The Montreal Canadiens take on the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time this season. Depth proved key in the first matchup and it should be the same story tonight in Montreal.
The Montreal Canadiens faced the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first time this season three weeks ago tonight. It was about as wild of a game as you could possibly imagine. The Canadiens scored just over a minute into the game to take a 1-0 lead but it didn’t last long.
Goals from Auston Matthews and Alex Kerfoot gave the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead before the first period ended. The second period saw the Maple Leafs extend their lead as Trevor Moore scored early to give the Leafs a 3-1 lead after forty minutes.
Another Leafs goal early in the third period seemingly gave Toronto an insurmountable lead, but that was just the beginning of the craziness. Eleven seconds after William Nylander scored to make it 4-1, Jonathan Drouin scored off a lucky bounce to make it 4-2. Just over a minute later, Brendan Gallagher pulled the Habs within one with 13:31 to play.
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With the Leafs scrambling throughout the final frame, the Canadiens drew a power play. While on the power play, Kasperi Kapanen inexplicably threw his broken stick at Jeff Petry who was in control of the puck in the Leafs zone. This led to a penalty shot being called and Petry tying the game with seven minutes to play.
The Canadiens weren’t done yet and scored their fourth goal of the period when Phillip Danault gave the Habs the lead with less than five minutes to play after winning a face-off and getting to a loose puck in front of the Leafs net. As Tomas Tatar drove the net, Danault swiped the puck into the goal to give the Canadiens a 5-4 lead.
Auston Matthews would tie the game later for the Maple Leafs as they had the goaltender pulled. This capped off a wild third period that had the Canadiens score four times sandwiched between a pair of Leafs goals.
The Canadiens would eventually win the game in the shootout thanks to a Paul Byron goal and three saves by Carey Price on John Tavares, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
The third period was extremely unpredictable, but the Canadiens being able to put the pressure on the Leafs in the final twenty minutes should have been predicted. In that game, as with the rest of the season, the Canadiens rolled four lines all night and the Leafs relied heavily on their top players to carry them.
Max Domi led the Canadiens forwards in ice time that night with 18:10 and Jordan Weal had the least at 11:19. That is less than seven minutes between the leader and the trailer in ice time.
On the other hand, the Leafs were led by Mitch Marner who was on the ice for 22:10. Their entire fourth line played less than ten minutes. The Leafs basically rolled three lines and found the odd shift for Frederik Gauthier, Nick Shore and Dmytro Timashov. On defence, they had Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin play more than 26 minutes while Martin Marincin played 8:14.
It should come as no surprise then, that the Leafs top players were a little more tired than the Habs skaters in the final twenty minutes of regulation. The Leafs were also playing their second game in as many nights, after defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 the night before.
Last night, the Maple Leafs pulled away from the San Jose Sharks in the third period and won 4-1. Rielly played 26 minutes while Kevin Gravel played nine. William Nylander and Marner played just shy of 20 minutes while Shore was on the ice for 8:48.
Playing the second of a back-to-back set means that the Canadiens will likely be seeing Michael Hutchinson in net once again. Hutchinson has started three games this season, has not won yet, has a goals-against average over 4.00 and a save percentage under .900.
The Canadiens depth and rolling four lines means they will be able to establish an aggressive forecheck all night long. The Maple Leafs have four defensemen: Rielly, Muzzin, Cody Ceci and Tyson Barrie averaging over 22 minutes per game this season. With four lines coming at them with speed, it will be impossible for those four to not make mistakes, especially later in the game after playing in Toronto last night and flying to Montreal for tonight’s contest.
I’m not suggesting the Canadiens are going to score four times in the final 20 minutes once again today. However, their team speed, depth and willingness to roll four lines with consistency should lead to several chances in the third period against a struggling Hutchinson.
Look for that to be the key tonight as the Canadiens try to improve their record to above .500 points percentage after starting the season 4-4-2 in their first ten games.