Tomas Plekanec was an effective defensive option in his many years with the Montreal Canadiens, and he’s brought that to the ice for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It’s still weird at times to see Tomas Plekanec in a Toronto Maple Leafs uniform. The trade took place nearly two months ago, but seeing the veteran play while the Montreal Canadiens aren’t is an uncomfortable feeling. Ironically, comfort has been one of the things fans have pointed to in his tenure with the Leafs so far.
Toronto acquired Plekanec to shore up their centre depth and have another defensive-minded player in the fold. This series against the Boston Bruins has been exactly what the Leafs needed him for considering the overwhelming presence of the Patrice Bergeron line. With Nazem Kadri suspended, and the team looking for answers at home, head coach Mike Babcock called upon the Czech native to shut them down.
The choice wasn’t well received by many people. No matter which way you try to look at it, Plekanec hasn’t looked good since being acquired back in February. Besides the defensive errors, he also appeared to be disengaged and disinterested. Although the ‘double agent’ narrative has been pushed throughout social media, it came down to two things. Either Plekanec was still struggling to settle into the idea of playing for a former rival team, or he needed something to get him going.
Despite playing on the third line for the majority of the season with the Montreal Canadiens, Plekanec was still playing key minutes and being held responsible for critical situations. It doesn’t take the greatest hockey mind out there to tell you that it’s mentally deflating to go from averaging 16 minutes to 11 a night.
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What was this decision made by Babcock exactly? Plekanec was bumped up to the second line in between Mitch Marner and Patrick Marleau. The idea of the line was something similar to his playing situations in Montreal as you’d mostly see him with players with speed and who can create such as Brendan Gallagher or Paul Byron.
The Leafs came out of Game Three with a 4-2 win over the Bruins to cut their series lead in half and the 35-year-old looked great.
Babcock on Plekanec:
— Dave McCarthy (@DaveAMcCarthy) April 17, 2018
"I thought Plekanec was outstanding, really good for us. Played his best game since he'd been here. Just the fact that maybe he didn't feel as important as he should have when he got here, maybe that affected his play. But he was a huge factor."#TMLTalk
Plekanec was physical getting on Brad Marchand‘s nerves as well as effectively boxing out players from the goal crease. He also recorded his first playoff point off of Marleau’s second goal of the game.
It’s funny. Rewind the clock to Sunday and Leafs fans were scratching Plekanec in their personal lineup combinations while Habs fans were hoping Marc Bergevin didn’t reach out to him in the summer. Tonight proved that Plekanec still has what it takes to be a useful piece on an NHL team.
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Obviously, he can’t return expecting a $6 million contract, but those are details to be worked on later. At the same time, Bergevin and company may have already decided that they’ll be moving on from him for good and that’s ok too (even though he’ll miss out on playing his 1000th game with the Montreal Canadiens). There are a few questions that need to be answered on that front but for now, Plekanec, be it one game, is showing that he’s still got it.