Analysis | ‘We were great.’ Leafs build on home-ice advantage by blanking Predators
It’s getting harder and harder to come up with new adjectives to describe what Jack Campbell has meant to the Maple Leafs.
But Sheldon Keefe came up with one after the netminder notched his third shutout in his 100th career NHL game: “consistent.”
And that might the most important development of the season for the Leafs, winners now of four in a row and nine of their last 10 after a 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday night.
“He’s consistent, that’s what we’re finding,” said Keefe. “Coming into the season, that was the question: Could he do it again, as the No. 1 guy and playing more frequently?
“As it has worked out, Jack has remained consistent and solid. The guys were not perfect tonight, because we let guys in behind us, but Jack made saves. The posts were on his side. He’s just been consistent, reliable. Pucks are hitting him in the chest more frequently than not. He’s hanging on to them. He’s been consistent, he’s been confident, and as a result our team confidence is real high as well.”
Campbell turned aside 24 shots and got some help from his mates, who blocked nine — including a “stacked pads” block by Ondrej Kaše.
“It just feels great,” Campbell said of his shutout. “Nashville came in playing extremely well right now and our team played so hard in front of me. The blocked (shots) at the end. The whole game speaks for itself. Just really lucky to play behind the blue guys. We were great.”
The team has been searching for consistent effort all season. Even as their wins have piled up lately, Keefe wasn’t particularly happy with all the efforts. But he had little to complain about Tuesday.
Souped up: Auston Matthews scored on the power play early, David Kämpf scored at even strength late and Mitch Marner added an empty-netter in support of Campbell’s efforts.
“The third period, locking it down, playing with good structure, all four lines not giving them too much, and we put the game away,” said Matthews.
Matthews has points in his last four games (two goals, three assists) and nine of his last 11 after going his first three games without a point.
Kämpf scored with less than four minutes to go, evidence that the Leafs can score at even strength. Keefe had criticized the team’s five-on-five play earlier in the day, but at even strength the Leafs dominated — producing scoring chances and keeping the play largely in the Nashville end.
In their own zone, the Leafs did an OK job of limiting chances. When a Nashville shooter did get through, the sound of “Sooooup” from the crowd was destined to be heard because Campbell made the save en route to the seventh shutout of his career.
“I can’t say enough good things about Campbell,” said Matthews. “He’s been so good for us ever since he got here. I could go on and on. His attitude every day, comes to the rink with a smile on his face. He competes for us every night. That’s all you can really ask for from your goalie.”
Home cooking: The New York Rangers are in town Thursday, then Pittsburgh Saturday as the Leafs finish a three-game homestand. Home has been very good for the Leafs, now 8-2-1 at Scotiabank Arena. They have played more home games than any other NHL team.
“I think that’s important,” said Keefe. “The way the schedule has worked out, we’ve played at home than we’ve played on the road. So being good here has been important. Obviously, the road games are going to start to pile up and we’ve got a really good (record) there, too. But certainly when you come home, you want to have great efforts and great results and you want your fans behind you. So to be generating positivity while we’re on home ice and winning our share of games has been very good.”
Back to the future: The Leafs played with a new-old look, centred on trying to get forward Nick Ritchie going. Even as the wins piled up lately, Keefe hasn’t liked the team’s efforts at even strength, and felt the chemistry of the top lines was not right.
“Things have gone really well for us. We’ve got good results, but we think we can play better,” said Keefe.
So the Leafs went with a lineup closer to the one they tried from the start of the season, then abandoned when the losses started piled up on that road trip at the end of October. That meant Ritchie — he of two assists through the first 16 games — was back on the top line.
The Leafs expected more from Ritchie, to be sure. He’s signed for two years at $2.5 million (U.S.) a season. They’d hoped he could replace some of what was lost when Zach Hyman left for Edmonton as a free agent. He had after all scored 15 goals with Boston last year, and he was picked two spots behind William Nylander in the 2014 draft.
But his offence simply hasn’t been there. Keefe explained that some of that fell on Matthews and Marner, who got off to slow starts themselves. Matthews had missed all of training camp, while Marner’s confidence was sapped, a hangover perhaps from his disappointing post-season against Montreal.
Keefe broke them up with Ritchie sent to the fourth line. Matthews paired up with William Nylander, Marner with John Tavares. Ritchie didn’t play there all night, and sat for most of the second period. Keefe kept moving his lines around, sometimes putting Nylander with the other two, a kind of power line that looks for offence. But the experiment will continue.
“Right now, it’s Ritchie’s opportunity and we’re looking to give him a chance to take hold of it,” said Keefe. “And it has happened quite yet, but we’re going to stay with it and see what we can get out of it.”
Early lead: It was a clash of two very hot teams. The Leafs were 8-2-0 in their last 10 coming in, the Predators a tick better at 8-1-1. And two very hot goalies. Campbell and Nashville’s Juuse Saros were both in the top 10 in save percentage among NHL goalies who had played at least five games.
The Leafs got off to the better start and were clearly the better team through the first period. Matthews scored a power-play goal, the Leafs outshot Nashville 13-8 and Toronto led 1-0. The Leafs have scored at least one power-play goal in eight of their last nine games.
Saros — underrated in the eyes of teammates — had a shaky start with trouble handling the puck. But he kept the Leafs to a single goal while Matthews had multiple opportunities, and Pierre Engvall was stopped on a glorious chance.
The Leafs continued to carry the play in the second period, opening up a 25-16 shots lead. They thought they had a second goal from Matthews, but after his shot caromed down off the crossbar it did not cross the line and was called back on review.
New world: The last time the Predators were in Toronto to face the Leafs, the game was never played. It was the first Leafs game postponed by the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s funny, we were on the bus coming from the airport (Monday) night, and I said the last time we were in Toronto was when the world got shut down,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “I remember we went to dinner and I think the NBA got shut down the night before the game. And we’re like, ‘I don’t think it’s going to happen with us.’ No sooner we coaches were walking over to the rink and (GM) David Poile called me and said the game is cancelled and the world changed forever.”
Roster notes: Leafs defenceman Timothy Liljegren and forward Kirill Semyonov were scratches … Ex-Leafs defenceman Ben Hutton and goalie David Rittich are Predators.
Injury updates: Leafs goalie Petr Mrázek (groin) and forward Ilya Mikheyev (broken thumb) continue their roads to recovery. “Mrázek had another assessment (Tuesday) that went very well. So the expectation is he’s going to start increasing his workouts off the ice. I think towards the weekend he’ll start to get back on the ice and work towards a return,” said Keefe. “Mikheyev recently had pins removed from his thumb and has been skating quite regularly, but hasn’t been doing a whole lot with the puck. So he’s just going to continue on the path. He has been on the ice and in our meetings. He’s been around the group a lot more.”
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