Perfection
Game 22: Leafs vs. Oilers
Simon B
Well, the Leafs’ (and arguably the league's) best player is out with a wrist injury that's been nagging him all season. You would never know it, in that Auston Matthews has a league-leading 18 goals this year but to stay on the safe side, the star centerman will probably miss the next few games, this one included. On a more positive note, Jake Muzzin and Joe Thornton both came back from 2 game absences, and, even better news, the Leafs got Jack Campbell back. Michael Hutchinson was decent during the three starts he made with both Andersen and Campbell out, but it's pretty reassuring to know that one of the Leafs' top two netminders is healthy again.
Now all the Leafs have to do is shut down the best player in the world for a whole game. That's a good way to get Campbell back into the flow of NHL action for sure.
The Game
An important factor in beating the Oilers is obviously shutting down Connor McDavid. When Number 97 isn't on the ice/in the game [choose one], the Oilers are not at all the same team. The Leafs needed to keep the pace slow early on but they didn’t do that well.. McDavid and the Oilers had a couple of good chances early, but Campbell was really sharp to begin the game. The Leafs were getting a few opportunities but the bulk of the play was in the Toronto zone, which worried me.
I’ve been getting concerned by the Leafs’ power play of late. Their solid man-advantage engine had been firing on all cylinders since the start of the season but has cooled right off since [when?]. I needn't have worried when: Kris Russel took a holding penalty on John Tavares (who was excellent in this game) to put the Leafs up a man, things went back to the full-power-play normal pretty quickly. Mitch Marner faked a shot then took the puck behind the net. With a huge cluster of players in the crease, Willy Nylander was wide open in the slot and corralled a Marner pass then fired it past Edmonton goalie Mike Smith to put the Leafs up 1-0.
Soon after, Toronto was moving really well defensively and pressured the Oilers off the puck. An awesome breakout saw John Tavares feed it to a trailing Mitch Marner who took a really nice shot that went right through Smith. In a minute and 13 seconds, Toronto had just given themselves a solid 2-0 advantage. From then on, the Leafs were in complete control.
The Oilers did press a little bit to begin the period but they never really got much going because the Leafs were able to do something that all winning teams excel at: roll out 4 solid lines and be able to trust them. The whole game, the Leafs played the way a team should, and you could clearly see that they were all on the same page all the time. The second period was a nearly perfect period. The good defensive play led to another odd-man rush, this time with Kerfoot and Spezza. Spezza faked a slapshot that baited Smith out of his net and Spezza just roofed it past the Edmonton goalie with ease. That goal was pretty much the way the game went from there on out. The Leafs were constantly a step ahead of Edmonton and they shut down McDavid really well. Campbell was sharp when he needed to be, but for the most part, Toronto was really good defensively, and they gave the Oilers no room to create any offensive momentum. They were playing with purpose.
If the second period was almost a coach's dream, the third WAS a coach's dream. Just excellent all the way through. The Leafs were playing the way the Bruins played against the Leafs in all those game seven losses: taking advantage of mistakes and not giving Edmonton any time and space anywhere on the ice. The Leafs created their own luck much of the time. On one of those occasions, Zach Hyman stole the puck in the corner (as he does so well) then skated in as if he were a natural goal-scorer and sniped it over Smith's shoulder to put the Leafs up four. A lot of time, any Leafs lead seems like it can evaporate at any moment but not last night. I felt comfortable with this team, a pretty weird feeling for a Leafs fan to have that's for sure. Toronto kept it low-event and ran the clock down until it said 0.00.
The Wrap
Like I said before, this was a playoff-style win. Some grassy goals, hard-working shifts all the way around balanced line distribution, and a shutout by the goalie. What more do you want? That game was excellent. Now the real test will be to see how the Leafs respond on Monday night when the Oilers are going to come out really hungry for revenge
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