TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs lost another hockey game, and the youngest among them carried the burden of a squandered point as he walked out of the rink.
“I take responsibility. I got to bury one,” Easton Cowan lamented, following a hard-fought 3-2 overtime defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“If I bury one of them, we could’ve won the game. So, that’s the unfortunate part. But just gotta stay positive.”
Sure, Cowan has been a tad unlucky through his first 13 NHL games, converting on just one of his first 24 shots.
But he’s also 20 years old and, partly in response to Toronto’s injury rash, got asked to skate more than 20 minutes Thursday.
When it comes to the words Cowan and burying this season, his first as a professional, many figured we’d be talking about stuffing unproven talent in the minors.
Not critical scoring chances in what suddenly feel like urgent mid-November games against mediocre opponents.
Sure, in a perfect world, ‘Cowboy’ would be afforded time to learn the ropes in the AHL.
But the climate in Leafland these days is far from perfect — six regulars sat out for this one — and that horse has long left the barn.
As a prized product of Leafs coach Craig Berube’s good friend, Dale Hunter, in nearby London, Cowan had a leg up in training camp.
And despite a few rough outings, and one two-game stint on the farm (the GM’s call, not the coach’s), the energetic winger is swiftly establishing himself as one of Berube’s more trusted skaters.
So impactful was Cowan Thursday that he rightfully earned a mid-game promotion to the top line alongside William Nylander and John Tavares. He was thrown over the boards in the final minute of a tied contest and again in 3-on-3 with valuable points on the line.
It speaks to the kid’s confidence and internal standard that ripping four shots, setting up Tavares’s go-ahead goal, throwing a pair of hits, blocking a couple shots, and finishing a team-best plus-2 isn’t enough.
They lost, and Cowan didn’t find the back of Jet Greaves’ net.
“Yeah, it’s good I’m getting out there, but I got to capitalize,” Cowan said. “I’m getting chances. I just got to bury. I got to bury one of them, since I’m out there a lot.”
We’ll entertain the argument that it sure would be swell if Cowan could play all situations for the Marlies and enter the show with more experience battling grown-ups under his belt.
But Berube needs W’s now, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Cowan gives him a better chance of securing them.
“He’s come a long way,” said Tavares, thinking back to Cowan’s fourth-line shifts in pre-season. “You can see his ability to read the game and make little plays, just like he did on my goal. Like, he just lays it in there, not too quick, just in the right spot with the right pace on it, and just an easy play for me to put in.
“And he seems to be stronger on the puck, absorbing contact, things like that. And you saw it throughout the game. I thought it was evident in overtime as well. So, yeah, he’s playing really well. And credit to him. He’s not tried to do too much, focus too much on things offensively, just be consistent with this game in all areas.”
No Leaf tilted the ice as aggressively as Cowan did Thursday; Toronto outshot Columbus 14-4 and out-attempted the Jackets 32-14 when the freshman hit the sheet.
“Watching him even over the last couple games, I’ve seen him grow a lot and getting more confidence out there,” Joseph Woll said. “He’s gonna be a special player, I think, for a while.”
-
-
Watch Hockey Night in Canada on Sportsnet
Watch Hockey Night in Canada on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ all season long. This Saturday, the Maple Leafs visit the Canadiens, the Oilers have a rematch with the Panthers, the Senators visit the Sharks and the Flames host the Stars.
If the Maple Leafs have played too much vanilla hockey through their first six weeks, Cowan injects a swirl of flavour.
He’s young and speedy, confident and easygoing. As quick to snatch a veteran’s ice time as he is to claim ownership of a narrow loss.
“He’s taken some good steps from Day 1,” Berube said. “He’s like a dog on a bone out there, for me. Like, he just works and skates and sees the ice extremely well. He’s being a lot heavier on pucks and making good decisions with the puck. I thought he played a really good game tonight.”
His best yet.
And there will be more to come.
Fox’s Fast Five
• With the Blue Jackets flying from Winnipeg to Toronto Tuesday night, Adam Fantilli was gifted an entire Wednesday at home.
“I got to go from the airport straight home, which never happens,” said the native of Nobleton, Ont. “Got to wake up in my childhood bed. My mom made breakfast. It was kind of cool. It was a good time.”
The Fantillis had about 30 friends and family over for a big dinner, but it’s not as if the 21-year-old’s parents are banking on him moving back into his teenage bedroom anytime soon.
“No, they actually just finished a renovation like four months ago,” Fantilli said. “All my stuff’s gone.
“It’s in a box in the basement.”
Same.
Belly full of home cookin’, Fantilli was the most dangerous man on the ice: two goals, including the game-winner, a primary assist, plus a couple of emphatic celebrations.
• Depth D-man Dakota Mermis scored his first goal as a Maple Leaf — and first in the NHL in 635 days.
Benches love themselves an unlikely scorer.
“They’re excited,” Berube said. “He’s very well-liked on our team. Solid guy. You know, he’s come in and done a good job here for us with the injuries. He’s played pretty well.”
At even-strength, shot attempts were 14-6 in favour of Toronto when the third pair of Mermis and Troy Stecher were on the ice.
• The Leafs are stuck in another 0-for-10 power-play drought. Their season is only 21 games old, and they already have three separate four-game stretches without a power-play goal.
At least they’re looking more dangerous at 5-on-4.
“Our power-play has been building, too,” Tavares said. “We gotta find a way on the right side of the special-teams battle here to help us out.”
• Props to Scott Laughton for gleaning the silver lining in getting sidelined by a suspected concussion, just four periods after he returned from a damaged foot that had already kept him out a month: “It gave my other injury a little bit more time to heal.”
Laughton was a beast all night: four shots, 72 per cent in the dot, two hits, the biggest block of the game, and Toronto’s hardest-working penalty killer.
• Frequent scratch Yegor Chinakov wants a trade out of Columbus, but he’s not doing himself any favours.
The 24-year-old right wing is minus-4 without a point in his past nine games. Returning to the Jackets’ lineup in Toronto, he was but a blip: zero shots while skating a team-low 8:49.
Stagnant situation here.
