There’s no let-up for Chris Tanev.
Some 48 hours after the rugged Maple Leafs defenceman missed several shifts against the New York Rangers after blocking a shot, he and the Toronto defence corps will try to keep a lid on Tampa Bay Lightning superstar Nikita Kucherov.
“Hell of a player,” Tanev said after the morning skate at Scotiabank Arena. “He plays the game at his own pace. He’ll slow it down, he’ll speed it up. We can’t let him to sort of dictate and control the game.”
Kucherov has followed his National Hockey League-best 144 points in 2023-24, including 100 assists, with a hot start for the Lightning. The 31-year-old leads the NHL with seven goals, having scored at least once in each of Tampa’s first four games.
Tanev didn’t appear to have any lingering effects after taking a shot, unleashed by the Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad, off his leg on Saturday. Tanev departed late in the second period and came back not long after the third period started. That kind of thing has become a matter of course during the veteran’s NHL career, with his willingness to get his body in front of any opponent’s shot one factor in the Leafs’ desire to sign him in free agency this past summer.
“Just didn’t feel great,” Tanev said. “Sometimes they get you right in the right spot where you get dead leg and can’t move. And that’s sort of what that one did.
“If you’re able to play, you’re able to play, right? If you’re out there, you’re expected to do your job and play well. That’s sort of a hockey mindset.”
Against the Lightning (3-1-0) on Monday night at Scotiabank Arena, Leafs coach Craig Berube will make one change to the lineup following the loss to the Rangers. Veteran forward Max Pacioretty will draw back in after he was a healthy scratch the past two games, and Ryan Reaves will sit.
When he was asked whether goalie Joseph Woll would be available to play on Tuesday night in Columbus against the Blue Jackets as the Leafs (3-2-0) complete their second back-to-back set of the season, Berube said: “Possibly, yes.”
Woll’s next game, whenever it comes, will be his season debut. Tightness in his groin, something that flared up on the eve of the Leafs’ season opener, has kept him on the sideline.
Anthony Stolarz is expected to start in net for Toronto. For Tampa Bay, Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to be in goal.
The meeting is the first of four between the Atlantic Division rivals. For Lightning coach Jon Cooper, he no longer has to match wits with Sheldon Keefe, now coaching the New Jersey Devils, but the challenges from the Leafs haven’t dissipated.
“It’s the same cast of characters, in my opinion,” Cooper said, referring to the Leafs’ core of captain Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly.
“They have a really good team, north of 100 points every single year. I know Sheldon, I know Berube, great guys. Little different styles, but they both win.
“You look at the boxscore against the Rangers the other night and it says 4-1, but clearly it was not a 4-1 game. They’ve got a hell of a team. They’ve got some pushback in their game (under Berube) and I would expect nothing less from his teams.”
After a full day off on Sunday, the Leafs spent the majority of their morning skate working on their power play.
For all of the preseason talk about the changes that new assistant coach Marc Savard was going to bring to the power play, it has not translated on to the ice in the first five games.
The Leafs have two goals on 16 power plays, putting them at 28th in the NHL with a paltry success rate of 12.5%. Both of those goals came in the same game, a 6-2 win against Los Angeles last Wednesday.
“It’s about puck movement and touches and things like that,” Berube said of the concentration on the power play at the skate. “I don’t really look at what exactly happens if they score or they don’t score. I’m looking for quick puck movement and people in position and getting open for each other. When there’s a loose puck, getting recoveries, winning those battles. It’s (about) getting prepared for tonight. There was some good stuff for sure.”
Because of the special teams work, the Leafs didn’t have line rushes, so we’ll find out in the pre-game warmup where Pacioretty will slot in.
There were no changes to the defence pairs of Rielly/Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson/Jake McCabe and Simon Benoit/Conor Timmins.
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