Top-scoring rookies highlight Leafs – Flames matchup

Kristen Shilton

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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TORONTO – The bond that quickly developed between Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner has produced colourful moments over their rookie season, from in-game sing-alongs to wearing matching outfits to the rink.

Matthews and Marner actually knew of each other before they were Toronto Maple Leafs, thanks in part to Calgary Flames rookie Matthew Tkachuk. He won U-18 gold in 2015 alongside Matthews with the U.S. National Team Development Program and a Memorial Cup last season with Marner and the London Knights. 

Matthews first met Marner when he visited Tkachuk in London during that playoff run. The Flames left winger isn’t surprised the two have become fast friends.

“They’re both going through the same thing. If they weren’t friends, something would be wrong,” Tkachuk said ahead of Monday’s game between the Flames and Leafs. 

“They’re both really high-end players who had a lot of pressure on them coming up and a similar spotlight being great players in Toronto. Their personalities are a little different, but that’s what makes friends.”

The Flames jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 49 seconds when these two teams met Nov. 30 in Calgary, eventually shutting Toronto out 3-0 in what proved to be Jhonas Enroth’s last start for the Leafs. 

Frederik Andersen will get the start Monday when the Flames make their lone visit of the season to Toronto as the home team looks to snap a two-game losing streak.

“For us it was a lack of focus going into that game,” said Matthews of the first matchup. “We were playing on a back-to-back, we didn’t prepare the right way, and it definitely cost us. They got a couple goals and that put us back on our heels and we weren’t able to recover.”

Both sides are rested for the rematch, with the Flames mired in their own two-game slide. Like Matthews and Marner, Tkachuk has been having a standout rookie season. He has the third-most points among rookies (30), behind Matthews (38) and Marner and Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine (37). Tkachuk’s 21 assists are second among all rookies to Marner’s 27.

While Tkachuk, like his former NHLer dad Keith, has a reputation for playing gritty, he doesn’t intend to overuse that against Toronto’s young stars.

“I don’t want to go out there and try and say anything to get them off their game,” Tkachuk said of potentially chirping Matthews and Marner. “I just want to play the best I can. Our team needs this win pretty badly.”

Tkachuk is second in the league in penalty minutes (90), and is tied for second with Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers in penalties drawn (25). His line with Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik has been the Flames most consistent since late October. Matthews calls him “one of the smartest hockey players I’ve ever played with.”

“He likes to get in your face a little bit, he likes to get into the game like that,” Marner said of his former junior teammate. “He’s a hard guy to play against, but he can definitely put up points as well. Usually when that happens you hate the guy a little more.”

While they’re now separated by time zones and professional pressures, Tkachuk fondly recalls playing against Matthews and Marner while they were still just kids, and marvels at how their trajectories brought them all the way to the NHL as teenagers.
 
"I played against them in peewee, bantam, all the way up," he said. "Played against [Mitch] at U-18s in Cape Breton. I played against Auston when he was on the Arizona Bobcats. Their whole team was terrible except for him. We played them in peewee, then we played them again in bantam majors and they had an unbelievable team. They kept the game pretty close with us, but they had Auston on the team. There is something [mind-blowing] about it now."

Morning skate notes
- Ben Smith skated with the Maple Leafs for the first time since injuring his hand on Dec. 17. Mike Babcock said after practice he isn’t ready to return. Morgan Rielly will also miss his third straight game with a lower-body injury.

- Eight players on the Flames’ roster are from the Greater Toronto Area, and looking forward to playing in front of friends and family.
 
- The Maple Leafs power play has been excellent lately, producing 11 goals in their last eight games and sitting second overall in the NHL. The infusion of talent has certainly helped – and has been a key part of James van Riemsdyk’s 10-game point streak (he has nine points on the power play in that stretch), but he also sees other differences in that unit from earlier in the season. “We’ve had that continuity in the units for 20 or more games,” he said. “If you have that chemistry with guys and you’re able to read off guys, and you can make more of those split second plays, that’s how you score more goals. If you don’t have to check in that extra split second because you’re not sure where the guy is going to be, that’s the difference between scoring a goal and not scoring a goal. All those things add up.”