Canadian 0 — Maple Leafs 3 | Young people challenged

(Toronto) For many reasons, Wednesday’s preparatory duel between the Canadiens and the Maple Leafs risks sinking into oblivion in a few years, when the ephemeris of September 28 is compiled.

Guillaume Lefrancois
The Press

From Paul Henderson’s goal in 1972 to 61^e circuit of Aaron Judge through the death of Louis Pasteur and Coolio, there will be something for everyone. So the 3-0 victory of club B of the Leafs against club B of the Canadian will probably not have its place in history with a capital H.

But those considerations came a long way for the ten Habs prospects who were sent into the fray at ScotiaBank Arena. In a side where reconstruction and injuries open up possibilities, they all have a lot to play for.

Let’s start at the blue line, because that’s where the stakes are the most concrete. With only three healthy veterans, and Joel Edmundson who is “progressing”, according to the latest news, there are still three open positions, calculating a workforce of seven defenders.

Martin St-Louis could very well have tried to pair Jordan Harris and Arber Xhekaj with two veterans, in order to facilitate their learning. The head coach instead employed them within the same tandem. “Jordan likes to go on the attack, without running too many risks. I’m more defensive, but I can give an attacking boost. We complement each other well,” observed Xhekaj after the game.

“With his skate, his size and his intelligence, Arber makes his partner’s job easier,” Harris said, in a dismissal that was not arranged with the sights guy, according to our observations.

Their match was not without errors. Harris learned the hard way, on the first goal of the game, that Nick Robertson is a formidable skater. Xhekaj, on the other hand, likes to try to get out of trouble with his skating, in the offensive zone, rather than getting rid of the puck, but he does sometimes get played tricks on him.

Nevertheless, overall, St-Louis judged that Xhekaj had played a “very mature” match. He didn’t say anything specific about Harris, but said his young defenders “all had a good time.” This duo was the best of CH in puck possession indicators.

Beck again

Up front, the stakes are not the same, due to a surplus of attackers mentioned a few times this fall.

Juraj Slafkovsky was the most “pampered” of the lot, since he was paired with two rare veterans among the forwards present in Toronto, in this case Joel Armia and Rem Pitlick. It was not stunning for the first choice of the last draft, but it must be admitted that Pitlick was on trial at the center, and that it may remain that, a trial. Let’s move on.

Owen Beck and Filip Mesar, on the other hand, didn’t seem intimidated by the scale of the task. We were talking about Harris and Xhekaj not being paired with veterans; the same can be said of Beck and Mesar. The two 18-year-olds skated on the same line, and their partner was Mitchell Stephens, a good American League player who never established himself in the big leagues.

Mesar was possibly his side’s most visible forward, while Beck continued to work effectively down the middle and win a majority (54%) of his face-offs.

Count Chris Wideman among their admirers. “They made plays. They didn’t hide, argued the veteran defender. They try games and it’s good for the team, it pushes the other young people and the older ones. »

Mesar has already admitted he sees himself two years out of the NHL, but that doesn’t mean he’s wasting his time at camp in the meantime. “You see his talent. We brought 70 players to the camp, we teach everyone, we show them how we work. When it’s going to be their turn here, they’ll know how we do things,” summarized St-Louis.

Beck is the surprise of the camp so far. On Monday, he was paired with Cole Caufield and Mike Hoffman, the team’s top two shooters. By pairing him this time with an 18-year-old player and an American League player, St-Louis raised the bar. It could very well have “burst the balloon” of Beck. The young man responded quite well.

The level of play in the preparatory matches generally rises to the second week. It will be interesting to see how the most prominent prospects react. If the most ambitious will continue to rise at the same time as the bar.

Up: Emil Heineman

Technically he’s not on the rise, because he’s been shining in camp so far. But he continued his good work and he understood that his shooting was one of his weapons.

Down: Corey Schueneman

He was the most used player in his side after Arber Xhekaj, but it hasn’t always been easy.

The number of the match: 6

Arber Xhekaj and Lucas Condotta finished the match with 6 hits each. The two players should theoretically start the season in Laval, and they will make life difficult for the rivals. Inspired by the Broad Street Bullies, can we propose “The toughs of rue Claude-Gagné” as a nickname?

In details

A less happy experience

The absence of Nick Suzuki and Sean Monahan allows Martin St-Louis to test different options at center, and Rem Pitlick was given a try on Wednesday. Against the Maple Leafs who were playing without their first two centers (John Tavares is injured and Auston Matthews was off), Pitlick avoided tough confrontations, but nothing helped. The talkative striker is much more in his element on the wing than in the middle. He had a painful night on faceoffs, especially on a streak early in the second period where he lost three faceoffs in the defensive zone, back to back, results of Habs disallowed punts. The Leafs almost scored after one of these face-offs. Pitlick would do well to prove himself able to play in the center, because for attackers with a little more precarious status, versatility is an interesting asset.

A thrilling hope

Nick Robertson still hasn’t shown anything in the National League, but his scoring skills are known-and long-awaited-in Toronto. Will this be the season he establishes himself in the NHL? We’ll know in a few weeks, but if he lines up performances like Wednesday’s, his chances are good. Robertson was the Leafs’ most threatening forward, with high-quality shooting and improved skating for a player that was a weakness when he was younger. Choice of 2^e turn of the Leafs in 2019, Robertson followed up with a fabulous season of 55 goals in 46 games in the Ontario Junior League (OHL), but the pandemic prevented him from writing his story to the end. Last season, with the Marlies, he scored 16 times in 28 games. The younger brother of the Stars’ Jason Robertson will be one to watch for a top-9 spot, and the absence of John Tavares for the next three weeks means the contenders will have more of a chance to prove themselves.

Do you skate backwards?

Incongruous situation at the Leafs. Defender Jordie Benn abdicated after three appearances in the first period, before being imitated by Carl Dahlström at the start of the period. The Torontonians therefore had to finish the game with four natural defensemen, which forced forwards, notably former Predators Calle Järnkrok, to make a few appearances on the blue line. If they were to be absent in the medium term, their loss would be added to that of Timothy Liljegren (injured). If there’s anyone who should be rubbing their hands with a Machiavellian laugh, it’s Rasmus Sandin’s agent, a restricted free agent who still hasn’t agreed with the Leafs for the upcoming season…

They said