay it in. He did the rest, I didn’t really do much there,” Rielly said of the play. “For him to get a big goal tonight was great.”
  • Rielly joked he has a much different task now when going up against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins than he did early in his career. Back then, he said the Maple Leafs tried to keep him away from Crosby; now, he’s their top matchup player. Adjusting to that role is a departure from his junior hockey days, but he’s come to embrace the challenge. “It is different, but it’s [something] I’ve welcomed and tried to embrace. I’ve been enjoying the new role and responsibilities. The only way you’re going to be good at it is if you embrace it and try to improve at it.”