Former Toronto Maple Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk, Leafs forward Mitch Marner (16) and former Leafs forward Tyler Bozak (far right) watch the replay of a goal by forward Nazem Kadri (second from right) against the Montreal Canadiens in the third period at the (former) Air Canada Centre.John E. Sokolowski/Reuters
Nazem Kadri is looking forward to seeing his old pal Tyler Bozak on Saturday night when the St. Louis Blues player pays his first visit to his former hockey home.
“I know everything he does,” Kadri said on Friday when he was asked about playing against Bozak after being a fellow centre with him for eight of Bozak’s nine seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. “I know him maybe better than he knows himself. I’ll definitely be prepared.”
However, thanks to something that clicked into place with Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock this week, Kadri will have to settle for only visiting off the ice with his former teammate. On the ice, Kadri will be settling in for what is now his regular assignment, playing against the opposition’s best centre, in this case probably the Blues’ Brayden Schenn.
Bozak, who was not re-signed by the Leafs when he became a free agent last summer, went from being the Leafs’ third-line centre to the same job with the Blues. He will likely see a lot of either Auston Matthews or John Tavares, as Babcock is expected to use the home advantage of last change to keep one of his two star centres against the Blues’ bottom-six forwards.
It is an assignment Kadri moved into over the past two seasons, as Matthews grew into the role of No. 1 centre with the Leafs. With the addition of Tavares this season, Kadri’s job as the matchup centre who would take on the opposition’s best line, ideally leaving the Matthews and Tavares lines to roll over lesser foes, became even more important.
But it was not a job Babcock gave Kadri right away this season. Up until Thursday night’s 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and their two superstar centres, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Matthews was often left to fend for himself against the top centres. With Crosby schooling the 21-year-old Matthews over the first two periods, that ended in the third when Kadri was sent in and did a good job against the Penguins star for the rest of the night.
“We haven’t matched up [Kadri’s] line just because of the situation and who’s on it,” Babcock said. “But we think we’re in position to start doing that [Saturday]. That will be good for Naz as well. He’s an important player on our team. We need him to be mean and we need him to compete hard.”
The “situation,” according to Babcock was caused by “the changes in our lineup with moving people around.”
All of this relates to Matthews’s former winger, William Nylander. With the Leafs and Nylander unable to agree on a contract and Nylander sitting at home in Sweden, dominoes fell throughout the Leafs’ lineup. Kadri started the season with linemates Josh Leivo and Connor Brown, but Babcock did not have enough confidence in the unit to make it a shutdown line on a regular basis.
Things started to change when rookie Par Lindholm, signed to take over the fourth-line centre’s job, was moved to Kadri’s left wing with Leivo dropping down to the fourth line.
“Now that we found Lindy here, obviously he’s a really good player and very intelligent with and without [the puck],” Babcock said. “Now we’re more comfortable and can move ahead with our long-term plan.”
The next job is to get Kadri his first goal of the season. In eight games he has four assists and just a few close calls when it comes to goals. He says this is not getting to him … yet.
“For me, it’s a matter of getting the first one out of the way and then they’re going to come in bunches,” said Kadri, who scored 32 goals in each of the past two seasons. “I’m handling the puck, I’m playing, the possession is great. My line controlled a lot of the possession when we were out there [against Pittsburgh], got a lot of opportunities, didn’t play much defence.
“For me, that’s a positive thing. It’s just being able to understand that we are getting these chances. I’m going to have an opportunity to score every single game. That’s the way I look at it. I’m less than half an inch away from having three or four of them. So for me the positive thing is being able to feel good, feel the puck on my stick.”
While Kadri will stay in his role as the shutdown centre, Babcock was not willing to say the move of Lindholm from centre to the wing is permanent.
“I don’t predict the future,” the coach said. “I don’t know. If we stay with the current lineup [Lindholm] will be a winger. If we get everybody on deck here it will be different.”
In other words, if Nylander signs before the Dec. 1 deadline for restricted free agents to get a contract or sit out the season, Lindholm will be moved back to centre on the fourth line, replacing Frederik Gauthier, and someone will step into the spot beside Kadri.