By Stan Smith
Once again, due to other commitments, I am a day late getting this out. Rather than breaking down the game piece by piece or play by play, I want to explore some of the other aspects of the situation the Toronto Maple Leafs found themselves in surrounding the game and the thought process that might have gone into the approach to the game.
Related: What Were Ridley Grieg and Morgan Rielly Thinking?
The Good
Of course, pretty much everything in this game was good.
I read and heard there was a lot of talk of gloom and doom by the media when it was announced that the Maple Leafs be without Morgan Rielly due to his suspension. In addition, they were also going to be missing Mitch Marner and John Tavares for the game due to illness. As soon as I heard that I was excited to see how the game would play out. One thing I have witnessed watching hockey for half a century is that when teams are missing star or key players the other players usually step up and play very well in the short term.
There is a reason for that. In the Maple Leafs’ case, you have Auston Matthews and William Nylander at the top of the team’s depth chart. Their role would not change much. But, every other skater on the team knew before that game started that they would play a more important role in that game than they usually would. They were not thinking of doom and gloom. They were going to be without three key players; and, every single one of them would be excited about the opportunity to play more.
You could see that in the way the team skated right off the bat. They were on their toes and in the faces of the St. Louis players from the drop of the puck. Not only did Toronto only allow the Blues just 15 shots in the game; but, according to Naturalstattrick.com the Maple Leafs had twice the High-Danger Scoring Chances as the Blues (16-8). They also had 74% of the Expected Goals in the game.
Bobby McMann
Bobby McMann did not know if he was even going to play in this game until he got to the rink at 4:00 pm. He stated the day after that he knew following the morning skate that some players were sick but he did not know their game status until he arrived at the rink. At that point, he was told John Tavares was out and he was in.
Little did McMann know that this game may be the crowning glory of this career (to date). His hat wardrobe would expand immensely.
McMann’s path to the NHL was not the usual path. The Wainright Alberta native’s entire junior career was spent in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, a Tier 2 league, a step below the Canadien Junior Hockey League. Once his junior career was finished, he decided to go the scholastic route and attended Colgate University.
When McMann completed college, the Toronto Marlies inked him to an AHL contract. They assigned him to the Wichita Thunder of the ECHL to start the 2020-21 season. McMann played only 22 games in the ECHL before becoming a regular for the Marlies in the AHL. He played his first NHL game at the age of 26 in January of 2023.
Going into this game, McMann had two goals and eight points in 36 NHL games. I am not a betting man and I don’t follow the oddsmakers. However, I can imagine the odds were pretty high against McMann scoring a single goal let alone three.
Not to take anything away from McMann’s accomplishment, but there was some luck involved in all three of his goals. He worked hard and deserves credit for winning a battle with two Blues players in the corner before walking out from behind the St. Louis net. The replay showed that, as he was bringing the puck from his backhand to forehand, Brayden Schenn got a piece of the puck and McMann’s stick. That caused McMann to lose control of the puck. The puck bounced off the side of the St. Louis goal and came right back to McMann. That might have caused Jordan Binnington to freeze for a split second. Whatever happened, it allowed McMann to step out front and forehand the puck past Binnington’s right pad.
Related: Marlies Report: Same Team, Two Wildly Different Results
McMann’s second goal was a huge goal for the Maple Leafs. It came on a rebound off a blocked shot by Blues defenseman Matthew Kessel. The puck dropped to McMann’s feet. McMann turned and fired a bad-angle blind shot toward the St. Louis net from about three feet from the goal line that went right into the top right corner of the net.
On the bank shot, empty net goal McMann was trying to get the puck out of the Toronto zone without icing it. He had too much weight on the shot; and, if it had not hit the net it would have indeed been icing. Also, Torey Krug raced back to stop the puck from entering the net and got his stick on it about six inches before it went over the line. Krug only managed to get enough of the puck to change how it entered the net.
But, this was Bobby McMann’s night. He was on the ice and doing the right things. He is a hardworking player and on this night his hard work paid off.
One other good thing I want to mention is the fact that Toronto is fortunate to have both the Maple Leafs and the Marlies in the same city. It wasn’t decided until 5 pm that Marner would not be able to play. The team was able to call Alex Steeves and tell him to get his butt to the rink. He was there and ready to go in less than two hours.
The Bad
While I am sure Tyler Bertuzzi is happy for McMann, he has to be wondering what he has done to anger the hockey gods. He had three class “A” scoring chances in this game and still came away with nothing to show for it. Bertuzzi does not have a goal in 2024. The last goal he scored was 18 games ago on December 27. 2023.
Head Coach Sheldon Keefe stated the old mantra that Bertuzzi is getting his chances which made me wonder if that is true. By the eye test, it appears to me that he has had tons of scoring chances. Naturalstatrick.com shows that in 50 games this season Bertuzzi has had 59 High-Danger Scoring Chances (HDSC) at five-on-five.
A quick check on some other players shows that Auston Matthews has had 80 HDSC, William Nylander has had 49, and Mitch Marner has had 37. (Note: I chose five-on-five chances because Bertuzzi does not get a lot of power play time). That shows that Bertuzzi is indeed getting his chances. He has just not been able to capitalize on them.
Bertuzzi went through the same thing in the regular season in 2022-23. He scored just eight goals in 50 games last season but then tallied five goals in seven playoff games for the Bruins. We will have to hope the same thing happens this season.
The Ugly
There was only one ugly thing I saw in the game. Jake McCabe skated to the bench with his face all bloody from a cut on his nose for the second time in three games. And, to make matters worse, the Maple Leafs had a penalty called on them on the play.
Watching replays of the play, McCabe gets hit from behind into the boards by Alexey Toropchenko. Then Max Domi comes in and hits Toropchenko into the boards from behind. The two hits were almost identical. The only difference was McCabe, while hurt, did not fall down. But, Toropchenko did.
To make matters worse whichever referee made the call must have realized they made a mistake and it would look bad if they called boarding, hitting from behind, or anything else that related to what happened on the ice. Instead, they decided to call Domi for interference. That made the call an even bigger joke because Toropchenko had the puck on his stick when Domi hit him.
The Maple Leafs killed off the penalty, but the Blues used the momentum created by their power play to score 28 seconds after the expiration of Domi’s penalty.
What’s Next?
Things got worse health-wise for the Maple Leafs yesterday. Nylander missed practice with the same illness that befell Tavares and Marner. Seeing as Rielly had nothing else to do he filled in on the right wing on the top line in practice. It will be interesting to see who can go for tonight’s game when the Philadelphia Flyers are in town. Some of the sick players might have recovered enough by then to play. But, there’s also the chance that some other players will have come down with whatever is going through the locker room.
The Flyers are presently third in the Metropolitan Division and have two more points than Toronto with three more games played. This could potentially be a four-point wildcard game. The Flyers have been on a streaky roller coaster ride of late. They won five games in a row, then lost five in a row. Now they’ve put together another four-game winning streak going into this game.
Keefe did announce that Ilya Samsonov, who has won five of his last six starts, will be between the pipes. I think it might be time to declare Samsonov is back. In his last six games, he has allowed 11 goals on 150 shots for a 0.927 save percentage and has a Goals-Against-Average of 1.82.
It was reported yesterday the Maple Leafs have a unique situation in the locker room They have spots for five goalies. It was reported before the Blues game that Martin Jones had suffered an undisclosed injury. That prompted the call-up of Dennis Hildeby. Despite not skating, Matt Murray is with the team attending strategy meetings and could be ready to go for the playoffs if needed. Joseph Woll has been taking part in full practices and could be reactivated off of LTIR at any time. And of course, there is Samsonov.