It ended in unfortunate fashion for the home team.
Not for the St. Louis Blues, and if the idea of three-on-three hockey in overtime was to let the skill of NHL players shine, this was a superb demonstration of just that.
Watching Vladimir Tarasenko dangle his way into the Maple Leafs zone in the opening seconds of OT on Thursday night, and then work a shimmy-shake on Nazem Kadri that left the Leafs centre going to his left while Tarasenko went the other way, was something to see. Tarasenko then drained a perfect low shot on Frederik Andersen, mostly brilliant all night, and the Blues had the 2-1 triumph.
It was a splendid game, playoff-like. For the Leafs, despite the loss, it was a step forward. Outplayed badly in the first period, they fell behind 1-0, and for a time it appeared a replay of last week’s 5-1 loss to the Blues in Missouri was in the cards.
But the Leafs doggedly stuck to their game, and slowly began to gain more territory and establish more possession time. The second period was almost over when Kadri was booted out of the faceoff zone in the Leafs end. Leo Komarov won the draw anyway, and the Leafs were off with speed.
Kadri created space for himself down the right side while watching Morgan Rielly lug the puck up the middle of the ice. The Leaf centre took a cross-ice pass, bore down on Blues defender Joel Edmundson, slipped the puck through a tight space, then got a shot off that Allen couldn’t smother.
As Kadri was sent crashing into the end boards, Rielly potted the rebound and the game was tied. It was an exhilarating moment that rewarded the Leafs for stubbornly sticking to their game against a good opponent, and another moment when Kadri, with his superb set-up, gave Leaf fans reason to applaud his development into an elite forward this season.
Sure, it would have been nice if he’d later stopped Tarasenko in OT. But that’s three-on-three, and Kadri and linemates Komarov and William Nylander had stumped the Blues’ best player all night until then.
In the larger picture, almost eight years after he was drafted seventh overall, Kadri is having his strongest professional season. He is a shining example of what is possible when the Leafs put an emphasis on drafting and development. Kadri, with 20 goals and 20 assists while often playing a shutdown role, might be the best player they have produced in the post-expansion era through first having him apprentice for a significant period with their top minor-league affiliate.
Every player, of course, is different. Auston Matthews jumped right into the league this season. Mitch Marner, too, after playing his first post-draft season in the OHL last year. But more and more, the Leafs are committing to having most of their prospects establish themselves at the AHL level first.
Kadri, who played 119 regular-season games and 11 post-season games with the Marlies, is the best example of this, and Connor Brown (140 regular-season and playoff games in the AHL) may be the next.
Not since the pre-1967 days of the Rochester Americans have the Leafs been very good at this part of team building. Rocky Saganiuk was a player in the ’70s who came up through the Dallas and New Brunswick teams and was an effective forward for four seasons.
During the 1980s, the Leaf situation cried out for a quality farm operation to help all those kids adjust to pro hockey, but it just wasn’t there. Todd Gill was one of the few examples of a Leaf prospect from that era who did prosper in this way. Drafted in ’84, he was up and down with the Newmarket Saints for 71 games, but finally stuck and played 1,007 NHL games before he was done.
Yanic Perreault, meanwhile, played three full seasons with the AHL St. John’s squad in the early 1990s, eventually blossoming into the NHL’s top faceoff man. He played 859 NHL games.
But players like Saganiuk, Gill and Perreault were the exceptions. It wasn’t really until Brian Burke arrived in late 2008 that the Leafs started putting significant money and pride into their farm club. Burke undercut those efforts by trading away high draft picks, but Kadri was his initial first-round pick, and from the beginning the Leafs were determined to sculpt this young talent gradually.
Kadri went back to junior, then spent the bulk of his time in the NHL for the next two seasons.
Over time and different administrations, the Leafs have stood by their investment, refusing to move him along more quickly, declining to abandon him when he showed a lack of commitment or maturity and also opting not to overpay him, which may have been crucial.
They ignored impatient cries to promote him sooner, and later others that suggested they should write him off. It has paid off handsomely, as Kadri has become a complete player, perhaps a Selke Trophy candidate, different than the high-octane attacker he was projected to be, and probably imagined himself to be when he was drafted.
Good things often take time. The Leafs finally seem to understand this. Nylander’s 75 AHL games clearly helped him, and Freddie Gauthier showed this season he may have more to offer after AHL work than many believed he ever would. While Leaf fans want the team to go out and get blue-line help, the Marlies are grooming Travis Dermott and Andrew Nielsen, and you can anticipate both will get another full year in the minors.
It’s the less glamorous part of building a team. A risky trade is more fun, and who has time to wait in a 140-character universe?
But if this chapter in Leaf history is to lead anywhere, the Leafs are going to achieve what they achieved with Kadri many times over.
Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for The Star. Follow him @DamoSpin. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday.
Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for The Star. Follow him @DamoSpin. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday.
The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
