BUFFALO – To a man, they sensed it coming, this volcano of offence from the most hotly debated second line in hockey.
“We’re close. Soon, we’re going to start to take off,” Ryan O’Reilly vowed Tuesday morning in Buffalo, wearing new threads in his old town.
“They look to me like a group that’s close to breaking out,” added coach Sheldon Keefe.
John Tavares: “We feel maybe just a hair off.”
And Mitch Marner: “Another game or so…”
Well, all the hairs fell into place at KeyBank Center during a 6-3 cruise through the Buffalo Sabres, as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ third game of the O’Reilly era was nothing short of charmed.
“I still, at times, gotta catch myself. I still can’t believe it. Family growing up in Toronto and actually wearing (the Maple Leaf) now, it’s a little surreal. But I’m excited,” said O’Reilly, running on adrenalin. “It’s awesome.”
Tuesday, in a road barn overwhelmed with border-hopping Toronto fans, gave Leafs Nation a glimpse into just how awesome the Ontario Line can be.
Yours to Discover.
Sure, Keefe is still in the experimentation phase with his new centreman, who has, for now, pushed Tavares to the left wing and stirred healthy lineup debates in the process.
But there was no denying the effectiveness of a rested and ready Tavares–O’Reilly–Marner on this night.
O’Reilly scored on the game’s first shot when Marner found him in stride. Then again in that same shift, 37 seconds later, on the game’s second shot, when Marner sprung him alone on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. O’Reilly casually went forehand, backhand, roof.
“It’s much nicer playing with him than against him, that’s for sure,” O’Reilly said of his right winger. “Like that the first goal. Just going to the net, next thing it’s on my tape. I have the whole-open net. Just the plays he’s making, it’s so dynamic, so dangerous. Johnny too. They’re so connected. They work so hard.”
Left winger Tavares was the beneficiary of Marner’s magic in the very next shift.
And in the 12 minutes and nine seconds Toronto needed to cave open a 4-0 lead, Buffalo coach Don Granato had already burned his timeout, yanked his started goalie, and, perhaps, sacrificed a goat head. At that point, the Sabres had just three shots on net.
“That first period, that’s as dominant as we’ve been all season long. So, it was tremendous to see,” Keefe said. “We were executing at a very high level there. Mitch was really feeling it early in the game.”
When the dust settled, Marner had registered a career-best five assists; Tavares had hung up four points from the flank; and O’Reilly, capping things off with an empty-netter, had registered a hat trick. That’s something he’d never done as a Sabre.
“They were just at their best right from the start,” Keefe said.
In all, the line finished with 13 points.
Has O’Reilly ever been part of a trio so productive over 60 minutes?
“I haven’t. But I’ll tell you, it’s a lot of fun, that’s for sure,” said the new Leaf, flashing his tooth-deprived hockey smile. “I’m still kind of pinching myself at times.”
There is poetry in the geography of O’Reilly’s breakout performance for Toronto.
Remember, this was the town where he had once lost his passion for the game, the losing was so relentless. So often, he was on the Sabres’ side of the QEW rivalry.
But he holds no ill will against the club that dealt him away, for he now understands how a fresh start can rejuvenate.
Prior to puck drop, O’Reilly — earbuds in, game face on — took a break from his pre-game warmup in the bowels of KeyBank Center when some young Sabres fans asked him to cheese for a photograph. He happily obliged.
And by the time his third goal squeaked across the goal line, hats rained down on the One That Got Away.
“Gave me a chill,” O’Reilly said. “Felt like a home game, in a sense.”
Added Morgan Rielly: “I think tonight was maybe the best that I’ve seen (for road support). The hats on the ice in an away arena is pretty cool. So, kudos to our fans for coming out and being supportive.”
As wildly successful as the Tavares-O’Reilly-Marner combination was Tuesday, Keefe maintains that this will be just one trick in his arsenal.
The coach wants options.
At the very least, he can sleep easy knowing his stacked second unit can take over a game.
“It’s a good sample of what we’re capable of,” Keefe said. “I still feel at the end day, we’re going to have John back in centre.
“But you want to build chemistry. And you want to build confidence that if and when you go to it, that’s what it’s capable of.”
Fox’s Fast 5
• Tage Thompson and O’Reilly were involved in the blockbuster Canada Day trade between the Blues and Sabres in 2018.
O’Reilly on Thompson: “Tage has been, this year, unbelievable. I feel like every time you turn on the TV, it’s another highlight reel of something he’s doing. Even today watching videos of how skilled he is and dynamic he is, it will be very tough to play against him.”
Thompson on O’Reilly: “He’s really good at picking pucks off. He has a really good stick. You can’t be careless with pucks (around him).”
• Noel Acciari has 13 hits through three games as a Maple Leaf.
• Don’t look now, but Morgan Rielly is regaining his offensive groove, putting up eight points over his past eight games. His two primary assists on this road trip were beautiful zone-busting feeds to Marner and Michael Bunting.
Sunday’s bank pass off the end-boards to Marner in Chicago was brilliant execution by both involved.
“Just good communication with him,” Rielly says. “I know he likes that (play).”
“I was kind of curling back there and had a bit of speed,” Marner explains. “I saw that D-man try to hold that blueline, and I went eye-to-eye with him and just tried to say, ‘End wall,’ and lucky enough he heard me.
“Great little bounce pass from him.”
• O’Reilly has won 30 of his 43 faceoffs with the Leafs thus far.
“The Factor, he’s just got a great stick,” Marner says. “Snaps back a lot of draws.”
• Luke Schenn has entered the Jakob Chychrun–Vladislav Gavrikov Protection Program.
The Vancouver defenceman has been bubble-wrapped while he awaits a trade. The rumoured asking price for the rental is a third-rounder.
Toronto is interested in adding a blueliner of Schenn’s style, to be sure, but a third-rounder is the Maple Leafs’ highest pick remaining in the 2023 draft.
