Mar 11, 2018
Kadri scores twice as Leafs down Penguins to snap losing streak
The Maple Leafs were in dire need of a win on Saturday night. In order to get one, they had to survive before they could thrive. Toronto endured being outshot 6-0 in the first four minutes (with the help of a couple lucky puck bounces) and settled into their game en route to a 5-2 victory over the Penguins.
TORONTO – The Maple Leafs were in dire need of a win on Saturday night. In order to get one, they had to survive before they could thrive.
Toronto’s first five minutes against the Pittsburgh Penguins suggested a classic David vs. Goliath matchup was brewing, with the Leafs looking like boys among men. But they endured being outshot 6-0 in the first four minutes (with the help of a couple lucky puck bounces) and settled into their game en route to a 5-2 victory over the Penguins.
That Pittsburgh was able to dominate the Leafs for stretches wasn’t entirely unexpected given Toronto hadn’t played since Monday, but even a sloppy win would do the trick in snapping the Leafs’ four-game skid and set a new franchise record for home winning streak at 10 games. It also marked the Leafs’ 40th win of the season, tying their win total from 82 games last season in game 69 this year.
“Early we looked like we’d had four days off. As hard as you practice, you’re still a bit sluggish,” said Mike Babcock. “All guys were important tonight [though] so I think that’s good. Good win for our team, especially when you haven’t won lately and haven’t played well the last couple games, you want to get back on track.”
The Leafs knew Pittsburgh would be a challenging opponent to do that against. Not only were the Penguins in the midst of their own three-game win streak, but the balance of their top three lines centred by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Derick Brassard would put Toronto’s own depth down the middle under the microscope.
William Nylander has been going in and out of the centre spot since Auston Matthews went down with a shoulder injury on Feb. 22, but Babcock opted to slot him in there against Pittsburgh with Zach Hyman and Mitch Marner on his wings. Together they faced the toughest challenge of Nylander’s career down the middle matching up against Malkin’s line with Patric Hornqvist and Carl Hagelin.
Nylander’s line recorded no points and produced a meager 35 per cent possession, but they held Malkin’s group at bay until they scored in the game’s waning minutes while down 4-1.
“I didn’t think we got a lot done [up front],” said Babcock. “But in saying that, when you’re playing against a real good player who dominates a lot of people, I thought [Nylander’s line] played real well. Good for him and good for us.”
“You hear about learning as a young player a lot, people talk about that I guess and I think [Nylander’s] doing an outstanding job,” added Morgan Rielly. “He can skate with anyone in the league, he’s got a great shot, great skill and when he plays like he did tonight, it’s huge for our team.”
The Penguins were better offensively than the Leafs for most of the night, controlling the possession battle at 63 per cent on the night. Toronto didn’t even reach a double-digit shot total until 35 minutes in. But what the Leafs were was opportunistic – Kasperi Kapanen opened the scoring by burying a rebound, Nazem Kadri scored the first of his two goals on a tip-in play and Toronto finally got some of the fortunate bounces they felt were going against them over the last two weeks.
The biggest of those breaks came for Toronto in the third period, when Brian Dumoulin appeared to give the Penguins some life with a goal that would cut the Leafs’ lead to 3-1. While skating 4-on-4 with Roman Polak and Malkin in the box for offsetting roughing penalties, Dumoulin lit the lamp but had his goal waved off for goaltender interference and he was assessed a two-minute penalty instead. That drew the ire of the Penguins’ bench, who felt it was a phantom interference call and not worthy of a penalty on top of the overturned goal.
To add insult to injury, Mitch Marner scored on the ensuing power play, extending the Leafs’ advantage to 4-0 going into the third period. It was a huge momentum swing for Toronto, and helped seal their eventual victory.
“He went through the crease, right? That’s what I saw,” said Andersen of the Dumoulin play. “There’s a lot of space outside the crease, you could have stayed outside and maybe scored. But that’s the rule, so.”
In the end what defined the Leafs rebound performance wasn’t the breaks they got but the way they persevered through the adversity that might have had them sunk, and got necessary contributions from all four lines, special teams and Andersen in a 38-save performance.
“Obviously there are benefits [to a break] and there are things that can really hurt you and [tonight’s start] was one of them,” said Marner. “We started slow, but I think we managed well, stayed in the middle and held them off to the side. After that I thought we got our legs back in us and were moving the rest of the night.”
Takeaways
Kadri raising his game – again
There’s something about playing against the likes of Crosby that brings out the best in Kadri. Whether it’s the challenge of facing the NHL’s best players or his inherent competiveness coming through, Kadri has found another gear in previous matchups against Crosby, and played a strong game against him again on Saturday.
With Matthews’ absence putting pressure on the Leafs’ depleted centre depth, Kadri and his linemates Leo Komarov and Patrick Marleau needed to be the lock-down crew they’d been prior to the Leafs’ recent skid.
They were able to neutralize Crosby’s line with Jake Guentzel and Conor Sheary for most of the game and Kadri recorded the sixth multi-goal game of his season.
His first score came after Kadri got behind Crosby to the Penguins’ net, and then tipped a Rielly point shot past Tristan Jarry in the first period. His second was on the power play in the second period, his team-leading ninth goal with the extra man this season.
It wasn’t until the final four minutes with Pittsburgh trailing 4-0 that Crosby finally broke through when Kadri lost half a step on his man and Crosby was able to bank a backhand shot off Ron Hainsey and redirect a goal past Andersen.
Despite being on the losing end of the possession battle at 37 per cent against Crosby, Kadri’s line didn’t play into the Penguins’ transition game which limited their opportunities.
Beast in the crease
Andersen hasn’t played his best hockey of late, but when the Leafs needed their season-long MVP at his best, Andersen delivered.
The Penguins were camped out in Toronto’s end to start the game, and Andersen was sharp right off the bat, thrown into the fire with a couple tough saves against Malkin’s line. That proved to just be the beginning for Andersen, who was the far busier goaltender all night long.
While Tristan Jarry allowed three goals on nine shots to put Pittsburgh behind the eight ball, Andersen kept his team alive with one terrific stop after another in the first two periods, and he didn’t get much help in the defensive zone at times.
With Pittsburgh angry and pressing in the third period, Andersen was under siege for the first five minutes, but was getting more of those bounces that hadn’t been going his way lately and the Leafs were doing a better job boxing out on defence in front of him and letting him see the puck.
At the other end, Jarry was chased by the Leafs for the second time this season after giving up four goals on 16 shots in the first two periods, replaced in the third by Casey DeSmith.
With Andersen clocking 57 starts in the Leafs’ first 68 games, there has been a never-ending barrage of questions thrown at him and Babcock about whether there’s a need to rest the goaltender more down the stretch, but Saturday proved a lull like he went through, giving up 10 goals on a combined 49 shots in his last two games, was just that, and not an indication he can’t handle a heavy workload.
On Saturday he was once again the difference-maker for Toronto with 38 saves on 40 shots for a .950 save percentage.
“Ex” marks the spot
Whether admitted to or not, going up against a former team can generally provide a little extra motivation for a player. So it was perhaps no coincidence that ex-Penguins Kapanen and Ron Hainsey had their best games in recent memory on Saturday.
Kapanen was a first-round draft choice of the Penguins in 2014 and arrived in Toronto the following year as part of the Phil Kessel trade, while Hainsey was acquired by the Penguins to bolster their backend for a second straight Stanley Cup-winning run last June.
Neither player had a good outing in Toronto’s 5-3 loss at Pittsburgh on Feb. 17, but on home ice they made their presence felt early and often. Using his incomparable speed through the neutral zone, Kapanen was a handful at even strength beside Tomas Plekanec and Josh Leivo on the fourth line, and was a dominant force on the penalty kill as well.
In the first period alone, he generated two solid shorthanded scoring chances and was outracing the Penguins to pucks and forechecking well all night. On his first period goal, Kapanen was the benefactor of good work down low and a great backhand pass from Josh Leivo behind the net but he positioned himself perfectly to jump on the rebound from Tyler Bozak’s initial shot on Tristan Jarry.
With the Leafs taking three penalties early in the game, Kapanen spent nearly as much time playing shorthanded (1:31) as he did at 5-on-5 (2:18) in the early goings, but was noticeably strong every shift. He finished with one shot on goal and 50 per cent possession in 10:52 time on ice.
Meanwhile Hainsey bounced back from a minus-four performance in Buffalo on Monday to be one of the Leafs’ strongest defenceman against Pittsburgh. He made a couple key shot blocks in the first period and, when he was the only man back on a Sidney Crosby two-on-one, Hainsey executed perfectly with his stick to take away the shot from Crosby and turn Pittsburgh back the other way. Hainsey finished at plus-one with 34 per cent possession.
Kill or be killed
The lack of execution on Toronto’s penalty kill over their four-game slide was as poor as it’s been all season, and getting that unit’s confidence back was an obvious priority.
The kill had gone 4-for-8 in Toronto’s previous three games heading into Saturday, where it was tested early with the Leafs taking three penalties in the game’s first 20 minutes alone and they were without Nikita Zaitsev (flu), who plays the second-most minutes shorthanded for Toronto.
But rather than being the passive, disorganized group of late, the kill was dynamic and aggressive once again, so much so they seemed to generate as many chances shorthanded as the Leafs were managing at even strength early on.
Zach Hyman and Hainsey were particularly good and the execution of the units as a whole was markedly improved. The penalty kill ended up being a game-changer for Toronto in finishing 3-for-3 on the night.
On the other side, with both Kadri and Marner scoring on the power play, the Leafs recorded multiple man advantage goals in back-to-back games for the first time since Oct. 4-7.
Next game
On the heels of a four-day break from game action, Toronto will get another short reprieve before facing the Dallas Stars at home on Wednesday.