The Maple Leafs finally slew their division rivals from Boston, but winger William Nylander was in ’let’s keep it real’ mode.
“It’s one game, it’s regular season,” he said after the 4-0 win Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
Our takeaways:
MORE POWER TO YA
After falling to near the basement in NHL power play rankings, the Leafs struck three times, led by Matthew Knies. He couldn’t have been a better poster boy for head coach Craig Berube’s constant harping on the group being “more direct”, screening on Morgan Rielly’s goal and adding one of his own.
“We’ve been talking about things we can improve on, in traffic and shots, and in that conversation he played a big role,” praised Rielly.
Knies said net-front presence was one of his specialties playing at the University of Minnesota, but it took Auston Matthews missing Tuesday with a nagging upper-body injury to get that role under new coach Craig Berube. Of course, the NCAA didn’t have massive defenders and big goalies trying to chop him down in a turf war.
“I’m a bigger player (6-3) and like to take (the goalie’s) eyes away, make plays down there,” Knies said. “ I’ll let the skill guys take the outside, put my stick in a good area and let them find me.
“We’re just getting more pucks on net. You saw that with Willy (Nylander) getting a tip off their own guy and he finds me by the net.”
The Leafs ended a long slump with a man-advantage goal in Minnesota that utiliized five forwards, but Matthews’s absence meant defenceman Rielly was back on the point with a willing Knies in the trenches.
“It was very good,” said Berube of the first unit, glad to change the subject from October’s futility. “A shot from the point (Rielly’s), another with a shot, screen, goal. It was pretty simple, but I thought they moved it around well, Mitch Marner made a great play to Knies back door that could’ve been a goal.”
STOLARZ STARS
Anthony Stolarz survived an early stinger shot off an unprotected part of his upper shoulder to make 29 saves for his ninth NHL shutout, first as a Leaf. Brad Marchand, who has broken the Leafs a few times with late goals was 0-for-3 on seven total shot attempts, Stolarz kicking out his big blue pillows a couple of times.
“I’m most happy we beat a division team,” Stolarz said. “It makes it easier when you can see. The guys did a really good job boxing out so I could see the initial release and gobble up any chances.”
Stolarz also gets separated enough from his goal stick enough to think the Leaf equipment men should give him some mitten strings to hang onto it. But he said people should get used to seeing it laying around the crease, out of reach.
“It’s just the way I play,” the 6-foot-7 Jersey native said. “The battle, the intensity. Teams will obviously throw a lot of bodies at me and the time it takes me to bring it around or bring it over people is sometimes the difference between the puck going in or not.
“I feel comfortable playing without it and the pads today kind of seal up so there’s really no holes. You don’t want to lose it, but at the end of the day it’s more of a competitive thing for me. I just want to stop the puck.”
BRUINS STREAK RUINED
After two shutouts coming into Toronto, their overtime win over the Leafs 10 days ago, part of seven straight regular season wins, the Bruins were prepared to add to the playoff misery of last spring’s Game 7 heartbreaker. Tuesday evening, it was different.
“These guys have had us for a bit now,” Knies said. “We’re all a little bit frustrated in here, wanted to get physical and get on them. It went both ways, we’re both angry at each other, it’s very emotional. I’m not shocked there were plays after the whistle (and so many penalties).
“It sucks losing your best player (Matthews), but everyone stepped up and we showed we had a lot of depth. We had the better of them in the special teams’ department (six kills).”
Stolarz called it probably the Leafs’ most complete game of the year.
“They’re a very good team, we know they’ll try and grind us down physically. We had to match their intensity.”
Though Max Domi won’t replace Matthews’ scoring, he had no trouble mixing it up with Marchand more than the Leaf captain would have.
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