FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Who knew the Toronto Maple Leafs’ waiver pickup of Troy Stecher would be this critical?
The damaged right side of the struggling club’s blue line has taken another surprise hit as Brandon Carlo left the road trip early on Monday.
Carlo suffered a setback in the recovery of his undisclosed lower-body injury and flew back to Toronto to see a specialist. The team expects an update on Carlo’s status Tuesday.
The top-four minute-muncher has already been sidelined for 18 days and counting.
As of Saturday, Carlo was planning to practise Monday with his teammates in Fort Lauderdale with hopes of returning to action as early as this week.
Now?
Carlo’s return feels about as imminent as that of fellow right-handed defenceman Chris Tanev (head/neck) — which is to say, not very.
If the Maple Leafs are to climb back into a playoff position, they’ll be forced to do so with a lefty-heavy blue line and some patchwork pairings.
Luckily, the all-lefty duo of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Morgan Rielly (20 points apiece) has provided an offensive threat, and Stecher, the veteran righty, has been quick to find a groove with his seventh team.
The sudden absence of Simon Benoit on Saturday prompted coach Craig Berube to bump Stecher — typically a sheltered, third-pairing guy — onto his shutdown duo with lefty Jake McCabe.
Despite not practising, the two fared well in a big road win and will stick together in Tuesday’s revenge match against the Florida Panthers.
“We were vocal together, and we tried to put our best foot forward. But the onus is on us to do it again tomorrow night,” said Stecher, who revealed that he had trained with McCabe over the off-season.
Past relationships with some of his new Leafs mates and comfort with changing sweaters mid-season has helped Stecher make such a smooth transition.
“I just wanted to dive in and try to play my game,” Stecher explained. “Systems and tendencies would fall into place over repetition. And give a lot of credit to my teammates and the coaching staff for allowing me to kind of play that way.
“Overall, I feel like I’ve had my legs, which is a strength of mine. In saying that, there’s some details I’ve seen on film that I’d definitely like to clean up, stickwork in the D-zone and having tighter gaps.”
Berube credited the under-sized Stecher’s competitiveness and pace for his ability to flip from a scratch in Edmonton to an essential in Toronto.
“He closes on people quick and moves his feet really well,” the coach said. “He’s simple with the puck, right? He makes the first pass, or makes a hard play when he has to. And he’s been defending well; he’s been defending hard at our net. So, he’s been a good player for us since he got here.”
Berube prefers McCabe on his natural left side as much as possible and is leery of using Benoit on the left.
All of which spells opportunity for Stecher, who has a couple assists, a plus-2 rating, and has avoided the penalty box during his elevated importance.
“He stepped in and he’s made an impact right away,” captain Auston Matthews said. “You know, it’s never easy to come over to a new team, and I feel like he’s fit in so well.
“He’s a veteran guy. I don’t think he’s very shy. He just came in and he knows his job. He knows his role, and he just tries to the best of his ability. He communicates a lot in the ice.”
Ekman-Larsson loves the passion and consistency of the newest defenceman: “Just a veteran pro. He leaves everything on the on the ice, and you know what you’re getting every single game.”
Even better? Stecher is right-handed every night.
Berube stands up McCabe
Monday’s skate brought much-needed levity to the Leafs in the form of some accidental physical comedy.
Matthews trucked over Derek Lalonde during an odd-man rush, popping the assistant coach’s hat right off his head, and Jake McCabe collided hard with Berube in open ice.
“Newsy gettin’ run over on the ice! He got rocked,” Berube laughed. “I didn’t go down.”
In fact, the un-padded Berube went over to his hard-hitting D-man and jokingly and loudly asked McCabe if was all right.
“I was doing the same drill few years ago in St. Louis, and David Perron ran me right over. Like, I didn’t see him. I was a little too close involved, you know, and I went down. I cracked a rib. We were laughing,” Berube smiled, recalling an incident from September 2022.
“So, the next day, the boys drew an outline of me on the ice. We got a good chuckle out of that.”
The local news crew had some fun with that one:
Auston Matthews and the five-forward power-play
The Maple Leafs scored a rare power-play goal as part of Saturday’s touchdown in Pittsburgh, but it was the second unit that did damage.
The top-unit experiment — which throws five forwards on the ice and asks Matthews to quarterback from the point — continues.
But it certainly comes with risk.
“I mean, it’s a pretty big adjustment,” said Matthews, who has rotated into Morgan Rielly’s old spot. “I was telling Mo, ‘It’s definitely not as easy as it looks up there.’ But I think it’s come along all right. I thought we had some better looks (Saturday). It was nice to be able to practise it out here.
“And for me, I want to still be aggressive. But knowing that I’m kind of that last man back, I can’t get sucked in too far into the O-zone there.”
It might not be the ideal look, but the desire to try something different and not sit idle with a 25th-ranked power play (15.87 per cent) is certainly understandable.
More convincing was Matthews’ beating Tristan Jarry clean with one of his patented wristers.
“Feels good,” said Matthews of his first goal since returning from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for two weeks. “It always feels good to put one in the net, and obviously getting a win like that. This does a lot for our confidence. And you just want to continue to put the push the pedal to the ground.”
Berube was encouraged that Matthews beat a goalie unscreened from distance — something that was once a regular occurrence.
“I think he’s starting to feel better and more comfortable out there and getting better looks on the power play,” Berube said. “Up top, he’s got an opportunity to shoot a lot of pucks in there, and the puck is on his stick a lot. Which we like right now.”
One-Timers: Ekman-Larsson assured the upper-body ailment that ended his night early in Pittsburgh was “nothing major” and he’s good to go. The Swede has a shot at a tying Tom Kurvers’ franchise record for longest point streak by a defenceman (10 games) Tuesday. “I didn’t know that. Thanks for telling me,” Ekman-Larsson laughed. “No pressure.”… Calle Järnkrok and Matias Maccelli appear to be stuck in the press box as Berube keeps his winning forward lines intact after a seven-goal outburst…. Dakota Mermis could be scratched now that Benoit has rejoined the club after attending a funeral over the weekend…. William Nylander appears to be battling something. He has missed four games this season (three to a lower-body injury, one to illness), a few practices to “maintenance,” and was first off the sheet Monday. That’s unusual when he’s feeling healthy. “Willy’s a gamer,” Berube said.
Maple Leafs projected lineup Tuesday in Florida:
Knies – Matthews – Domi
Cowan – Tavares – Nylander
Joshua – Roy – McMann
Lorentz – Laughton – Robertson
Rielly – Ekman-Larsson
McCabe – Stecher
Benoit – Myers
Woll
Hildeby
