If the Toronto Maple Leafs keep scoring goals at will they are never going to learn the value of a good start to every game.
Once again, the Leafs came out for the opening faceoff in a swoon – perhaps thinking ahead to Thursday’s big game when John Tavares goes back to play in front of New York Islanders fans for the first time since he signed that big contract with the Leafs.
But the Edmonton Oilers were not able to turn that lapse into a big lead Wednesday night, which made it easier for the Leafs to come to their senses, fill the net and skate off with a 6-2 win, their third in a row. This pulled the Leafs to within one point of the Boston Bruins in the fight for second place in the NHL’s Atlantic Division.
Patrick Marleau started the Leafs’ rally late in the first period with his 14th goal of the season. Then the Leafs came out in the second and scored four more in seven minutes, the last two on the power play. Andreas Johnsson scored twice along with Mitch Marner and William Nylander. John Tavares added a power-play goal just after the third period started. Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for the Oilers.
“We feel like we have a lot of confidence out there,” said Johnsson, who has four goals in his last two games. “We know we haven’t had the greatest starts but we know that when we continue to grind we create opportunities. Once someone starts rolling the other ones follow that guy.
“Patty Marleau picked us up there in the first with an important goal. Every time we get a goal we get more hungry to get another one.”
There was a price to the win as the Leafs lost another important defenceman for what might be the long-term. Travis Dermott left the game in the third period with a shoulder injury. Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said his status is “week-to-week.” That was the same assessment given to Jake Gardiner, who missed the game due to back spasms.
With both Dermott and Gardiner on the shelf, Babcock said Martin Marincin will be called up from the Toronto Marlies farm team. He and Justin Holl, who has appeared in just two games this season and has not played since Dec. 23, will form the Leafs’ third defence pair.
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This puts the Leafs in a bad position for the Islanders game on Thursday. Not only is it the second of back-to-back, home-and-road games, the Islanders will be charged up for their first meeting on home ice against Tavares, who was their franchise player for nine seasons until he signed with his hometown Maple Leafs last summer.
Even though the Islanders are much better than anticipated this season and are tied for the lead in the Metropolitan Division, their fans are still outraged at Tavares’s decision. They are flooding social media with their vitriol, calling Tavares a Judas in so many words.
The Leafs flew into New York after the Oilers game and Tavares said he is trying not to worry about the Islander game. But he made it clear he does not think he has any reason to apologize to the Islander fans.
“I had every right to go through the process I went through,” Tavares said. “I tried to be open and honest when I made my decision. I had no idea what I was going to do until I made my decision. People can take it any way they want.
“I’m just going to go out there and play, do what I have to do to do my best.”
But, he admitted, he knows there will be a lot of emotion, especially since the game will be played at the renovated Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, the team’s traditional home, and not the Barclays Center in Brooklyn where they have played for the last few seasons.
“[It is] hard to say really what I’ll feel,” Tavares said. “I’m sure it will be an emotional evening. At the same time I want to try and focus on playing and go out there and do what I have to do.
“I don’t really try to worry about it. Like I said many times, since day-one when I was drafted there I fully embraced being an Islander. I loved it and gave it everything I had. It’s not up to me to convince anybody of that. I’ve got enough to worry about. I’m just trying to play my game and help the Maple Leafs.”
In the Oilers game, the slow start was rather odd simply because of who was visiting. Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, who grew up in nearby Newmarket, was coming off a two-game suspension and making the third appearance of his NHL career at the Leafs’ arena, where he watched his first NHL game. He was also looking for his first point in his hometown.
“When [McDavid] gets the puck we know he has a lot of speed, so it’s going to take the five-man group to try and bring him to an area, try to slow him down a little bit,” Marner said before the game. “I’m sure he’s going to be ready to play tonight. He missed the last two and he’s home.”
The appearance of McDavid, who along with Draisaitl are the lone bright spots for the Oilers this season, brought up the inevitable comparisons with Leafs centre Auston Matthews. McDavid, for example, had 85 points in 58 games going into the meeting with the Leafs while Matthews, who had to contend with a shoulder injury, had 58 points in 48 games. But Matthews wasn’t having it.
“I don’t know if I measure myself against other guys,” Matthews said. “I measure myself to myself. I try to be the best player I can be.
“Obviously there’s guys in the league like Connor, like Sid [Crosby], that are kind of on their own level. I think guys look at that and want to be on their level. For myself I measure myself to my own standard.”
The Leafs certainly didn’t measure up in the first period. McDavid got his first point in Toronto by setting up Draisaitl for the first goal.
But this game followed the script in another way, too. “We get those chances to come back in the second and third because of Fred,” Marner noted.
Fred is Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen, who is charged with keeping them in the game while his teammates gather their thoughts. And so it went Tuesday night, as the Oilers outshot the Leafs 16-10 in the first period.
But the Leafs wasted little time taking charge in the second period. It was done with one of those quick goals the Leafs can score that are especially back-breaking. Hainsey fired the puck a good 70 feet up the ice to Zach Hyman, who was standing at the Oilers blue line at the right boards. At the same time, Marner took off for the net, Hyman flipped the puck into the slot and Marner redirected it into the net before the Oilers knew what happened.
Johnsson and Nylander followed with their goals and by 8:09 the Leafs had a 5-1 lead. Koskinen was the second goaltender chased from the net in as many games by the Leafs, departing after Nylander’s goal in favour of Anthony Stolarz.