Despite lack of execution, Nylander and Marner stay together at Leafs practice

The Maple Leafs practised at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver on Friday. 

Toronto's new look second line of John Tavares between William Nylander and Mitch Marner will get a second chance together when the Leafs take on the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. The trio received mixed reviews for their performance in Toronto's 3-1 win on Thursday in Seattle.

"There were some times where they had good situations set up and didn't execute," observed head coach Craig Berube. "If they execute the line could be very dangerous for sure."

"We started off well and kind of slowed down as the game went on," Marner said. "We've just got to keep our foot on the gas."

Shot attempts favoured the Seattle Kraken 11-7 in the 10 minutes and 40 seconds the line spent together in 5-on-5 play, per NaturalStatTrick.com. 

"We got a lot of speed in our line," Marner said. "We got to use it. A lot of skill as well, but we've just got to make a little better plays and a little clearer plays, and we need to communicate a little more to get the pucks where we want them to."

Prior to the game, Berube told TSN a concern he had with the line is that it would spend too much time on the outside. 

"Playing with those two guys you know they're going to find open ice and have the puck on their stick," Tavares noted while highlighting his strength at winning battles along the walls and getting to the front of the net. "Important that we still have a presence through the middle of the ice."

Tavares describes Marner and Nylander as "very puck dominant" players, but the 34-year-old centre also stressed the need to keep it simple at times. 

"As a group, we got off to a good start yesterday in the game, and then our game, you know, maybe wasn't as crisp or as dynamic as we could have been," Tavares said. 

Marner leads the team in assists (55) and Nylander is leading in goals (33) so this should be a match made in hockey heaven. But both guys play right wing and so they haven't had many sustained stretches of time together on the same line at 5-on-5. 

"Maybe they haven't had a lot of time together in the past, but you gotta think the chemistry's there," said centre Auston Matthews. "I mean, just with the amount of time on the power play and the amount of time that we've been around each other."

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Marner missed Tuesday's game in Calgary after a "bizarre" bout of spasms. In his absence, Max Domi moved up to the top line beside Matthews and Matthew Knies. That trio remained together in Thursday's game and in Friday's practice. 

Domi is mired in a 21-game goal drought, but sparks flew when he partnered up with Matthews down the stretch last season. 

"He's an easy guy to play with," said Matthews. "A guy I'm familiar with, and just want to keep getting better." 

Matthews has gone five straight games without a goal, making this his longest drought since October 2022. But he's also put up six assists during Toronto's current three-game winning streak. 

"It's been fine," Matthews said when asked about his game of late. "I think you always want to play better. Obviously you want to score, but the opportunities are there. Still producing as a line, power play's been good. We're winning games. It's been a good road trip so far."

Matthews has fired 22 shots on net in the last four games.

"I think he is playing pretty well," Berube said. "He had six shots last night, and three or four of them were very dangerous. They will go in. He just has to keep getting the looks. He is making plays, too. His game is good, and he is playing a well-rounded game at both ends of the ice and killing penalties. He just has to keep getting the opportunities."

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Matthews picked up a secondary assist on the Knies goal in the second period on Thursday. The sophomore winger deflected a Jake McCabe point shot past Joey Daccord. The Kraken goalie immediately signaled to the referee that Knies struck the puck when his stick was above the crossbar. 

Knies himself didn't seem sure and actually told McCabe to lead the celebration at the bench in the hopes of making the officials think the initial shot went straight in. 

"I was kind of trying to hide it a little bit because I know it was a questionable call," Knies told TSN during an intermission interview. "They called a good goal on the ice so luckily it stood."

Knies smiled broadly. 

The move by his linemate made Matthews smile as well. 

"Maybe he doesn't realize there's like a thousand cameras in the stands and in the stadium so that no matter what happens, I mean, they're going to be looking at it," Matthews said. "But I appreciate the effort on that, for sure."

"He was trying to fool the ref there a little bit," winger Bobby McMann said. "Good play by him. I think it was nice that he swiped down on it because it was very close. I think because it was a goal on the ice, it ended up being a goal all the way through."

That's the message that Berube got from the team's video coaches, who are a perfect 5-0 on challenges this season. 

"It's close," Berube said. "It's very close, but when they call it on the ice, it takes a lot to overturn it."

Indeed, upon review the play stood as called on the ice. 

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Toronto's opening goal came from an unlikely source as Philippe Myers blasted a point shot that deflected in off of Kraken centre Matty Beniers. It was Myers' first NHL goal since Nov. 17, 2022. 

"It felt really good to see that one go in," the 28-year-old defenceman said. "For me, I was just trying to get the puck on net and got a fortunate bounce there and I'll take it."

It was a fortunate bounce, but maybe Myers was due for one. The right-shot rearguard consistently puts pucks on net. He's landed 30 shots in 22 games this season or 1.4 per outing. 

"He was aggressive and played a simple game like he normally does, and shot pucks," said Berube. "That's what he does. He got one off their guy but, you know, you never know when you shoot it."

Myers leads the Leafs defence in shots per 60 minutes at 5.51, per NaturalStatTrick.com. 

"Over the years I just found I have more success when I keep it simple and put pucks on net so that's my mentality this year," Myers told TSN during an intermission interview.  "I'm going to keep going with that." 

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Marner picked up his 500th career assist on the goal by Myers. 

"He does everything," Myers said. "Best player in the league. He's fun to watch every night."

"He's just a one-of-a-kind player," said goalie Anthony Stolarz. 

High praise from teammates, but there's no doubt that Marner belongs among the elite guys in the game. Marner is the third-fastest player (629 games) in the last 20 years to reach 500 assists behind only Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby (554 games) and Edmonton's Connor McDavid (527 games), who are set to be his Canadian teammates at the 4 Nations Face-Off.  

"It's pretty crazy," Marner said after the game. "It's pretty cool. I'll enjoy it for the night and then forget about it. Something cool to have. A lot of appreciation for the guys around me that put pucks in the net. I'm just trying to find them in the right areas, and they're the ones putting them in."

Teammates feel that Marner is too modest. 

"He sees the ice better than anyone," raved McMann. "The way he plays the game, the way he thinks it, is different, and I'm not surprised that he has 500. It's an incredible milestone, and congrats to him, but just how he plays the game, there's many more to come."

"It's really cool," Marner said. "I don't really want solo achievements in this league, or enjoy them as much as maybe people should. A lot of credit to the guys around me that have been here with me since day one, and some guys that have moved on." 

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Stolarz stopped 26 of 27 shots to pick up the win in his first game since sustaining a knee injury on Dec. 12. 

"I felt really good in there," the 31-year-old told TSN. "It was nice to get a couple shots early, a couple long ones, and the guys did a great job of helping me ease back into it ... Coming back you just want to have fun, start getting back into it a little bit, so that was my mindset going into [the game] and not worrying too much about the results. But it's always nice when you give up one and you get the two points."

And always nice when you can beat an old buddy. Stolarz robbed former Florida Panthers teammate Brandon Montour with a glove save on a Kraken power play in the second period. 

"Just trying to have some fun with it," Stolarz said. "I played with Monty last year and kind of know his tendencies. And where the puck was and where the bodies were in front, the only spot he could shoot as a righty was glove so just stuck everything I could out there and just was lucky it got in the glove."

Stolarz shot a smile at Montour after the save. 

The 6-foot-6 goalie made another key shorthanded stop in the third period when he denied Shane Wright from the slot while dropping his stick. Stolarz credited mentor Sergei Bobrovsky for teaching him an important lesson last year. 

"That's something I learned from Bobby last year," Stolarz said. "That stick kind of weighs you down and pulls you back a little bit so being able to drop that and get across is my main goal there."

At the time of the injury, Stolarz had played 17 games and led the NHL in save percentage at .927. He's still in top spot after bumping the number up to .929 on Thursday. 

"He's a big part of his team," Berube said. "We know that. When he was out, we missed him. I thought he played a heck of a game."

"He was fantastic," said Tavares. "He's just a great competitor, just competes so hard, a very intense guy once he puts the pads on."

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Simon Benoit finished a marathon shift in the second period by dropping the gloves with Seattle's Oliver Bjorkstrand. Benoit tried to land a hit and Bjorkstrand responded with his own hit. 

"We were both tired and we just went at it," Benoit said. "I had to get a whistle some way. I was on the ice for a long time there. It was an easy way to get a whistle. So, that's it."

"He had a long shift," Berube said. "He might have been more pissed off about that. It is tough when you drop your gloves on a long shift like that."

Benoit had been stuck on the ice for one minute and 48 seconds with most of that time spent in the defensive zone. What was Benoit thinking as he struggled to get off the ice with the long change in the middle stanza?

"That's the thing, you don't think that much," he said. "When you have no more blood in your brain it's just all foggy, right. You're just trying to get the puck out to get a change for everybody."

Benoit (6-foot-4, 211 pounds) had a significant size advantage on Bjorkstrand (6-foot, 175 pounds). Benoit also has more experience with 17 fights versus five for Bjorkstrand. 

"After a long shift in our zone like that fighting is never easy," Benoit said. "I gave a couple punches and then I just had to wait it out a bit. Good for him. I'm on the bigger side and he didn't back down."

"Ah, just kind of try to hold on and see if I can throw a few," Bjorkstrand told reporters in the Kraken dressing room. "I'm obviously not an expert on that, but sometimes it just happens and you just try."

Benoit felt ready to roll again after spending five minutes in the box, but wasn't exactly well rested at Friday's practice. It's hard to get shuteye after fighting. 

"You just can't sleep after," he said. "Usually the adrenaline is always higher so it's hard to get to sleep." 

How much sleep did he get? 

"Not a lot," he said with a laugh. 

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Friday's practice only lasted 15 minutes. 

"We played yesterday and flew in, so we just wanted to get in a little movement before the game tomorrow," Berube explained. "It is a four o'clock game [so there's no morning skate]. We just wanted to get on the ice, touch the ice a little bit, move the puck, get the guys up and moving a little bit. That's it."

The Canucks had the day off after winning in overtime over San Jose on Thursday night. 

American defenceman Quinn Hughes has missed Vancouver's games this week and his status for Saturday's showdown against Toronto and the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off is now in doubt. 

"I was really looking forward to the opportunity to play with him," said Matthews, who will serve as captain of Team USA. "I don't know what the situation is, you know, whether or not he'll be ready to play or not. But if he's not, it'd be an unfortunate loss for us."

Vancouver blanked the Leafs 3-0 in the first game between the teams this season back on Jan. 11 in Toronto. Hughes had a goal and an assist while finishing plus-three. 

"He's got the puck on his stick the whole game it seems like, and he drives so much of their offence," Matthews said. "Coming out of their zone as well, I mean, he makes so many plays, and gets the puck in good spots for the forwards. And obviously on the power play, he's extremely deceptive and dynamic, and able to shoot the puck."

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Lines at Friday's practice: 

Knies - Matthews - Domi 
Nylander - Tavares - Marner 
McMann - Holmberg - Robertson 
Pacioretty - Kampf - Lorentz 
Reaves 

McCabe - Tanev 
Rielly - Ekman-Larsson 
Benoit - Myers 
Mermis - Timmins 

Stolarz & Woll