The Toronto Maple Leafs’ special teams are setting the bar high on expectations as the NHL’s regular season approaches.
And it isn’t just the stacked first unit on the power play that is drawing all the attention. The penalty killers, led by the duo of John Tavares and Mitch Marner (who also play on that top power-play unit) are right with them in scoring. Yes, scoring.
The Leafs, with almost all of their projected opening-night lineup dressed, blitzed the visiting Detroit Red Wings 6-2 on Friday night with a special-teams explosion. In the space of three minutes and 54 seconds in the second period, the Leafs scored three power-play goals and a shorthanded marker to bury the Red Wings, who to that point had done their best to skate with the hosts.
By the end of that stretch, which saw Jake Gardiner, John Tavares and Patrick Marleau score on the power play, followed by a shorthanded goal from Par Lindholm, the Leafs had produced four power-play goals and three shorthanded ones in their last five periods.
This was accomplished in just the second game the top power-play unit played together. In their first game, the unit of forwards Tavares, Marner, Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri and defenceman Morgan Rielly clicked for two goals against the Montreal Canadiens.
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock spent the next few days telling everyone to calm down. The unit might look fabulous on paper and the immediate results might be impressive but a lot more work remained before true success could be achieved. That comes through repetition, the coach said, enough that every member of the unit would learn to know instinctively where everyone else was on the ice in every situation.
“The first thing you’ve got to look at is [the opposition’s] save percentage in exhibition,” Babcock said a few hours before Friday’s game. “So let’s not get all carried away with that. We’re looking for structure, is what we’re looking for.
“You do the same thing over and over and over again and then you score over and over and over again. The more you ad-lib, the less you score. Now, not at the start, because you can blow the puck by the goalie, you can do some things at the start because they haven’t watched hours of video on you to break you down.
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about those things [goals]. I think about was the process good? Did we do it right? Were we in the right spots? Were we going downhill at the right time? That’s how you score. So as good a players as you have, you’ve got to be in the right spots to do it all together.”
For more than half of the game it looked like the Red Wings had figured out how to stymie the big power play. They did not take a penalty until 10:59 of the second period. The Leafs’ first unit did not look too structured in that one but the second unit produced a goal by Gardiner.
Then the Red Wings fell apart when they took two minor penalties in succession, giving the Leafs a 5-on-3 power play. That resulted in goals by Tavares and Marleau.
The penalty killers checked in shortly after that when rookie defenceman Igor Ozhiganov, who looks like he has a job on the third Leafs pairing, took a penalty. That was Lindholm’s goal.
Kadri scored a five-on-five goal in the first period and Gardiner scored his second of the game in the third when the sides were playing four-on-four. That gave the Leafs a goal in every configuration save a four-on-three.
“It’s a good thing,” Matthews said dryly when this accomplishment was pointed out. “That’s the objective of the game, to score more goals.”
Tavares and Marner did double duty, as it appears they will in the regular season, on both special-teams units. With Marner zipping around picking off the puck, it looks like this unit will give out plenty of headaches this season.
Late in the first period on a Red Wings power play, for example, Marner chased a couple of Wings behind their net and then retreated toward centre ice. Then, when veteran Wings defenceman Niklas Kronwall tried a pass by the Detroit blue line, Marner picked it off and set up forward Frederik Gauthier for a scoring chance.
“Tavares has been just like a crowbar on the faceoff. We need him to win every draw. That’s what we want from him on both sides,” Babcock said of his newest penalty killer. “If he can do that for us, that’s his penalty killing. Then Mitchie [Marner] can be like a fifth guy. Mitchie is fast and smart and reads things. He makes you nervous out there.”
The Red Wings’ nerves were also apparent on the Leafs power play. On the Tavares goal, Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard was clearly worried about Auston Matthews and his fearsome shot on the left side. So he stayed too close to the post on the near side, which opened the right side of the net for a one-timer from Tavares. He ripped that one home when Matthews froze Howard and then leisurely slid the puck to a wide-open Tavares.
Tavares said he didn’t blame Howard for showing all that respect to Matthews and his shot.
"I know I would be, the way he can shoot the puck,” Tavares said. “Any time [Matthews] gets that kind of time and space you know he’s going to make the right play and find the open man.
“It’s not just finding the guy, it’s the ability to get the goalie and get the opponent to be drawn into what he’s doing. Then he puts it on a tee for me in the right spot. That’s when you know a guy is a special player. It’s not just finding the open man, it’s how he delivers it.
Kadri scored the other Leafs goal, while Gustav Nyqvist and Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings.
The Leafs wrap up the preseason schedule on Saturday night with a visit to Detroit. Their regular-season opener is next Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens.