The Toronto Maple Leafs’ final preseason game of the season saw them home to a Detroit Red Wings team that iced mostly prospects and players fighting for a roster spot. It was also the Red Wings’ third game in three nights. With the expanded preseason roster, the players themselves didn’t play all three games, but it still had to be a tough three games for the Red Wings.
The Bad for the Maple Leafs
I’ll start with the “Bad” because the game started badly for the Maple Leafs. Detroit scored with their first shot on goal at 3:33 in the period. For the second time this preseason, Max Pacioretty attempted the type of pass I am sure new Head Coach Craig Berube wants to eliminate from the team’s repertoire. A cross-ice pass inside the Toronto blue line missed Pontus Holmberg. The puck went behind Holmberg as he was trying to exit the zone and went right to Andrew Copp at the point. Copp fired a shot/pass toward the net that Christian Fischer deflected in the high slot past Joseph Woll. Max Pacioretty made some mistakes versus Red Wings in his final Maple Leafs preseason game Pacioretty was guilty of a similar giveaway earlier in the preseason when he missed William Nylander with a cross-ice pass just outside the Toronto blue line that ended up in the back of the Toronto net. It was not a good look for a player fighting for a contract. After Toronto had tied the game at one, the Red Wings went up 2-1 with just 2:02 left in the first period. Matthews Knies blocked a point shot by William Wallander on the power play. The puck deflected laterally to Copp, who rifled a shot past Woll before Woll could react on the play. Despite Toronto’s skill advantage over the Red Wings, the first period ended 2-1 Detroit, and the shots were 10-9 for the Red Wings.
The Good for the Maple Leafs
I am sure Berube loved that Toronto tied the game at one-one on a fourth-line shift. It started with Phillipe Myers taking a hit to make a play. His play kept the puck in the Detroit zone at the blue line. Then Steven Lorentz threw a solid hit on Nate Danielson. That knocked Danielson off the puck along the boards to the left of Detroit goalie Ville Husso. After throwing the hit, Lorentz dumped the puck behind the net and headed for the front of the net. Ryan Reaves threw a borderline hit that could have been called boarding or interference, which prevented Brogan Rafferty from playing the puck. No call was made on the hit. Reaves picked up the loose puck and found Lorentz breaking for the goal, so he fed him a pass. Lorentz one-timed the puck past Husso’s blocker side.
The Maple Leafs Power Play Was Working Against the Red Wings
The Maple Leafs took the lead with two power-play goals. One came early in the second and another early in the third. The first goal was a one-timer by Auston Matthews from the faceoff dot to Husso’s left. Mitch Marner set up the goal with a perfect cross-ice pass to Matthews after Matthews won a draw in the Detroit zone with nine seconds left on the power play. Matthew Knies tapped the puck back to Marner, picking up the second assist on the goal. There were two notable keys to that goal. First, Berube had the first PP unit on the ice for less than a minute. That allowed him to put the Matthews, Marner, and Knies line out, along with Morgan Rielly and Chris Tanev. Nine seconds were remaining in the PP. The second was when the power play was about to expire, and Toronto had a regular allotment of players on the ice (three forwards and two defensemen). With seconds left with the man advantage, Tanev was positioned as the left winger on the faceoff, Knies moved to the right side, and Marner played the point. The former Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe was known as a strategist, not so much Berube. But, this was a great strategy move by Berube that worked. Marner played a key role on the second PP goal as well. He went from a step behind Fischer to beating him to the puck. By then, he was near the point to the left of Husso to keep the puck in the zone. Marner deftly bounced the puck off the boards to Matthews. Matthews found Tavares in the high slot to the right of Husso. Tavares received the pass, stepped around Antti Tuomisto, and fired a shot past Husso over his blocker’s shoulder into the net. Husso appeared to think the shot was going to come to his glove side and was completely fooled. After being outshot 10-9 in the first period, the Maple Leafs outshot the Red Wings 15-1 in the second period. In fact, from the 17.58 mark of the first period to the 9:05 mark of the third period, Detroit only had one shot on net. That was 31 minutes and nine seconds of hockey, with the Red Wings only managing a single shot on goal.
The Ugly for the Maple Leafs
I’m stretching here to develop something I could call remotely ugly in this game. The only thing I can come up with is a strange penalty called on Fischer with 4:38 left in the second period. Toronto had just controlled the play in the Detroit zone for nearly two minutes. They were preventing the Red Wings from making a line change. Detroit iced the puck, trapping all the exhausted Red Wing players on the ice for the next faceoff. Fischer appeared to check his stick by pressing it on the ice and flexing the shaft. The stick broke in two. One referee immediately put his hand in the air and called Fischer for a delay of the game. Fischer and the Detroit bench seemed flabbergasted at the call. The referee ruled that Fischer intentionally broke his stick to give the Red Wings players on the ice time to catch their breath. I’m unsure if the NHL might have some directive to crack down on something like this. It was a strange call. It did not look like Fischer exerted a lot of pressure on the stick in an attempt to break it. He was testing it to ensure it was okay, as players do countless times in a game.
With Preseason Over, What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?
Now that the preseason is over, it will be exciting to see the moves Brad Trelving will make to set the starting roster and get that roster under the salary cap. Training camp had many positives, and we will discuss some of those positives over the next couple of days.
