Merry W!
Not sure what it is about these pesky Red Wings, but these guys have given us fits at Scotiabank Arena the past two matches. Lost in OT earlier this month, but we got the better of them in OT this time, prevailing 5-4.
We got pushed around for stretches. Didn't seem to have the same legs on the second night of a back-to-back. The Wings played an afternoon game yesterday and they had a bit more time to rest than we did.
Anyway, my takes.
Kapanen Finishes What He Started
Kapanen scored bookend goals, the first of the game and then the OT winner. At the start he was playing as LW on Auston's line with Nylander getting the promotion to the RW spot. And Kapanen scored just 27 seconds into the game.
But Nylander soon went back to Naz's line with Brown, and Marleau was back as Matthews' LW, moving Kapanen back to RW.
It clearly didn't affect Kap's effectiveness. He was buzzing all game, was one of the few skaters with zip to his strides and got rewarded with the OT winner above.
I can just see how desperately Babs is trying to get Nylander going. He has had an odd shift here and there next to Matthews and has shown some life. Eventually, he'll be back as RW there.
I wrote here earlier that I was hoping that move won't come at the expense of Kapanen. Babs hinted he won't demote Kapanen even if Nylander moves back to that RW spot. By this point, it doesn't seem to matter if Kapanen plays LW or RW.
Also, he did see some time on Ennis' spot on the 2nd PP unit. Glad I picked him up off the waiver wires in one of my four fantasy hockey leagues this season.
Rielly and Gardiner
We Leafs fans have long had love-and-hate relationships with our two homegrown defensemen, Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner.
Both are our first round picks, with Gardiner being four years older at 28. They had the same number of points last season at 52.
But Gardiner ended the last season on a sour note, with a series of disastrous miscues that led to our third period collapse vs. the Bruins in Game 7 of the first round series. His mistakes tend to be louder and more glaring than Rielly's, and it was pretty evident again in this game. He was responsible for the first two DET goals.
Watch the first one. Hronek gets an unassisted goal because it was GARDINER DOING THE SETUP FROM BEHIND HIS OWN NET!!!
The highlight for the second goal won't show Gardiner's mistake. Rasmussen scored at the end of a dominant stretch that lasted nearly two minutes, during which Detroit cycled the puck deep in our zone and toyed with us after Gardiner passed the puck right to a Wing from behind the goal line.
Rielly, on the other hand, scored two more points in this game. He now has 11 in his past five games and leads all D-men with 44. Watch this release.
JT makes a gorgeous play to set it up, but credit Rielly for finding space and jumping in on the attack at just the perfect time.
Gardiner will be a UFA after this season. With some young blue liners in the system and plenty of cash set to go into Marner's and Matthews' bank accounts, there's a pretty strong argument to be made that Gardiner will be expendable, or at least not worth pursuing, come summer.
Gardiner's only saving grace from this game was the point shot tipped in by JT to tie the game with 7.6 seconds left.
I'll have more to say about Tavares in a later post but my god, the man can play. I don't know of too many skilled guys who love crashing the net like he does. He parks himself at the top of the crease on power plays, and he's scored his share of goals on deflections or on rebounds after a scramble.
Trevor Moore, Welcome to the NHL!
Moore got called up from the Marlies in place of injured Ennis, and got his first NHL point with this pretty pass for a secondary assist.
Our fourth line guys all played under 10 minutes, as Babs mostly relied on the top 9, but when they did, they put together some effective, grinding shifts. Whenever you can get points out of these guys, it's a bonus.
Moore was wearing Bozak's old number, 42, and he's going to be given every opportunity to stick while Hyman and Ennis are out. Knowing he wasn't going to play much, Moore went full-speed on every shift. I liked the way he was backchecking hard on one particular shift in the third to foil a potential scoring chance.
It's Christmas Eve over in Korea today. I have to show up in the office on Christmas Day for a night duty. No game, and no blog tomorrow (my first off-day here!).
Merry Christmas to you all!
We got pushed around for stretches. Didn't seem to have the same legs on the second night of a back-to-back. The Wings played an afternoon game yesterday and they had a bit more time to rest than we did.
Anyway, my takes.
Kapanen Finishes What He Started
Kapanen scored bookend goals, the first of the game and then the OT winner. At the start he was playing as LW on Auston's line with Nylander getting the promotion to the RW spot. And Kapanen scored just 27 seconds into the game.
But Nylander soon went back to Naz's line with Brown, and Marleau was back as Matthews' LW, moving Kapanen back to RW.
It clearly didn't affect Kap's effectiveness. He was buzzing all game, was one of the few skaters with zip to his strides and got rewarded with the OT winner above.
I can just see how desperately Babs is trying to get Nylander going. He has had an odd shift here and there next to Matthews and has shown some life. Eventually, he'll be back as RW there.
I wrote here earlier that I was hoping that move won't come at the expense of Kapanen. Babs hinted he won't demote Kapanen even if Nylander moves back to that RW spot. By this point, it doesn't seem to matter if Kapanen plays LW or RW.
Also, he did see some time on Ennis' spot on the 2nd PP unit. Glad I picked him up off the waiver wires in one of my four fantasy hockey leagues this season.
Rielly and Gardiner
We Leafs fans have long had love-and-hate relationships with our two homegrown defensemen, Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner.
Both are our first round picks, with Gardiner being four years older at 28. They had the same number of points last season at 52.
But Gardiner ended the last season on a sour note, with a series of disastrous miscues that led to our third period collapse vs. the Bruins in Game 7 of the first round series. His mistakes tend to be louder and more glaring than Rielly's, and it was pretty evident again in this game. He was responsible for the first two DET goals.
Watch the first one. Hronek gets an unassisted goal because it was GARDINER DOING THE SETUP FROM BEHIND HIS OWN NET!!!
The highlight for the second goal won't show Gardiner's mistake. Rasmussen scored at the end of a dominant stretch that lasted nearly two minutes, during which Detroit cycled the puck deep in our zone and toyed with us after Gardiner passed the puck right to a Wing from behind the goal line.
Rielly, on the other hand, scored two more points in this game. He now has 11 in his past five games and leads all D-men with 44. Watch this release.
JT makes a gorgeous play to set it up, but credit Rielly for finding space and jumping in on the attack at just the perfect time.
Gardiner will be a UFA after this season. With some young blue liners in the system and plenty of cash set to go into Marner's and Matthews' bank accounts, there's a pretty strong argument to be made that Gardiner will be expendable, or at least not worth pursuing, come summer.
Gardiner's only saving grace from this game was the point shot tipped in by JT to tie the game with 7.6 seconds left.
I'll have more to say about Tavares in a later post but my god, the man can play. I don't know of too many skilled guys who love crashing the net like he does. He parks himself at the top of the crease on power plays, and he's scored his share of goals on deflections or on rebounds after a scramble.
Trevor Moore, Welcome to the NHL!
Moore got called up from the Marlies in place of injured Ennis, and got his first NHL point with this pretty pass for a secondary assist.
Our fourth line guys all played under 10 minutes, as Babs mostly relied on the top 9, but when they did, they put together some effective, grinding shifts. Whenever you can get points out of these guys, it's a bonus.
Moore was wearing Bozak's old number, 42, and he's going to be given every opportunity to stick while Hyman and Ennis are out. Knowing he wasn't going to play much, Moore went full-speed on every shift. I liked the way he was backchecking hard on one particular shift in the third to foil a potential scoring chance.
It's Christmas Eve over in Korea today. I have to show up in the office on Christmas Day for a night duty. No game, and no blog tomorrow (my first off-day here!).
Merry Christmas to you all!
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