Gavin McKenna<\/a>: \u201cVery calm goalie in the net. And you don’t really see him get too high or too low, which is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\nWith two days off coming, Hiller could have made a goalie switch to Anthony Stolarz (4-1) mid-game. How seriously did the coach consider a pull?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all,\u201d Hiller replied.<\/p>\n
To a man, the Maple Leafs are backing theirs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBob’s been great. I mean, he’s been great for us all year long,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cEvery now and then there’s going to be a couple you want back. But in the end, I put it more on us as a five-man unit, not doing enough to help him out in certain situations where they’re coming down and getting Grade-A chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bobrovsky, we\u2019ll remind, has two Stanley Cup rings, two Vezina trophies, and two more years after this one on his contract.<\/p>\n
He is a quiet presence. But doubts swirling around him are getting louder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were looking at it the other day. He\u2019s historically a slow starter. I think this is his best start \u2014 if you look at some (data) adjustments in the last four to five years. You need to win points, and you need to have a good start to the season,\u201d GM John Chayka said Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSergei, we brought him in to be there when the pressure ramps up and we need a rock back there. So, he’s moving well. He’s doing a lot of great things. It’s been great to have him in the locker room, around the guys. And his presence and his detail and his preparation and his approach to wins, approach to losses, it doesn’t really change. So, there’s a lot of really good things there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Great things continue to happen with the Maple Leafs\u2019 special teams. They killed four of five penalties and kept clawing back into this one on the strength of a two-for-three power-play, a four-on-four strike, and clutch executive six-on-five.<\/p>\n
Gavin McKenna (two goals and an assist) became youngest Leaf in more than 80 years with a multi-goal effort, and he and Matthews linked up for three of Toronto\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you’re playing with a guy like that, it makes it pretty easy. He’s an unbelievable player. Sees the ice very well,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cI think teams favoured him a little bit with his shot, and that might open up a little bit of space for me. So, he’s fun to play with, and I thought we played well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthews credits McKenna\u2019s positioning to get shots off on the power play: \u201cI just tried to find a lane to get it to him, and he did the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet? Even with the power play clicking and the defence tightening to the tune of 17 shots allowed, the Leafs fly north without a point.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth teams played good games, and it comes down to the last 30 seconds, so it’s a frustrating one,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cThat’s one we definitely want back.\u201d<\/p>\n
One that will fuel detractors of the Bobrovsky contract, which runs till he turns 40. Plenty of time for the goalie to find his groove, to make good on all that trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel good. You know, I feel strong,\u201d Bobrovsky said. \u201cThere is mistakes sometimes here and there, but overall I feel confident. You know, I feel good. And all I care about is next shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reset, regroup, rebound. Or reconsider the Stolarz-Bobrovsky split?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s emotions,\u201d Bobrovsky said. \u201cOver the course of the long season in the NHL, there is different things could happen. I\u2019m gonna stay consistent. I\u2019m gonna stay focused. And I\u2019m gonna keep working. You know, I never get easy anything in this league, and I didn’t expect it’s gonna be easy for me. So, all I care about is focus on the next shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Did Bobby McMann catch up with his old Leafs pals the night before facing the team that traded him away?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, they were busy with a group dinner,\u201d McMann said. \u201cIt\u2019s actually not many guys, though, that I would even be able to catch up with because it\u2019s a very limited roster compared to what it was last year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
McMann\u2019s regular dining crew last season consisted of Simon Benoit, Matthew Knies, and Joseph Woll. Their entire table for four got traded.<\/p>\n
Known mostly for his speed, McMann is flexing his physicality in Seattle. He leads all Kraken with 26 hits and is tracking a career high in the category.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to be as physical as I can, getting in guys\u2019 way. It’s not always trying to go through guys. It’s trying to make it hard on them, make sure they can’t get up the ice, make sure I’m ahead of the D,\u201d he explains. \u201cAll those things are important in winning hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Fourth line is the new third line?<\/p>\n
Not only did Hiller throw out his newfound identity line of Teddy Blueger, Brandon Duhaime, and Zack MacEwen to set the tone off the opening faceoff but that group saw more ice than the hodgepodge trio of Colton Sissons, Vinni Lettieri, and Bo Groulx.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re gonna see that line, as long as they continue to play like this, take on a bigger and bigger role,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cA role maybe that we didn\u2019t expect two weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Seattle\u2019s Lane Lambert on surviving the scrutiny in Toronto: \u201cI was an associate coach, so Craig Berube took most of the brunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Matthews has been more productive against the Kraken than any other team in the league. With his goal and two assists Wednesday, he\u2019s now averaging 1.64 points per game against Seattle.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Next stop for McKenna\u2019s first western tour: Vancouver, the closest thing to a homecoming for the pride of Whitehorse.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I\u2019m excited,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a couple Canucks games growing up, so to now be playing in one, that\u2019s gonna be super cool. And then to have some family in the building and be kinda close to home, it\u2019ll be super special. I’m looking forward to playing in front of those people and hopefully having a good night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 In Bob they trust. Not after Sergei Bobrovksy allowed three goals on the Calgary Flames first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-945044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}