See more MLHS in Google Add MLHS as a preferred source + Add It’s no stretch to suggest the Vegas-Colorado-Utah road trip is the hardest in the NHL. Getting some positive results and chugging along is critical to the Maple Leafs building momentum after a 2-2-0 homestand to start the season.
Well, there’s still a game to go, but the Leafs have already banked three points — a solid trip even if they don’t grab any more. Not everything is peachy, and there have been some long stretches where the ice has been completely tilted against them, but they have also shown some pushback and offensive explosiveness. If they can clean up a few things defensively, there are reasons for optimism.
The Leafs started the first period with the Auston Matthews line, and Colorado immediately countered with Nathan MacKinnon, setting the tone for how the Avalanche wanted to play this game. Ironically, it was one of the Matthews line’s best shifts against the MacKinnon line; they got it deep, Matthews stripped MacKinnon of the puck, and they generated two chances. On the next faceoff, though, Kirill Marchenko was called for a rather soft penalty.
After the Leafs killed it off, they went up ice, where Nick Blankenburg opened the scoring on his first shift as a Leaf. Following an effective forecheck by Nick Paul and William Nylander, Paul took a whack while in possession of the puck. It found its way to Nylander, who picked out Blankenburg sneaking to the backdoor, where he roofed it. Blankenburg burned former Leaf Nic Roy on the pinch, as Roy didn’t track it properly.
As the broadcast noted, the Avs scored first in 50 of 82 games last season, winning a staggering 42 of those, so scoring first against this team is critical. While the Leafs did take the coveted early lead, the rest of the period was really just the Nathan MacKinnon show. He scored two goals on six shots and basically did whatever he wanted. By comparison, the Leafs, as a team, were credited with eight shots total. Scoring chances at even strength were 14-7 in favour of the Avalanche after one period.
A lot of it turned in the neutral zone, which looked like an absolute mess from the Leafs’ perspective. MacKinnon was repeatedly winding up, no Leaf was swinging with him, and everyone in white stood still while too spaced apart. It was basically a practice drill for MacKinnon to skate through.
On MacKinnon’s first goal, Morgan Rielly seemingly took a ton of flak for how he played it, but the reality is that maybe five defensemen in the league can credibly defend MacKinnon when he winds up in his own zone and skates through the neutral zone completely unimpeded. There’s plenty to criticize Rielly for defensively, but defending MacKinnon in that situation really isn’t one of those things. In fact, he actually did pretty well to limit the shot MacKinnon took, and Bobrovsky seemed to be thrown off by what was essentially a fanned-on puck.
The period went from bad to worse when Chris Tanev left the game after taking a bump to the back that looked fairly innocuous. We won’t speculate on the nature or extent of the injury, but it’s never a good sign when a player leaves a game after a play you wouldn’t normally look twice at. Hopefully, he’s okay.
With Tanev out, the Leafs were forced to shift their defense pairings around but tried to get Jake McCabe against MacKinnon as much as possible. The Leafs were a bit discombobulated between Tanev’s absence, 11 forwards, and playing a high-flying Colorado team that was really pouring it on.
With five minutes left in the opening frame, the Avalanche took the lead. The goal came off a poor breakout: Darren Raddysh retrieved the puck and didn’t have much time, but he had enough to do something with it. Instead, he spun back, was stripped, and MacKinnon went to work lapping the zone as McCabe chased him around in man-to-man defense. It’s really difficult to play man-to-man against a player like MacKinnon, who found time and space and sifted a shot through. There was traffic in front of Bobrovsky, but again, I thought he should have had it.
Much like against Vegas, the Leafs were throttled in the second period. They were out-attempted 27-8 at five-on-five and outshot 13-4 overall. Lucky for them, they scored on three of those shots.
The Leafs’ first goal of the middle frame, which tied the game, came on a power play after Marchenko was high-sticked while bodying Jaden Schwartz off the puck. With Tavares out of the lineup, McKenna stepped onto PP1 and took all 18 seconds to get a primary assist. He looked at Marchenko in the high slot, pulled the defense high, and then ripped it backdoor to Nylander, who was all alone and walked around the goalie.
Colorado retook the lead just under six minutes later when they sliced through the Leafs’ neutral-zone defense for an easy entry. After OEL whiffed on a puck, the Avalanche drove the net, won a battle, and Brock Nelson got a clean shot off in the slot, where he made no mistake.
It wasn’t until the final quarter of the second period that the Leafs actually started to play some hockey. They strung together a few good shifts, finally resulting in some extended offensive-zone time and a bad clear by Colorado that Nick Paul knocked down. The Leafs quickly countered with numbers as Matthews grabbed the puck and found Nylander in the high slot, where he made no mistake.
On the very next shift, a still-fresh Nylander raced down the ice, gained the zone, curled back, and picked out Rielly. Rielly made a nice pass to Cowan on the far side, where he one-timed it home.
Somehow, the Leafs went into the third with a lead, and on the power play to boot. They did nothing with said power play, but they actually played a really good third period in general. They were still generating zone time while holding the lead and drew some penalties as a reward.
They cashed in on the power play after Josh Manson inexplicably thought he would go end to end shorthanded, Gavin McKenna made a heck of a backcheck, and the Leafs raced back up ice. Nylander made a nice stop-up play on the defender before finding a trailing Matthews, who roofed it home.
With a two-goal cushion, the Leafs defended well, but they did need to overcome a lame penalty call. Before this, the penalties were 4-4 in the game; the refs missed a clear high-sticking penalty that should have given the Leafs a 5-on-3 on the power play, Matthews scored on the 5-on-4 anyway, and somehow, Craig Simpson claimed that the Leafs should be expecting to receive a penalty, as if Colorado was owed something.
The Avalanche weren’t owed anything, but they got the call anyway, and the Leafs killed it off. Matthews iced it for the empty-netter, securing a big two points in regulation.
Post-Game Notes Let’s start here: Against top teams, the big dogs need to deliver, and boy, did the Leafs’ top dogs deliver in this one. Nylander amassed a ridiculous five points, while Matthews finished with four. When MacKinnon was running a train in the first period, it was easy to watch on enviously and think, “Wow, look at their top dog taking over the game.” While the Leafs’ second period was a mess, by the time the third rolled around, Matthews really grinded well. He might not be as explosive as MacKinnon in open ice — really, only McDavid is — but Matthews is dominating pucks down low right now. With a lead entering the third period, the Leafs outshot and out-attempted Colorado at 5v5. Matthews took over the game as it progressed and finished with four points, while MacKinnon picked up two. Head-to-head, they sawed each other off; at 5v5, the shot attempts were 8-7 for MacKinnon, and the goals were 1-1. It wouldn’t be right to quickly note that Nylander rattled off a casual five points and leave it there. He was awesome in this game and is simply a true game-breaker in this league. Both of his goals were great finishes—if you give him clean looks, he’ll make you pay. Two of his three assists were primary assists, and on the other, he skated all the way down the ice, gained the zone, and set the table. Nylander has 11 points in six games to open the season. He and Matthews are constantly finding each other, and I don’t know how anyone watches them together and doesn’t think they should be linemates. I’m sure we’ll say it a lot as the season progresses, but I honestly thought this was Gavin McKenna’s best game in the league so far. Colorado is an extremely difficult place to play, and the Avalanche are an elite team. He played 15:21, picked up a primary assist, put a couple of shots on net, and genuinely helped drive play. In a game where the Leafs played a horrible second period, he was 14-14 in shot attempts overall and was generally able to drive play up ice with his touches and vision. He probably made three or four passes in the game where, as they happened, I thought there was no lane available whatsoever, but he somehow found a teammate. It was ridiculous. McKenna moved up the lineup as the game went along and received some run with Matthews and Nylander, which was genuinely exciting. He also drew a power play that the Leafs cashed in on. The Leafs’ penalty kill was the unsung hero of this game, going 5-for-5, including a critical kill with under three and a half minutes left to help close out the victory. Troy Stecher played 5:45 shorthanded and was awesome. At the end of the game, he fearlessly stepped into shooting lanes and made a great diving play to get a puck out. Jake McCabe played 7:37 shorthanded, and the Leafs were in the box for all of 10 minutes total (!). He was rock solid, as usual, in that department. Teddy Blueger and Colton Sissons clocked in at 4:26 and 4:29, respectively, to lead all forwards, while Nick Paul played 4:03 and Brandon Duhaime played 2:59. With Duhaime in the box, Matthews went out with Paul and logged 2:27 of his 22:06 there. They aren’t a super-aggressive unit, but they close lanes well and keep everything to the outside. They haven’t been seamed often. Without John Tavares, Nick Paul played 2C and actually finished third among Leafs forwards in ice time with 17:15. He grabbed two points on the night, but I will note that he got cleaned out in the faceoff circle (3-for-12) and battled some pretty egregious breakdowns defensively. That said, he knows his role offensively: he cycles, goes to the net, and creates space for the Leafs’ more talented players. The first goal of the game featured good work by Paul, who made a nice play to knock a puck down when Matthews set up Nylander for the Leafs’ third goal. The Cowan-Paul-Nylander line is something I’ve been wanting to see, and I’d definitely keep it together even when Tavares returns. OEL left the game with an injury at one point but did return. Even with Tanev out and the team back to six defensemen, and despite his missed time due to injury, he played just 14:25 and had a tough sequence on Nelson’s goal. It simply hasn’t been a pretty start to the season for him. Easton Cowan played a season-high 16:07, scored a goal, and was very involved. He scored last season in Colorado, too, but it was a centering pass that bounced off a skate, and he couldn’t break out the puck in that game; he was more or less benched after playing 11:10. It wasn’t a Craig Berube thing that night; Cowan was struggling and gave them no choice. What a difference not even a year makes. It wasn’t a perfect game, but he looked much more settled and created some plays, including one shorthanded. I also thought that while Jack Roslovic’s numbers don’t look good — pointless and minus-two on the night — his speed was a real asset, as he and Matthews were pushing play up ice. His speed is genuinely a weapon that can open up the ice. It is nice to have someone who can fly around the rink at times. It is concerning that the Leafs have been completely caved in during the second period of their last two games. Good teams dominate the second period with the long change, and the Leafs are getting dominated in the department right now. They can’t consistently break out cleanly, and they haven’t been stingy enough through the neutral zone. Technically, they “won” the second period in goals, but they can’t keep playing like this and expect good results. Other than the second periods, they’ve honestly played pretty well on this road trip, but the middle frames have been so ugly that they’re really skewing the results. Blankenburg scored in his debut, but they really tried to shelter him throughout the game. He didn’t touch the penalty kill or take a defensive-zone faceoff, and he was still heavily out-attempted. You can see the appeal — he’s good with the puck and feisty — but against top opponents, his defensive deficiencies are real. Compare it to Stecher, who was excellent on the penalty kill and in general as he moved into the top four with Tanev out; that’s why Stecher’s played every night over Blankenburg. I didn’t love the decision to turn back to Sergei Bobrovsky in goal, even though he got the Leafs a point against Vegas. I definitely didn’t love either of the first two goals he let in, either. But he was excellent after that, and credit to the Leafs for going back to the well and to Bob for getting his first win as a Leaf. As the game tightened up, so did Bob. Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Game Highlights: Maple Leafs 6 vs. Avalanche 3