The Maple Leafs held a practice at Ford Performance Centre on Friday.
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Auston Matthews did not take part in Friday’s practice.
“It’s just maintenance, managing him,” coach Craig Berube explained. “Played a lot of minutes, a lot of games here, so that’s all it is.”
Matthews logged 22 minutes and 32 seconds in Thursday’s 2-1 overtime win against the New York Rangers. He is averaging 21 minutes and 46 seconds of ice time per game, which leads the Leafs and is seventh among all NHL forwards.
Matthews skated briefly on his own before Friday’s practice.
Toronto hosts the Seattle Kraken on Saturday, which will be the team’s fifth game in eight nights.
After netting the overtime winner on Thursday, Matthews is up to four goals in five games to start this season. However, two of the goals were empty netters. Matthews has scored just once in 5-on-5 play.
What’s Berube seeing so far?
“A lot of what we saw last year,” the coach said. “I think he’s been pretty solid … He’s healthy, feels good. He’s been a good player in all aspects of the game.”
Slowed by an upper-body injury, Matthews missed 15 games last season while scoring a career low 33 goals. He declared himself fully fit at the start of this season.
Leafs Ice Chips: Maintenance day for Matthews; Lorentz set to return After scoring the overtime-winner against the Rangers on Thursday, Auston Matthes skated briefly on his own before practice Friday but did not stay on with his teammates afterwards. TSN’s Mark Masters has more on Matthews’ rest day and how the lines looked ahead of Saturday’s game against the Kraken.
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With longtime linemate Mitch Marner departing for Vegas in the summer, Matthews is adjusting to a new right winger this season. Matias Maccelli started in that spot in the first two games before giving way to rookie Easton Cowan.
Does Berube think the line is trending up?
“Probably didn’t create enough and do enough things last game, but not every game is gonna be perfect,” Berube said. “There’s gonna be games where things don’t go exactly the way you want, but, yeah, I’ve liked the line. I have.”
After an impressive first two games with the top line, Cowan ended up getting benched in the third period on Thursday. He only played two shifts in the final frame.
“Just be more simple,” Cowan said of his takeaway. “I felt like my first two periods were good. Third period kind of got away from me.”
Cowan committed a team-high five turnovers against the Rangers. Berube met with the 20-year-old on Friday to go over things.
“It’s a tight game,” Berube said. “You don’t wanna give any freebies up, you don’t wanna make a bad puck play, especially in the neutral zone or out of your own zone. It’s doing those simple things a lot of times and being patient and then an opportunity might pop up 10 or 12 minutes [later].”
Berube praised Cowan’s hockey IQ and believes he’ll adapt quickly. He had him back on the top line at Friday’s practice.
“I try not to be too hard on myself,” Cowan said. “I got high expectations, but it’s a tough league. So just try to be consistent each and every night. That’s the hardest part about this game so just try to get better each and every day.”
Consistency will come in time, though, right?
“Yeah, it comes with getting older,” Cowan said. “But I know I can be better than that.”
‘I know I can be better than that’: Cowan back on Leafs top line after benching Easton Cowan found himself on the bench down the stretch in the Maple Leafs’ win over the Rangers and the young forward admitted he is still learning from his mistakes. Head coach Craig Berube spoke about managing Cowan and the importance of having patience with a skilled young player.
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Steven Lorentz sat out Thursday’s game as a healthy scratch. It was the first time that’s happened since he joined the Leafs last season.
“That’s the way it goes,” the winger said with his trademark smile. “I was happy that we got the win. Obviously as a competitor, I want to be in the lineup every single night, but Chief [Berube] was rolling with what he was rolling with, and we got the win against Nashville [on Tuesday], so I’ll never be upset with the coaches’ decision to just keep the lines rolling the way they are. I was the biggest cheerleader last night and glad we got the win.”
Lorentz skated on the fourth line at practice and Berube indicated there’s a good chance he’ll be back in on Saturday night.
Lorentz initially exited the lineup last Saturday in Detroit when he sustained an upper-body injury courtesy a hit by Red Wings defenceman Ben Chiarot.
“He just kind of caught me on the button there and kind of just shook me up a little bit,” Lorentz said. “It was just kind of like a precaution thing. I thought I might as well get some rest because I wasn’t really feeling 100 per cent. So, yeah, I feel a lot better after a few days of rest.”
Calle Jarnkrok skated as a placeholder for Matthews on the top line at practice and projects to be a healthy scratch on Saturday.
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Anthony Stolarz stopped 28 shots on Thursday, including one without his mask.
With the game tied late in the third period, a shot by Matt Rempe knocked Stolarz’s mask loose and it fell off. Play continued and Stolarz ended up having to make a pad save on a J.T. Miller one-time shot from the slot.
“A little bit of luck that he doesn’t take a shot at my head,” Stolarz said.
After the play ended, Miller told Stolarz he wouldn’t have fired the puck if he knew the goalie’s mask was off.
But the NHL rulebook allows play to continue if there’s an imminent scoring opportunity. Stolarz is hoping the league will change the rule.
“I don’t think we should wait around for a goalie to get hit in the head and have to deal with that,” the 31-year-old said.
Stolarz was well aware of the rule going into the game having seen Adin Hill deal with a similar situation in a recent Golden Knights game.
But most Leafs players didn’t know about the rule.
“I was a little scared, to be honest,” said Knies. “I thought it was supposed to be blown, but I don’t know. That was a shocker for everyone.”
“It’s so dangerous,” said winger William Nylander. “It should be blown off right away. I guess you could argue that sometimes a goalie could try to shake his helmet off or whatever but, I mean, I think that’s pretty dangerous.”
Stolarz calls for rule change after making mask-less save Anthony Stolarz came up big for the Maple Leafs in their overtime win over the Rangers but no save was more memorable on Thursday night that the J.T. Miller one-timer from close range, with his mask off. A few of Stolarz’s teammates were confused about the rule when a goalie’s mask comes off and the netminder believes the rule should change to protect players.
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Stolarz also questioned the ruling on the lone Rangers goal on Thursday. Taylor Raddysh knocked the stick out of his hand moments before a point shot was deflected in by Juuso Parssinen. Stolarz did get his stick back but never got fully reset in the net.
“I kind of talked to the ref a little bit about that,” Stolarz said. “He said that he thought there was time for me to get set. I think if I didn’t have to pick up my stick, maybe, you know, if I just went straight out to the puck maybe I would have had a better shot at it.”
That was the only blemish for Stolarz, who outdueled Igor Shesterkin.
“He’s one of the best, if not the best in the league,” Stolarz said. “I knew I had to come out here and battle.”
Stolarz was eager to get back on track after allowing three goals on just 15 shots in Monday’s loss to the Detroit Red Wings.
“Definitely wanted to bounce back from my last game,” he told TSN. “I thought I did a lot of good things in that last game, but, you know, the results weren’t there.”
Stolarz didn’t let the result impact his process.
“I was tracking the puck well, moving side to side well,” he said of Thursday’s effort.
That’s what stood out the most to Berube.
“He’s moving extremely well in the net,” the coach observed. “We gave up some odd-man rushes where he had to go lateral pretty good, and he’s reading it well and he’s getting over there.”
The coach also appreciated how Stolarz handled all the traffic on Thursday night.
“I thought New York did a good job of shooting pucks from the top and having people around the net, and I thought he was real solid in that area, finding pucks and being big in net and taking the lower half of the net away,” Berube said.
After the game, Cowan passed the team’s player-of-the-game belt to Stolarz. He didn’t have to go far.
“I sit beside him in the room,” Cowan said with a grin. “I notice he’s very calm, which calms me down. It’s nice when your goalie’s calm, because then you can be calm too.”
‘Stolarz stole the show’: Leafs edge Rangers in overtime Anthony Stolarz shutout the Rangers through two periods with a couple of 10-bell saves and ultimately helped Toronto get past New York. The TSN Hockey panel breaks down his performance and Maple Leafs’ power play getting on the board.
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Nylander and Matthews made sure Stolarz got the win by converting on a 2-on-1 rush in overtime. Although the play almost didn’t happen. Nylander tried to make a line change earlier in the shift.
“I thought it was a good time to change,” he said. “I mean, they [Rangers] were back, but I felt like nobody was ready to go on the ice immediately. So, I thought, okay, I got to stay on.”
Knies was the player tabbed to jump over the boards next.
“I’m glad I stayed on [the bench] because he made a play that not a lot of players can make,” Knies said with a grin. “It was fun to watch. Fun to watch on the bench.”
Was Nylander thinking pass all the way as he came in on Shesterkin?
“I mean, just happens,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t really think I’m thinking too much when I’m coming down there.”
After Berube challenged Nylander to raise his level earlier in the week, the star winger responded with five points in the last two games and now leads the team in scoring with nine points on the season.
“Just trying to build it game by game,” he said of his play.
After aborted line change, Nylander delivers OT magic for Leafs Just prior to the Maple Leafs’ overtime-winner against the Rangers on Thursday, William Nylander was all set to get off the ice but stayed on when he thought no one was ready to get on to replace him. Matthew Knies was glad he stayed on the bench as Nylander provided the sensational assist that led to Auston Matthews’ winner.
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Matthews usually leads the stretch after practice, but in his absence on Friday, birthday boy Knies was pushed to the middle of the circle by alternate captain Morgan Rielly. Knies didn’t have any big plans to celebrate his 23rd birthday.
“Nothing crazy,” he said. “There’s a lot of games going on. Yeah, I don’t know, probably be getting some rest.”
Knies is being leaned on more than ever before as he starts his third full season in the NHL. And he’s handling the workload well so far. Knies is second on the team with seven points.
Knies’ latest point was a power-play goal, which opened the scoring on Thursday night.
Nylander took a shot from the side boards, which was stopped by Shesterkin but bounced in off the 6-foot-3, 232-pound winger.
“We’ve worked on that play,” Knies said. “Just hang on the back post and make myself big and hopefully it bounces in and fortunately it did.”
“He’s a big boy and moves bodies out of the way,” Nylander noted. “He does a great job in front.”
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Lines at Friday’s practice:
Knies – Jarnkrok* – Cowan
Maccelli – Tavares – Nylander
Robertson – Domi – McMann
Lorentz – Roy – Joshua
Blais
Rielly – Carlo
McCabe – Tanev
Benoit – Ekman-Larsson
Myers
Stolarz
Primeau
*Matthews absent (rest)