The Leafs have done well against the New Jersey Devils in the past few years, particularly at the Prudential Center.
But even they couldn’t believe their great escape in Tuesday night’s win, out-hustled most of the night and out-shot 38-17 before an improbable 2-1 overtime win.
Our takeaways:
IN A NEW JERSEY
We’ve seen our share of hyped homecoming games get spoiled. Look how poorly Toronto played for head coach Craig Berube when he went back to St. Louis for the first time.
This didn’t look like it would end well for Anthony Stolarz. With 40 friends and family making the 45-minute trip from Jackson Township, N.J., he was under siege, the Leafs seemingly bent on undermining him short of scoring on their own net. All but one Devil had at least one shot.
But two of his 37 stops led directly to goals at the other end as Toronto finally turned it around in the third.
“They’re one of the best teams in the East, so any time you can get these playoff-type games in regular season it’s huge,” Stolarz told media in Newark. “It shows we’re just not going to sit there, we’re going to battle back.”
The Leafs did indeed park their car far too long and though both teams had reason to come out flying after bad losses preceding Tuesday, Toronto let the Devils take the initiative at home. But Stolarz was playing for both his mates and his Jackson gang.
“It’s always exciting coming home,” he said. “Some of the people had supported me since I was 10 or 12 years old. To have the privilege to play in this league and share it with them was super special for me.”
PLAY IT AGAIN SHELDON
Former Leaf coach Keefe has done the expected and brought his regular-season success to Jersey in short order. A win Tuesday would’ve tied the Washington Capitals for first place in the Metropolitan Division and he’s already improved some longstanding issues with the Devils to bolster scoring and build the league’s only 30-plus per cent power play as of this week.
But how many times behind the Toronto bench did he see games where his team and his big scorers let teams that were struggling as the Leafs hang around in home games and get bitten by a bad goal? While Stolarz is not a no-name netminder, he out-duelled Jacob Markstrom, who allowed Pontus Holmberg to tie it. Stolarz was the only thing standing between the Devils and a multi-goal route.
CHIEF KEEPS COOL
Berube didn’t blast his lethargic Leafs on the bench in the early going (perhaps he had stronger words for them in the dressing room), but wasted little time changing some lines he’d no doubt been chewing on since Max Pacioretty and Max Domi got closer to full health.
Pacioretty was taken off left wing the Matthews — Mitch Marner combination and Matthew Knies among others put back there. Berube knew he couldn’t expect miracles with Domi easing back after a long layoff with his own lower-body injury. Domi was third line left wing with centre Fraser Minten and winger Steven Lorentz as the hunt for even-strength scoring goes on.
The trio of John Tavares, Knies and William Nylander were on for the one Jersey goal, Tavares with a weak breakout that put the Leafs on their heels. It was the fourth straight game the Leafs have given up the game-opening goal, to boot, knowing they’re a completely different club when that stat is reversed.
Why did they all start so flat after being given Monday off?
“Good question,” Berube said. “(Over) 82 games, it’s going to happen. A game where we didn’t skate, didn’t make plays. It was one of those games. (But) I’m not going to read too much into it.”
In other words, they played poorly for the most part, but knew it and didn’t need to be roasted for it in public. That their captain, who’d fumbled three breakaways in the course of the game, ended up winning it took much of the heat off.
“The game was very ugly on our side, but we stuck with it,” said Matthews. “I couldn’t quite seem to find my spot. We needed a wake-up call. It was good to re-group in the third, get our legs under us, get back in the win column (avoiding a third straight loss).”
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