TORONTO – As they play out these painfully meaningless games, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ greatest hope is for pain-free meaningless games.
Their first-round rematch with the Tampa Bay Lightning became official over the weekend, but that fate had been a mathematical near-certainty for months, thanks to the NHL’s rigid divisional seeding format.
Or, as Ilya Samsonov shrugs: “We know we’re playing Tampa in the playoffs in February, January, yeah? Everybody knows this. Not surprise for us.”
Since the trade deadline, the chatter around the Leafs has circled around fine-tuning line combinations and defence pairings, and optimizing a lineup best suited to exorcise the demons, slay the dragon, or whatever metaphor you prefer for winning a freaking elimination series.
Nitpicky stuff.
The unspoken fear during this purgatorial stretch, however, is that a key player would succumb to something greater than bumps and bruises, especially with the option of a roster-saving trade having passed.
Ryan O’Reilly fractured a finger? Oh, no! But he’ll be healed well in time for Game 83? Whew!
All considered, life has been humming along quite smoothly, if uneventfully, in Leafland.
Yeah, we might be stuck twiddling thumbs in a waiting room for two weeks before Andrei Vasilevskiy & Co. roll into town, but at least there’s interesting magazines and no one’s coughing in our face.
Auston Matthews looks rejuvenated and engaged. The newly formed shutdown duo of Jake McCabe and T.J. Brodie is sharpening up for the task. The power play has avoided its usual late-March swoon. And No. 1 goalie Samsonov is out here pitching shutouts on dad strength.
“We don’t want to let up in any way,” Sheldon Keefe reminds — even as the coach himself lets up a tad by not always dressing his best 20 players.
(Heck, the coach even tapped checking centre David Kämpf for a penalty-shot opportunity Sunday simply based on “feel.” Maybe he’s getting bored, too.)
Keefe reckons Mitch Marner doesn’t mind taking a night off from his chase for 100 points if it permits the energizer to catch a breath before sport’s most breathtaking tournament.
It is against this backdrop of caution and hope and anxious anticipation that Matt Murray’s head smacked the ice in the first period of Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.
Lucas Raymond appeared to lose his balance cutting across Murray’s blue paint and took out the back goaltender’s left leg by surprise, causing the six-foot-five Murray to topple backwards and whiplash his neck toward the ice. (Raymond skated back to apologize to Murray before he got up.)
After consulting with a trainer, Murray skated to the tunnel and did not return, leaving backup Samsonov to play five-plus periods in 27 hours.
Murray was tested for a concussion, and Keefe was told it was “mandatory” that the goalie depart the game. No further update on his condition was provided.
“You don’t like seeing that. Hopefully, Matt’s OK. So unexpecting, so there’s no opportunity for him to brace the impact or sense that it’s coming.” John Tavares said.
“He’s played some real solid hockey for us this year and hasn’t been able to get traction that way because some of the things he’s been dealing with.”
In addition to the adductor and ankle injuries he’s battled for the Maple Leafs, Murray carries a concussion history from his pre-Toronto days.
He most recently dealt with symptoms that lingered into the off-season after a March 4, 2022 collision with then-Senators teammate Nikita Zaitsev.
“I’m sad. This is hard. Hard for him. Hard for [his]family, yeah, first one, and hard for team,” tandem mate Samsonov said.
“It’s hard for us. It’s third one. We don’t know long-term or whatever. Third injury is really hard, and I’m so sad about it.”
If there is some solace here, it’s that Samsonov has found a groove and that the Leafs’ AHL depth options, Joseph Woll and Erik Kaällgren, are more promising than in post-seasons past.
Woll, 24, is enjoying his best season as a pro, posting a 16-4-1 record with a .927 save percentage for the Marlies and a tidy 3-1-0 and .934 in his four games with the Maple Leafs.
Woll has never tasted NHL playoff action, however, while Murray has two Cup rings.
Before we jump to conclusions, however, let’s wait on Murray’s diagnosis, which could arrive Tuesday. (The Maple Leafs are taking Monday off.)
Said Keefe, simply: “He’ll bounce back.”
Fox’s Fast 5
• Hopefully you didn’t shell out too much on tickets, Marner fanatics.
The Maple Leafs are in full-blown load management mode, as the star winger joined top-four D-men Mark Giordano and McCabe on the sidelines Sunday to rest for meaningful matches.
Marner averages 21:22 in ice time — fifth most among all NHL forwards — and had an 11-game point streak snapped Saturday in Ottawa.
“Mitch wants to play every game,” Keefe says. “I think Mitch sees the big picture and recognizes it and knows how he feels, knows that he’s played a lot.”
• The Maple Leafs have now dressed 45 players in 2022-23, more than any team in the league.
• Tavares, who again scored on the man-advantage, now ranks fifth league-wide in power-play points (36). His even-strength production (40 points) has him tied for 78th.
It’s no secret Tavares looks more dangerous 5-on-5 when paired with Marner; William Nylander doesn’t create as many home-plate looks for the captain.
“A lot of his shots and his scoring chances come in the middle of the ice, come in the slot, come in around the net. Any time you’re a player like that, you’re relying on your wingers, and you’re relying on the other players to make a lot of that happen,” Keefe explains.
“I correlate it a lot to the fact that Will, his game hasn’t been to the same level.”
• Toronto is a dreadful 0-for-7 on penalty shots this season.
Keefe says he’d “love” a coach’s option to opt for a two-minute power play instead of a penalty shot.
He says he wouldn’t automatically take the power play but would appreciate a choice, depending on game situation.
• The Red Wings are carrying three goaltenders on their roster, none of whom have a .900 save percentage: Ville Husso (.899), Alex Nedeljkovic (.888), and Magnus Hellberg (.891).
That said, Nedeljkovic was superb Sunday, making 42 saves in the win. Murray and Samsonov combined for 18 saves.
