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At one stage it seemed Auston Matthews might kick in the door to 70 goals in one night.
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Then the Maple Leafs stubbed their collective toe in the game and in the playoff race for home ice advantage in a 6-5 loss to the eliminated New Jersey Devils. Coupled with Florida’s win against Columbus, Toronto has a five-point deficit on the second-place Panthers to make up with three games to play, including their penultimate match in Sunrise.
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After the momentum of his two early goals, reaching 68 and passing Dave Keon for third in club history with 366, his line’s momentum was mothballed by a well-meaning act of defence by Max Domi. The latter received an instigator, major and misconduct for retaliating when Simon Nemec rubbed Matthews out.
“I saw it out of the corner of my eye, Auston and (Nemec) battling and I’m not a fan of that,” Domi said.
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As much as teammates and coach Sheldon Keefe liked it, that put the trio, with left winger Tyler Bertuzzi on extended pause until the final half of the third period. During which the Leafs allowed the last of three power play goals by the Devils and Jesper Bratt’s winner with 74 seconds to play.
“Max responded to a situation he felt needed to be addressed,” Keefe said. “But it has an impact on the game. Not only do you have to kill the penalty, it disrupts flow on the bench for 17 minutes. But ultimately you have to manage the game (under such adverse conditions). It was a strange game.”
Matthews is two shy of becoming the first NHLer to hit 70 since 1992-93 when Alex Mogilny and Teemu Selanne had 76. In addition to passing Keon, he eclipsed Mats Sundin with the most even strength goals in club history (274). But he was also serving a rare minor when Bratt put Jersey up 5-4.
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“It was sloppy at times, not as dialed in as we should’ve been,” Matthews said. “They have a lot of speed and skill and when you’re careless with the puck, they’ll make you pay.
“Three games to go, you want to make sure these little details are what our attention’s on.”
Domi’s departure did lead to an ad hoc committee of Tavares, William Nylander and Marner, with Marner also joining Matthews and Bertuzzi.
NOT SO SPECIAL
In addition to the three power pay goals against, a season high, Toronto’s unit was 0-for-3 and nearly gave up one short-handed.
“We just don’t seem to be at the level of pace,” Tavares said of the latter. “Getting the puck moving or getting the puck to the net, or guys towards the net, how we recover pucks. We need to be as direct as possible and when our pace elevates, we have some pretty good players out there.”
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Tavares opened and closed the scoring for Toronto.
LONG NIGHT FOR SAMMY
After doing such a fine job getting his once atrocious save percentage closer to .900 since mid-January, Ilya Samsonov gave up six goals on 20 shots.
“We clearly hung him out to dry early in the game,” Keefe said of Tavares’s first-minute goal being matched by Erik Haula on a poorly cleared rebound and Mark Giordano handing Nolan Foote an open slot pass. “He’s been outstanding for us and he’ll be outstanding next time. Before the game a number caught my eye, just (six, now seven) regulation losses he’s had is remarkable.”
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WING DING FOR AUSTON?
The focus now shifts to Saturday and whether Matthews can cash two in Toronto’s final Scotiabank Arena regular-season game against the Red Wings.
“That would be terrific and 70’s a nice round number,” Keefe said. “What he’s doing right now, a lot of Leaf fans have never seen that many goals. Wherever this ends up going, it’s terrific to watch.
“Tonight was probably the first time I saw him maybe forcing it a bit after he got his second. (Mates) started forcing it to him and it started to break down. But he doesn’t need that, just play the game it will find its way to his stick.”
Both goals followed the now familiar script of Bertuzzi and Domi getting in deep on pucks, Domi knocking down one in mid-air to find Matthews uncovered, Bertuzzi behind the net to Domi, who patiently waited for Matthews at the blue paint.
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GAME ON
The first 13 minutes of the game had a bit of everything for both clubs, including a moving timeout tribute to the late Leaf No. 1 pick Rodion Amirov.
Nick Robertson wound up spoiling goals in consecutive games for himself when a Devils’ video challenge spotted him offside. He remained in the lineup for bruiser Ryan Reaves, on a third line with Nylander and Pontus Holmberg, while the interesting fourth line foray for Matthew Knies continued. Connor Dewar was back in the lineup, setting up David Kampf for Toronto’s fifth goal, a nice spin-o-rama by the big man.
A night’s rest was extended to defenceman Jake McCabe for what Keefe called recovery time for bumps and bruises. Joel Edmundson came back to the blueline after eight games off with what he finally revealed was a shot block injury.
Eliminated by the Leafs two days earlier, Jersey coach Travis Green urged his team not to lose focus and they responded.
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2024-04-12 03:56:15Z
CBMifGh0dHBzOi8vdG9yb250b3N1bi5jb20vc3BvcnRzL2hvY2tleS9uaGwvdG9yb250by1tYXBsZS1sZWFmcy9tYXR0aGV3cy1zY29yZS10d28tYnV0LW1hcGxlLWxlYWZzLWxvc2UtZ2FtZS1hbmQtcGxheW9mZi1ncm91bmTSAQA
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