The Boston Bruins forced overtime in this game after the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied twice, losing 4-3 in the end. This is the tenth time this season that a Maple Leafs game has gone into overtime, and the fifth time in the last six games.
The Spotty
Since the ugliness in this game was a plus, I’ll start with the ugly. The Maple Leafs are renowned for their spectacular goal scoring. And a lot of those lovely goals are scored by Auston Matthews. In this game, Matthews scored two goals. After trailing 2-0 at the half, the first goal gave the Maple Leafs a lead, and the second goal, with 5.9 seconds remaining in regulation, forced overtime. Neither of the objectives was particularly attractive. They were the kind of tough, grind-it-down goals that are rarely scored by the Maple Leafs.
With the first goal, Matthews Knies outplays Linus Ullmark, the goalie for the Bruins, and gets a terrific down low scoring chance that Ullmark stops. Knies wanders back into the slot after failing to score, and Matthews blocks a Boston clearing effort. Matthews transfers the ball to Simon Benoit at the left point from the right point. Knies is in the slot while Benoit enters the area with a few steps. As Ullmark exits the crease, he reduces Knies’ shooting angle, but William Nylander receives the rebound to Ullmark’s right. Charlie McAvoy outmaneuvers Ullmark to block Nylander’s shot, but Matthews collects the rebound and makes no mistake.
With 17 seconds remaining on the second goal, Nylander has the puck at his blue line after Joseph Woll was withdrawn. Nylander advances the ball down the right boards to Calle Jarnkrok. Entering the Boston zone, Jarnkrok passes the puck to John Tavares. Tavares enters the Bruins’ zone from the far left and drives the ball straight into Ullmark. Boston defenseman Hampus Lindholm assists Tavares when he runs into Ullmark, causing him to topple over. Mitch Marner picks up the wayward puck and coolly dumps it over the Matthews. To tie the game, Matthews scored again from the same spot where he had scored his first goal.
The Negative
At 7:31 in the first period, the Maple Leafs trailed 2-0 despite controlling the play for the majority of the first half.
David Pastrnak’s laserbeam wrist shot, which Morgan Rielly may or may not have gotten a piece of, was the first goal scored by Boston. It is difficult to determine whether or not Rielly gets his stick on it, even with a slow-motion review. Either way, Woll was beaten by the shot over his right shoulder. The replay reveals Woll was at the top of his crease, despite what they said during the broadcast that he might have been too far back in his net. I thought the shot simply defeated him. It’s possible that Rielly’s stick changed the puck’s trajectory or at the very least made it harder for Woll to interpret the shot.
In the second goal, Pastrnak takes up a shot from Jake DeBrusk that Woll had guided into the right corner of the Maple Leafs zone and glides toward the point to Woll’s right. Kevin Shattenkirk is a Maple Leafs skater who slips under the radar by coming from the opposite point. Knies, in particular, has the duty of covering him. The five Maple Leaf skaters can be seen focusing on Pastrnak just before he sends the puck to Shattenkirk. Nobody spots him until the puck is headed toward Shattenkirk. Shattenkirk shovels the puck into the net over Woll’s left shoulder after going forehand and backhand.
This season, Woll has performed better than the other goalie. Until this game, he had only let up more than three goals four times in 13 appearances. I can honestly say that, of the 35 goals Woll had conceded before this game, I cannot remember any where I felt, “That was a stinker” or “He has to make that save.”
The third goal scored by Boston might have been the worst that Woll has allowed this year. Derek Forbort hit a point shot with little force that ended up in Woll’s glove pocket. But Woll was unable to hang on to it. After bouncing off Woll’s glove, the puck fell to his feet in the crease. Trent Frederic had already shoveled it into the net when Woll realized he didn’t have it. Woll dropping it out of the glove could have been caused in part by the shot’s lack of speed. I’m sure Woll would like to see that objective accomplished.
More than anything, terrible luck had a part in the overtime goal that won the game. Nylander stumbled and knocked the puck over. Woll made the initial stop on a breakaway attempt by Pastrnak and attempted, but was unable, to stop Pastrnak’s pass to Brad Marchand.
But I do have one question. As soon as there was a turnover, Rielly entered the rink and made an effort to rejoin the play. He also attempted to block Pastrnak’s pass attempt. Where was Tavares, is the one question I have. The other player on the ice was him. Ten seconds passed between Nylander turning the puck over and it went into the Maple Leafs net. Tavares did not come onto the screen until after the goal was scored. Where had he been all along?
Among all the Maple Leafs players, Morgan Rielly has the most difficult duty. His responsibility was to cover Pastrnak. Rielly was on the ice for all four of Boston’s goals, and Pastrnak assisted on three of them. The Maple Leafs’ incapacity to stop Pastrnak was a major contributing reason in their defeat in this game. A portion of the blame must fall on Rielly.
The only defensive duo for the Maple Leafs to record negative overall statistics was TJ Brodie/Rielly. In five-on-five play, they had 32% of High-Danger Scoring Chances and 30% of Expected Goals.
The Virtuous
In this game, the core four players of the Maple Leafs were the team’s finest players. The two goals we talked about before were scored by Matthews. Nylander, Marner, and Tavares each contributed significantly to each goal.
With 16 goals in 22 games this season, Matthews is one goal behind Brock Boeser for second place in the NHL leaderboard. Matthews is on pace to score 60 goals this season, despite having only scored one goal in his previous nine appearances. 13 of Matthews’ 16 goals have been scored in just five games, which is an odd statistic. He has two two-goal games and three hattricks. Matthews has scored three goals in as many games as he has scored one. In eight games, he has scored goals; in fourteen games, he has not scored any.
At last, Max Domi got his first goal for the Maple Leafs. Growing up as a Maple Leafs fan and with his father being Tie Domi, Domi had to dream of being a goal scorer for the team. It took him twenty-two games to pull it off, but he did. His celebration made it clear that he was happy. From his third line, Domi has been playing nicely. Jarnkrok has reunited with Nick Robertson. In his first 21 games, he scored 11 points; in his last 11 games, he scored seven. All players, nevertheless, like scoring. He must be relieved of a great burden by this.
The top three defenseman who are still playing have had to shoulder a lot of the work because of all the ailments the Maple Leafs have suffered on the back end. Over the past five games, Rielly has played about 27 minutes per game on average. In that same time frame, Brodie and Jake McCabe have both played more than 22 minutes a game.
Simon Benoit, William Lagesson, and Conor Timmins were all instrumental in this match. Five-on-five Timmins had nine High-Danger Scoring-Chances For and just one High-Danger Scoring Chance Against while on the ice, according to Naturalstattrick.com. The Maple Leafs scored 83.5 percent of their expected goals when he was on the field. In addition, Benoit was in the game for 67% of the expected goals, one against, and nine high-danger scoring chances. Five High-Danger Chances For, one Against, and 56% of the Expected Goals were scored while Lagesson was on the ice.
Should those three players continue to perform as they did in this match, management may feel less pressure to make any kind of rash defensive move.
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