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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes from Maple Leafs practices and game-day skates. The Leafs practised at TD Garden in Boston on Friday. 

Leo Komarov will see a lot more of Brad Marchand and Boston’s top line on Saturday night. The gritty Maple Leafs winger was promoted to Toronto’s top line at Friday’s practice skating alongside Auston Matthews and William Nylander. 

“He was competitive last night and we’re trying to get the most competitive people involved as much as we possibly can,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock explained. “It looks to me like they’re matching (Patrice) Bergeron against (Matthews) so it gives Leo a good job and (he’ll be) a net-front presence.”

Komarov did his best to get in the face of Marchand during Thursday’s Game 1. The Boston left winger responded, at one point, by getting really close to Komarov. Like, really close. Whatever he did – Kiss? Nuzzle? Lick? – Komarov insists Marchand’s rather strange tactics are not getting to him. 

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It seems you keep asking me the question. I play hockey, he plays hockey. I think he’s a good player and we keep competing … He kissed me earlier this season (in a game on Nov. 11), but it is what it is. I’m playing hockey and that’s it.”

Komarov clearly has the attention of Marchand and perhaps that could help the Leafs down the road. 

“Obviously, him and Marchand like to go against each other so I think that kind of fuels (Leo),” Matthews noted. 

As for the kissing? 

“Very surprising,” Matthews said, “but you do whatever you gotta do, I guess, in the playoffs.”

“I don’t know about any of his antics,” said Babcock when asked about Marchand. “That’s not what I just saw. I just saw a real good player working real hard. That’s what I saw. The rest of that stuff, to me, is not what makes him good. What makes him good is he’s competitive. Their three guys were more competitive than ours. And, in the end, that’s why they had success.”

Matthews plans adjustments after quiet Game 1  

Marchand scored the opening goal on the power play and then combined with linemates Bergeron and David Pastrnak to neutralize the Matthews line for most of Game 1. Shot attempts were 19-9 in favour of Boston when Matthews was on the ice. But Matthews, who fired three shots on net, tried to put a positive spin on things. 

“It was fine,” Matthews said in assessing his Game 1 effort. “I thought the first period, the first 10 minutes, they're going to come out and you’ve got to weather the storm a bit. I thought the second and third we got into their zone a little bit more and when we had the puck we were dangerous. You definitely want a little bit more. Not too many plays to be made out there.”

So, how do you find space against what may be hockey’s most dominant line right now? 

“Just getting the puck in and bumping it over and creating that space, spreading the zone out a little bit more,” Matthews said. “They’re good at clogging it up in small areas in their D zone so when you spread them out you kind of get more opportunities and you can hang onto the puck more.”

That’s easier said than done. 

“They were good in the neutral zone and they break out well and they always seem to have guys available in their D zone,” Matthews observed. “Their D can see the ice and move the puck well and they play pretty fast. It's also a strength of our team.”

No regrets over Plekanec-Bergeron matchup

Babcock has no regrets about putting his fourth line on the ice for a defensive-zone faceoff late in the second period last night. Initially, the trio of Tomas Plekanec, Kasperi Kapanen and Komarov were able to get the puck up the ice, but not far enough to create an opportunity to change and later on in that shift Pastrnak scored to make it 3-1. 

“I did that on purpose, because that’s their job – to win that draw and get it out and get it in,” the coach explained. “They did that, but never got off the ice. You get paid to do certain things. That’s your job. So, it wasn’t like I was avoiding that at all. I thought that was a real good situation for us. They’re supposed to be able to start in the D zone, get us in the O zone and get off the ice. That’s their job.”

Plekanec, the closest forward to Pastrnak when he scored, has struggled since being acquired from the Canadiens before the trade deadline. He has just one primary point – an assist against Buffalo on April 2 – in 18 games in a Toronto uniform. But that one primary assist came on a goal by Andreas Johnsson, who skated on his left wing at practice on Friday and is expected to make his NHL playoff debut in Game 2. 

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Marchand appeared to be offside on Boston’s first goal, but the Leafs didn’t challenge it. 

“We didn’t have that replay,” Babcock said. “So, then when the puck was being dropped, we had the replay. That’s disappointing. That’s also on the coaching staff, not on the players, that’s on us. Obviously, it’s offside, that part’s disappointing. It’s disappointing we don’t have the replays on time to make a decision and usually when you know it’s coming you can delay more. On the three or four that our guys had it wasn’t there. As soon as it was, it was too late … Two extra seconds and we might have been able to get that right and it’s a big deal in the game, obviously.”

This isn’t the first time the issue has come up.

“I don’t know how it works either, but I know our guy knows how it works and he says this has been going on for a while and they’ve talked a lot about it,” Babcock said. “I imagine there will be more feeds over time. That's the feeds they had last night.”

Marleau moves to the middle with Hyman, Marner 

The Leafs are blessed with great forward depth at the moment, but not particularly at the centre position. So, with Nazem Kadri absent from practice and on Friday night suspended for three games for his hit on Tommy Wingels in Game 1, Babcock shifted veteran Patrick Marleau to the centre spot. The 38-year-old skated between Zach Hyman and Mitch Marner. 

“He’s a big body, he knows how to play,” Babcock said. “I don’t like him there long term, but for the short term he’s done pretty well for us. I just think that he’s a guy who is comfortable being in the playoffs, being in the middle, he’s done it before and it shouldn’t be an issue.”

Marleau, who filled in at centre for several games this season when Matthews was out, downplayed any concerns about making the transition at this stage of the season. 

“It should be all right,” he said with a smile. “I’ve been going back and forth throughout my whole career so it’s just a matter of being detailed and ready to go right from the drop of the puck.”

“What we tried to do is give ourselves good balance,” Babcock said. “We thought Hyman played real well last night (Thursday), we thought Hyman could help those two guys be a real good line.”

In the past, Babcock noted that Marleau’s speed on the forecheck is minimized when he has to play centre. But Hyman can certainly play that role on this new-look line. 

“He’ll definitely be flying and going to the net,” said Marleau. “It might allow Mitch and myself to play with the puck a little bit more and make those plays toward the net.”

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Losing your No. 2 centre and being forced to make a series of lineup changes just one game into a playoff series is far from an ideal scenario, but Babcock suggested it might just spark his group. 

“It’s probably good for us,” the coach said. “If you played like we did last night, you deserve a little adversity and then how are we going to handle it? We’re a better team than we played last night. As much as we prepared and talked about it, they competed harder than we did and, in the end, if you don’t compete harder than the other team, you can’t win. We got what we deserved in the end. So, we have a day here to get regrouped and look forward to the challenge.”

The setback in Game 1 was the first time all season that Toronto has lost by more than three goals. 

“We had some trouble in the season, too, and then we bounced back from that,” Komarov noted. “Playoffs is different, you know. It doesn’t really matter what happens, you just need to move forward and be ready for the next time.”

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Lines at Friday’s practice: 

Forwards
Komarov-Matthews-Nylander
Hyman-Marleau-Marner 
van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Brown 
Johnsson-Plekanec-Kapanen
Martin, Moore

Defencemen
Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Dermott-Polak
Leivo-Carrick 

Goaltenders
Andersen 
McElhinney

Power-play units at Friday’s practice: 

Rielly
Bozak-Johnsson-Marner 
van Riemsdyk

Gardiner 
Matthews-Komarov-Nylander 
Marleau