Matthews and Marner ‘grinding through’ busy post-4 Nations schedule
Published
The Maple Leafs skated at TD Garden in Boston on Tuesday.
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Leafs head coach Craig Berube is seeing signs of fatigue from centre Auston Matthews and winger Mitch Marner following an emotional experience at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
"For sure," Berube said. "But they're grinding through it. We're trying to help them as much as we can for rest purposes. We're going to have to do that going forward here, too, for a little bit."
Saturday was the start of a gruelling stretch for the Leafs, who will play nine games in eight different cities over 17 days.
Marner averaged 21 minutes and 33 seconds of ice time before his star turn with Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off. He averaged 18 minutes and 40 seconds of ice time in the weekend wins over the Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks.
Matthews logged 20 minutes and 25 seconds per outing before captaining Team USA. He was down to 18 minutes and 22 seconds in the past two games.
Matthews and Marner were not made available to the media after Tuesday's morning skate as the team is trying to give them a break in that regard as well considering the countless interviews they did at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
"The break is a lot for the mental [side], just stepping away a little bit, and a lot of guys have been able to do that," said Leafs winger Steven Lorentz. "But these guys have just been go, go, go."
Marner played in all four games during Team Canada's championship run while Matthews got into three tilts with Team USA. And these were no ordinary games.
"There's tempers flaring," Lorentz said. "You obviously saw the first game [between Canada and the United States] with a couple fights, so it's very, very emotional hockey and then coming back here and, it's not that it's 'just' regular-season hockey, but it's just a different feel."
Matthews and Marner both produced two primary assists in Canada 3-2 win in the championship game at the 4 Nations Face-Off, but both were relatively quiet over the weekend.
Matthews scored an empty-net goal on Saturday and chipped in a secondary assist on Sunday courtesy a faceoff win. Marner was held off the scoresheet in both games over the weekend and didn't generate a shot on net on Sunday.
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Did Marner have an extra bounce in his step as he returned to the scene of Thursday's big win?
"Yeah, maybe a little bit," said winger Bobby McMann with a grin. "Probably some good memories come back pretty quick, so I'm sure he's happy."
Marner made a great pass to set up Connor McDavid for the overtime winner inside a raucous TD Garden.
"We're expecting another emotional game tonight," Lorentz said. "Obviously Toronto-Boston, this is a big rivalry, so I know [Marner and Matthews] will be up for this one too."
It won't be the same, of course, but Tuesday's game should be intense as Boston currently sits outside a playoff spot.
"Any time we play Toronto, sometimes you can throw out a lot of the X’s and O’s," interim Bruins coach Joe Sacco told reporters on Monday. "It's more about the emotion of the game and the competitiveness and the sense of urgency."
Boston ended Toronto's season in a seven-game series last year.
"It's definitely a little bit more emotional with the recent history," said McMann, who missed the playoffs due to injury. "They are a good team and they play really hard, and they may even play a little harder against us. We gotta be ready for it. It's usually dictated in the first 10 minutes of the game, which way it might go, so we have to come out hard."
The Leafs have scored first in all three games against the Bruins this season.
After losing the first game of the season against Boston in overtime, the Leafs have won two consecutive games against the Bruins in regulation. Toronto's top line dominated the last game against Boston on Jan. 4, with Matthew Knies producing his first career hat trick. Knies and Marner finished the 6-4 win with five points each.
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After three playoff series against each other, Marner and Brad Marchand finally found themselves on the same side at the 4 Nations Face-Off. And Marner noticed that they have similar personalities.
"He's got a really good sense of humour," said centre John Tavares, who played with Marchand at the 2016 World Cup. "Obviously, I've talked a lot about Mitchy's energy and the juice that he brings to the locker room every single day and the type of vibe that he has about him that's infectious around our group. I would say it's different, unique in their own way, but the same type of type of idea in terms of always bringing a type of energy to the group that's very impactful."
Marchand has been happy to stir the pot against the Leafs over the years. Whether it's kissing and licking Leo Komarov, tweeting about Marner's contractual situation, or chirping the bench after a controversial play that injured Timothy Liljegren last year. That incident sparked a Leafs team meeting about the lack of a response.
"When you get together like they did for this tournament and you're playing for your country, all that goes out the window for the tournament," Berube said. "But it's back to normal now, you know. It went away for a bit and now it's back to normal."
The coach laughed.
"It's kind of weird how you have to go right back to hating each other a little bit again," Lorentz said, "but they obviously have that respect for each other."
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William Nylander is second in the NHL in goals this season with 33. There's a possibility that he could hit 50 for the first time and maybe even challenge Edmonton Oiler Leon Draisaitl for the Rocket Richard Trophy.
Nylander leads the Leafs with five 5-on-6 goals this season, but wasn't looking to pad that statistic over the weekend. In the last two games, Nylander found himself on the ice with the opposing net empty and Toronto up by two goals.
In both situations, Nylander passed to Pontus Holmberg, who scored.
"Willy just tries to make the right play – whether it's setting up a teammate or putting it in himself," said Tavares. "He's just trying to do what he can to help the team win."
"He makes in-game reads and he sees whatever's most fit," McMann said. "That's why he's had so much success is he just reads and reacts and takes whatever play's there and, at that time, it's a pass."
The two goals allowed Holmberg to raise his season total to five.
"It's always good to see guys throughout our lineup contribute and get on the board and feel good about themselves," Tavares added.
Nylander is up to three empty-net assists this season.
"He's done that a couple times this year," said Berube. "He's an unselfish guy that way."
Nylander hasn't scored since posting a hat trick in Calgary in the third last game before the break. He's now on pace for 47 goals and has fallen nine goals behind Draisaitl.
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Lorentz picked up an assist in both games over the weekend. He could have had a goal if not for a bizarre play in Sunday's game.
Lorentz broke his stick early in a second-period shift and dropped the knob in the faceoff circle in the Blackhawks zone before retrieving a new twig at the bench. Moments later, he was breaking back up the ice on a 2-on-1 rush with David Kampf when the discarded stick got in the way of his scoring chance.
"I could hear the bench shouting, 'Shoot!'" Lorentz recalled. "I wanted Dave on the back side there, but we just wanted to get that chance and a shot on net and I had the whole left side. As soon as I released it, that's when I noticed it. When I fired the puck I was like, 'Just my luck! You've gotta be kidding me!' It's unfortunate, but we scored enough goals to win that game, so we're happy."
Lorentz has never seen something like that happen before.
"Just tough luck, I guess," he said with a shrug.
Perhaps he's due some good luck in Boston?
"That's it," he said. "Yep."
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Calle Jarnkrok joined the Leafs for this road trip. The winger hasn't played since undergoing sports hernia surgery in October.
"He's close," said Berube. "He's very close. There's some things that have to be done with, you know, stuff."
That elicited laughs from the assembled reporters. The plainspoken Berube is not one to wade into medical matters.
"He's feeling excellent," Berube continued. "He has to see the doctor yet and he will do that shortly here, but he's feeling great on the ice. He's really ready to play."
Jarnkrok, who had the surgery in New York City where the Leafs are heading next, hasn't played since suiting up in a pre-season game on Oct. 3. The team expects that the 33-year-old Swede can make a significant impact down the stretch.
"Very intelligent player," Berube said. "Checks a lot of boxes: penalty killing and end-of-game [shifts], faceoffs, like, he can play any position. He's a real complementary player with good players, which is nice to have, too."
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Projected Leafs lineup for Tuesday's game:
Knies - Matthews - Marner
Holmberg - Tavares - Nylander
McMann - Domi - Robertson
Lorentz - Kampf - Steeves
Rielly - Ekman-Larsson
McCabe - Tanev
Benoit - Timmins
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