TORONTO | The Maple Leafs now have enough depth at center with the additions of Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari to move John Tavares to left wing. In the Canadian camp, Alex Belzile found himself at the center of one of the first three lines in the absence of Kirby Dach, still ill.
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When you just compare talent to the center position, it was a heavyweight versus bantamweight fight. The heaviest on the scale won.
The Maple Leafs greeted the debut of the two former St. Louis Blues with an easy 5-1 win against CH on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena. Lost in their first two games on the ice at the Bell Centre, the Leafs scored their first win against their old rivals this season.
“I think we have ten NHL players right now on our injured list,” Martin St-Louis said after the game. We really focus on the way we want to play and that’s what I analyze.
St-Louis for once showed a sign of impatience by looking towards the infirmary to explain the setback of his people. He was answering a question about whether the last two games against the Hurricanes and the Leafs, two of the best teams in the NHL, could serve as a barometer for him.
The head coach of the Habs did not exaggerate when speaking of ten injuries. For the visit to Toronto, he had to manage without Dach, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Brendan Gallagher, Sean Monahan, Jake Evans, Joel Edmundson, Arber Xhekaj and Kaiden Guhle. And if we add Paul Byron, on the injured list since the first day of the calendar, we arrive at ten players.
Everything collapses
The CH held on for more than 20 minutes against the Leafs. Josh Anderson even scored the first goal of the match by redirecting a strike from Mike Matheson.
But the home side found a way to bounce back and turn things around by scoring five goals in a row.
“The Leafs have a good team and you can’t give them too many chances,” noted winger Jonathan Drouin. We also knew that there would be a great energy in the building with the big exchange on Friday evening. We were there for a while, but we ended up giving too many chances.
For the Leafs, Michael Bunting led the attack with two goals. Auston Matthews also worked his magic, but showed off his passing skills with two assists. William Nylander, meanwhile, continued his momentum by scoring his 31e goal of the season.
In his first game with his hometown team, O’Reilly got an assist on Bunting’s second goal late in the second period.
“I was really excited for this game, I just had a pretty crazy 24 hours,” O’Reilly told colleagues in Toronto. I can’t yet realize what is happening to me. I now find myself with a very good team. I had family in the stands for my debut here. It’s special for me.”
O’Reilly had a good night in the face-off circle going 12-for-14 for 86%. Kyle Dubas has added an experienced player, but also a master face-off to his team. It could pay off in playoffs. If the Leafs can finally cast off their first-round demons.
With the absences of Ilya Samsonov (ill) and Matt Murray (injured), goaltender Justin Woll recorded a first victory in his second start of the season with the Maple Leafs.
What we notice
Dangerous against the Leafs
Originally from Burlington, a city located 45 minutes from Toronto when there is no traffic, Josh Anderson has the number of the Maple Leafs. For the third time this season, Anderson has scored against his boyhood team. He redirected a Mike Matheson shot in the second period to beat Joseph Woll. In 17 games for the Canadiens, the big winger scored nine goals against Toronto.
A first game for Schueneman
Recalled from the Laval Rocket in the morning, Corey Schueneman took part in a first meeting with the CH this season. The 27-year-old defender has formed a duo with David Savard. For a player who had spent the entire season in the American League, Schueneman did pretty well against one of the NHL’s fine offenses. Chris Wideman watched the game from the press catwalk. Wideman finished with a -4 record against the Hurricanes on Thursday in Raleigh.
Seven shots for Drouin
Jonathan Drouin still hasn’t scored his first goal of the season, but he still fired seven shots at Woll. “If I keep getting seven-shot games, I’ll end up scoring one,” Drouin said. We lost 5 to 1, but I still liked the work of our trio. Number 27 again played on the left wing with Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia.
Five shots, five checks
Noel Acciari, the other newcomer, performed well on his Leafs debut. He finished the game with five shots against Jake Allen, but also five hits.
Thumbs
Most: Mike Matheson
Matheson finished the game with one assist, +1 and six hits. He was also the most-used player with a playing time of 23:55.
Least: Johnathan Kovacevic
Kovacevic made a big turnover on Pierre Engvall’s goal, the Leafs’ second of the game. In the second period, he also lost a battle behind his net against Auston Matthews. The American then served a perfect relay towards Nylander who hit the target.