Maple Leafs report cards: All-around team effort and skill sinks Kraken

By / / Sports / 6 minutes of reading


The Toronto Maple Leafs have the top-end skill to turn relatively even games into lopsided wins, and that’s precisely what they demonstrated against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.

Seattle outshot Toronto overall and at five-on-five, but the Maple Leafs’ best offensive threats made the type of plays even the best players on most teams are incapable of. From the Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner–Matthew Knies tic-tac-toe in the first to the passes that set up two William Nylander goals, the Maple Leafs beat the Kraken with skill.

They also deserve credit for bottling up a Kraken offence coming off an eight-goal performance, conceding just 1.59 expected goals in a 4-1 win. The defensive performance was a significant change of pace after the team allowed 19 goals in its previous four games. That, along with the moments of offensive brilliance, earns the team an ‘A’.

Unit Grades

L1 (Knies – Matthews – Marner): B+

Toronto’s top line wasn’t better than fine for most of their shifts against the Kraken. They played a surprisingly low-event game with just six total shots reaching the net at five-on-five (three for Toronto and three for Seattle).

Normally that would be a disappointing outcome for a group that is expected to handily win their minutes on a night-in, night-out basis, but the night was salvaged by a brilliant effort in the dying seconds of the first period.

Marner sometimes takes flak for his tendency to pass up an excellent scoring chance for a perfect one, but he deserves credit for feeding Knies there.

This grade goes from B to B+ thanks to a game-clinching empty-net goal from Matthews that resulted from this trio fighting hard in their own zone to win the puck.

L2 (Pacioretty – Tavares – Nylander): A

It would’ve been unfair to expect this group to replicate their dominant performance from Monday when they scored four goals, but they produced a solid encore.

The group helped the Maple Leafs take control of the game in first half of the second period as Nylander was able to get free in roughly the same plot of real estate on two separate occasions.

On a day when Nylander publicly lobbied effort for more ice time, he showed off his game-breaking chops — but, for the record, fell 27 seconds short of the average TOI number he came into the game with (18:01).

Meanwhile, John Tavares and Max Pacioretty’s hard work to maintain offensive-zone pressure was reminiscent of the Tavares-Tyler Bertuzzi partnership that was so successful last season.

L3 (McMann – Domi – Robertson): C

The third line included Pontus Holmberg on the right flank, but Craig Berube elevated Nick Robertson midway through the fist period.

Although the personnel shift meant this line made a little more sense conceptually, it didn’t produce much. To this group’s credit, the Kraken only managed one shot against them, but the trio’s expected goal rate was still well below 50 percent (38.62) because they threatened so little.

L4 (Lorentz – Kämpf – Holmberg): B

In a game the Maple Leafs led from late in the first period, these guys were tasked with bleeding time in the offensive zone and not letting Seattle get anything going the other way. They consistently delivered, constantly cycling the puck and applying modest amounts of pressure.

If you’re the type of person who likes to watch a meat-and-potatoes shift that goes well over a minute, this is a recommended watch:

D1 (McCabe – Tanev): A

Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev did everything the Maple Leafs expect from their steadiest pair. The veterans recovered the puck and moved it up ice efficiently, shut down opportunities and occasionally made plays with a touch of offensive ambition.

The Kraken don’t have the kind of single dominant line that tests this duo’s capabilities as a shutdown pair, but they have plenty of forward depth and none of it seemed to challenge the pair too much. Toronto out-attempted Seattle 19-12 in McCabe’s five-on-five minutes and 15-12 in Tanev’s.

D2 (Rielly – Ekman-Larsson): B

This pair is generally going to play high-event hockey, and that was certainly the case on Thursday. Both blueliners made their presence felt offensively as Morgan Rielly made a stellar pass on Nylander’s first goal and Oliver Ekman-Larsson fired three shots on net, including one of Toronto’s best early-game chances:

On the flip side, the duo spent more than their fair share of time running around their own end — including a second-period shift that lasted more than two minutes. The Maple Leafs won the shot battle in their ice time, but conceded some of Seattle’s best chances.

D3 (Benoît – Timmins): C-

Connor Timmins had a couple of clever plays in the offensive zone, but he also struggled with giveaways and didn’t make much of a difference transitioning the puck.

While Simon Benoît threw his body around a bit with three hits, his on-ice numbers were rough as he posted a 23.84 percent expected goal rate and Toronto was outshot 7-4 in his five-on-five minutes.

The pair got slightly stronger as the game went on after a particularly ugly first period, but neither made a positive impact.

Power play: B

It’s tough to grade the power play too harshly when it only had one full two-minute opportunity to work with.

An abbreviated 1:22 in the first period resulted in very little, but both the newly-formed units created quality chances in the third as Max Domi rang one off the post and Pacioretty couldn’t bury a Grade-A opportunity from in tight.

Penalty kill: A

After the Kraken scored three power-play goals in their last game on Tuesday they were stifled by the Maple Leafs. Toronto held Seattle to just three shots in 5:22 at five-on-four with Knies drawing a penalty while shorthanded to cut the Kraken’s first opportunity short.

The Maple Leafs did a solid job denying zone entries and Tanev had a characteristically strong performance, blocking two shots and making some strong plays on the puck.

Goaltender (Woll): B+

Joseph Woll was rarely the primary protagonist on Thursday, but he put in a strong performance, coming up just short in a bid for the first Leafs shutout of the season.

He may not have made too many dramatic efforts amongst his 24 saves, but he turned aside a few clean looks and second-chance stops. After an unimpressive showing in his season debut, Woll has something to build on.

Game Score

Single HockeyStatCards com 1

What’s next?

Heading to St. Louis to take on the Blues at 7:00 p.m. Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada.

(Photo: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)





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About The Author

Avatar of Fannie Hogan
Fannie Hogan is a writer and editor who covers lifestyle, books, sports, education, and tech. She's always loved to write—from the time she was a little girl writing stories about talking animals to the day she got her first job as an editor at a lifestyle magazine. Her hobbies include long walks on the beach, running, and taking breaks from work to read a good book.

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