NEWARK, N.J.—It was a good news, bad news kind of win in Boston.
The good news, as the Maple Leafs reflected on Saturday’s 6-5 victory over the Bruins, was that they could look forward to Monday’s game in Brooklyn against the Islanders without lugging around the baggage of a four-game losing streak.
The good news was the Maple Leafs, thanks to William Nylander’s three-goal performance and Auston Matthews’ four-goal outburst on opening night, can say they’ve seen two rookies score hat tricks in the same season for the first time since 1926-27, when Ace Bailey and Bill Carson were the hot newcomers in town.
That’s 90-some years ago, so long ago that the term “hat trick” wasn’t yet invented. So long ago that the Maple Leafs weren’t yet called the Maple Leafs (they were, at that point, still known as the St. Patricks). That’s so long ago that one of the high-scoring rookies in question, Carson, negotiated a new pair of skates as his signing bonus.
But such is the pleasant present-day reality in Leafland. Nylander and Matthews have their first NHL hat tricks and Toronto’s top-producing rookie — that’d be Mitch Marner — has yet to reel one off.
Not that Marner isn’t creating numbers worth noting. As Randy Robles of the Elias Sports Bureau pointed out, Marner joined an exclusive club of active players by logging his 30th and 31st assists in his 50th NHL game on Saturday. Only Patrick Kane, Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin can say they reeled off 30 assists in their first 50 games. There are no sub-elites in that group.
All good news, right?
“Sure, we won. We’re happy we won,” Roman Polak, the veteran defenceman, said after practice on Sunday. “But on the other hand … we can’t let that happen. If you’re in the playoffs and you let it slip like that, it’s just a waste of a game … If you lose a game like that, you might be screwed.”
Indeed, the Leafs weren’t dwelling on the negatives on Sunday. After they shook out their legs in a practice at the Prudential Center that lasted all of 24 minutes, they were headed into Manhattan for a Super Bowl party. But their Saturday squandering of a 4-1 lead wasn’t something they were wholly forgetting.
In the three games since the all-star break they’ve given up a combined 16 goals. In the three games before the all-star break they gave up a combined two. What changed in the span of a long weekend?
Well, in one important way, not much. Morgan Rielly, though he’s been in the lineup for the past two games after a six-game absence with a high ankle sprain, is playing hurt. He sat out practice on Sunday, and was spotted in the dressing room with his right leg wrapped in ice, but is expected to play on Monday.
While the No. 1 defenceman ails, it hasn’t helped that No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen has returned from the break on a down beat, allowing 13 goals on 80 shots, an abysmal .838 rate.
But Polak figures there’s something else going on, too.
“Maybe because we were doing so well (before the all-star break), because everybody was on the same page, maybe we just started (thinking) it might be easy,” Polak said. “(Maybe we thought) we can just do whatever we want out there. And (Saturday) kind of showed that when you turn off that (disciplined) game a little bit, it might end up in your net.”
Head coach Mike Babcock, for his part, wasn’t being too hard on his players, at least publicly. After presiding over what appeared to be an upbeat workout that ended with Leo Komarov exuberantly celebrating his clinching goal in a shootout competition won by him and his mates on the blue-sweatered forward unit, Babcock acknowledged that his team has lately fallen into the trap of playing a brand of hockey that’s “too high risk.” But such are the lessons of a long season.
“I thought the game in Dallas (a 6-3 loss on Tuesday), we were red rotten that way,” Babcock said. “I didn’t think we were as bad in St. Louis (in a 5-1 loss on Thursday) — I thought they came out and they jumped and were better than us. And then (Saturday) I didn’t think we were terrible. The puck went in the net too much. But I think you have times in the year that happens.”
Sunday saw the Maple Leafs introduce themselves to a new teammate. Alexey Marchenko, claimed off waivers on a weekend that saw Frank Corrado clear waivers and sent to the Marlies, participated in his first practice as a Leaf. Marchenko’s helmet featured his new sweater number, 3 — the digit once worn by former captain Dion Phaneuf, before Phaneuf was traded to Ottawa a year ago Thursday. Babcock said Marchenko won’t be in the lineup in Brooklyn, but will be inserted soon enough. In the meantime, the Leafs braced to play at the Barclays Center, known for one of the worst sheets of ice in the NHL.
“It’s pretty tough. (The poor ice quality) makes the game a little bit different,” said James van Riemsdyk.
Said Leafs forward Matt Martin, an Islander until this season: “For elite skill guys to make plays, the puck’s bouncing around. It’s not ideal. But it’s not necessarily the worst thing in the world for guys like me who grind it out.”
Good news, bad news, indeed. Babcock said playing on questionable ice is a skill his team will need to acquire if it’s to prosper in the post-season.
“If we’re fortunate one day to be in the playoffs, (the ice is) always worse at that time of the year because of humidity,” Babcock said. “So, to me, let’s play the game.”
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