By Stan Smith
After a four-day break, the Toronto Maple Leafs travelled to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers on Thursday night. They came away with a convincing 6-2 win. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game?
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The Good
I was worried that, after four days without a game, it might take the Maple Leafs a while to get their legs going. That was not the case as they came out buzzing. They scored just two minutes into the contest when Tyler Bertuzzi deflected a back-door, one-timer pass from Auston Matthews behind Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson. Pontus Holmberg, at 9:57, and Timothy Liljegren at 15:39, put the Maple Leafs up 3-0 before the first period was over.
Toronto put the puck in the Flyers net four times in the period. They had one goal called back after the goal was challenged. It was ruled that Matthews had committed a glove pass behind the Philadelphia net when the puck tipped off the finger of his glove.
Despite the shot attempts (23-21) and the shots (12-12) making it seem this was an evenly played period, it was a total domination by the Maple Leafs. According to Naturalstattrick.com, of the 12 shots Toronto had in the period, 11 were High-Danger Scoring Chances. Only two of the 12 shots the Flyers generated were of the High Danger variety.
Philadephia tried to make a game of it in the second period and managed to score a goal, but the Maple Leafs completely shut them down in the third period and only allowed them one High-Danger Scoring Chance in the third stanza.
Tyler Bertuzzi
Tyler Bertuzzi was a force in this game. He scored a goal, had a goal called back, and added a primary assist on the Liljegren goal. After scoring just seven goals and adding 15 assists in his first 53 games with the Maple Leafs, Bertuzzi has six goals and nine points in his last ten games.
Timothy Liljegren and Joel Edmundson
Timothy Liljegren, who is in a dogfight to remain in the lineup, might have had his best game this season. He scored a goal and added an assist. He led the team with a 5-on-5 Expected Goals of 85.3%. When he was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Maple Leafs had nine High-Danger Scoring Chances For and zero Against. It seemed that every time Liljegren was on the ice he was noticeable for all the right reasons. He was driving play and getting involved in the offense without being a liability defensively.
His primary partner, Joel Edmundson was practically invisible in the game, which is great. With Edmundson being a defensive specialist, when he is succeeding he is not noticeable. His 5-on-5 Expected Goals was 84.3% and he was not on the ice for a single 5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chance Against.
If Liljegren and Edmundson can keep up this level of play it can go a long way to shoring up the Maple Leafs’ defense going into the playoffs.
Pontus Holmberg and Connor Dewar
Pontus Holmberg scored a goal and added an assist in the game. The recently acquired Connor Dewar won the faceoff leading to the goal. He also had the primary assist on Holmberg’s goal. The fourth line of Dewar, Holmberg, and Reaves had some strong shifts where they pinned the Flyers in their zone for extended periods.
Holmberg was rewarded for his strong play in the game by seeing some shifts in the top six.
Auston Matthews and William Nylander
With the emphasis of the Maple Leafs recently shifting to a defence-first type of game, the top players on the team are not getting the scoring chances they have gotten for most of the season. Auston Matthews scored his second goal in his last six games and added an assist. William Nylander also had a two-point game (1G, 1A). Matthews’ goal pace has slipped to just under 70, at 69.6. Nylander is still on a 108-point game pace for the season.
Ilya Samsonov
Ilya Samsonov was solid once again in the Maple Leafs’ net. He would have only allowed one goal in this game if he had not been let down by the skaters in front of him late in the third period. Samsonov did stop 26 of the 28 shots he faced, a 0.929 save percentage. While there are still 17 games left in the regular season, it appears that Samsonov might have regained the number one status he had lost to rookie Joseph Woll earlier in the season.
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The Bad
There wasn’t much bad that happened in this game. There was some bad luck on the first Flyers goal. With Philadelphia on the power play a one-time slapshot by Morgan Frost went wide of the Toronto goal but rebounded right to Owen Tippet. Samsonov never had time to react before the puck was behind him in the net.
With the Maple Leafs up 6-1 and on the power play in the last two minutes of the game, the second power-play unit gave up an odd-man rush the other way. That resulted in the Flyers scoring a shorthanded goal.
The Ugly
Calle Jarnkrok went into the boards awkwardly and left the game. He did not return. It was reported on Friday that Jarnkrok will be out “week to week” with a hand injury. Jarnkrok had recently returned to the lineup after missing 13 games with a reported knuckle injury. Information was not released as to whether this injury was related to the previous one.
Ilya Lyubushkin left the game twice with apparent injuries but returned both times. Lyhubushkin did not take part in practice on Friday. However, head coach Sheldon Keefe did not rule him out for Saturday’s game.
What’s Next?
The Maple Leafs host the Carolina Hurricanes tonight. They then have an unusual week where they play four back-to-back games. They return to Philadelphia for a rematch against the Flyers on Tuesday night and then skip over to Washington to take on the Capitals on Wednesday night. Toronto then returns home to face the visiting Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night before flying to Carolina on Sunday.
I don’t know if I have even seen a situation where a team has played four games in six nights and all these games were back-to-back games. The Tuesday game in Philadelphia begins a stretch where the Maple Leafs play nine games in fifteen days.
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