TORONTO — Matthew Knies liked what he saw, and liked how he felt, too.
Coming into Saturday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators, the last-place Toronto Maple Leafs power play could only go one direction: up. In the wake of Marc Savard’s firing, there were two new coaches running things with the man advantage, and “up” is exactly where the Leafs’ power play went in a wild 7-5 win.
“We felt like we had a job to do,” Knies said of the Leafs’ two power-play goals, one of which he scored. “It’s nice to bring in a new voice and a different perspective.”
If the power play continues trending in the right direction, the Leafs’ postseason chances could end up looking drastically different as well.
There were plenty of reasons for optimism after the Leafs’ win. They outshot the opposition, a rarity this season, 33-31. Auston Matthews’ shot got off with power, and the Leafs captain put up his first three-point and nine-shot game of the season. The offence was spread out with goals from recently-slumping Leafs stars and their secondary scorers as well, with Matthews, William Nylander, Knies, Bobby McMann, Nick Robertson and John Tavares all finding the back of the net. Knies scoring twice feels like a step in the right direction for the young Leaf in the middle of an up-and-mostly-down season.
At the top of the positives list, though, was the Leafs’ new-look power play.
Five days earlier, the Leafs took the long-overdue step of firing Savard, an assistant coach who had overseen a power play that had fallen to the bottom of the NHL. Urgency, creativity, or any discernible plan was lacking from the unit all season.
The organization promoted Steve Sullivan, a former Maple Leaf and assistant coach with the American Hockey League’s Marlies, to Leafs assistant coach. Assistant coach Derek Lalonde has taken on power play responsibility since Savard’s firing, and is slated to work with Sullivan to cure the ailing performance.
During Sullivan’s first game behind an NHL bench, he would have liked the Christmas miracle he saw happening before his eyes: For just the second time all season, the Leafs scored two power-play goals. Those two goals came on just two shots and ended up being the difference in the win.
There’s too much offensive firepower in the lineup to have the power play sink as low as it has. The Leafs have very likely left points on the table because of their poor power play to date, and they still sit in last place in the Atlantic Division with the midway point of the season approaching.
However, in the wake of Saturday’s two-goal effort, it’s worth wondering if their power play can now be a catalyst for change in an otherwise bleak season.
Now, we have to add a caveat that’s the size of your mammoth Christmas turkey here: The Senators’ penalty kill is bad. Like, it’s second-worst in the league bad, with a miserable 71.7 percent of penalties killed off.
Let’s add some stuffing to that turkey as well. Senators starting goalie Linus Ullmark was clearly having an off night in the middle of a troubling season. Ullmark looked too casual throughout two periods, stopping just 10 of 14 shots on the night before being yanked in favour of backup goalie Leevi Merilainen.
You can only play the team in front of you, though, and the Leafs’ power play attacked the Senators’ penalty kill like a fiddle, darting the puck through them with newfound ease.
“We had an attack mentality,” Robertson said.
The first Leafs power-play goal didn’t feature the smoothest of entries, but it looked decisive.
One of the many adjectives you could use to describe the Leafs with the man advantage this season was “tentative,” but once Matthews corralled a loose puck deep in the Senators zone, his backhand pass to Nylander was quick and, well, vintage. Nylander blew by a lagging Tim Stutzle and stuffed a shot past Ullmark. The play might have simply caught a napping Senators team on their heels, but that’s sort of the point. The Leafs finally acted with an aggressive mindset on the power play. Just 40 seconds into the power play’s revival, they had a goal on their first shot.
Nylander would eventually leave the game in the second period with what the Leafs are calling a “lower body” injury. He got tied up with Senators defenceman Artem Zub close to the Senators’ goal and appeared to be favouring his left leg afterward. Leafs head coach Craig Berube said postgame that Nylander would make the trip with the team for Sunday night’s road game against the Detroit Red Wings, but was unsure if he would play.
The second power-play goal from the second unit featured more of a classic approach. The Leafs bungled their first few zone entry attempts before Max Domi gained possession along the left wall and slowed down the pace of play. As Nicolas Roy slid into his net front position, the Senators struggled to properly mark the Leafs around them. Knies sniffed out some open space in the slot, and Domi didn’t overthink matters. Domi threw Knies a pass, and the winger fired home a slap shot.
What do these two power-play goals have in common?
To quote the immortal Pete Mitchell, a need for speed. The puck moved to the most dangerous area of the ice quickly, and both Nylander and Knies wasted little time getting the puck on net. A power play that once lacked a vision seemed to have one, and it was finally fixed on the net.
“That’s the type of stuff we’re looking for, with that play into the middle of the ice,” Berube said of the second power-play goal.
Sullivan and Lalonde made changes to the positions of multiple Leafs players, including moving Knies to the bumper role. That the Leafs understood their new positions and performed well suggests there is early belief in the changes.
“Overall, I think we were executing a little bit better,” Knies said. “I obviously was in a different spot during my goal, and I think that goal by (Nylander), it’s just an entry play that we executed and found a way to score. So little things like that, execution, structure, being in the right spots, I think, is what helped us today.”
Beyond the power play, the Leafs looked sharp in the first two periods — including firing 20 shots on goal in the second period, a season-high for a single period — before a sloppy third period broke out.
Allowing three goals in the third period isn’t sustainable for the Leafs, but it was perhaps typical of the first game after Christmas break.
The Leafs did get a final power play in that third period that saw them get three shots on net. Once again, their new focus was clear: move the puck quickly to dangerous areas on the inside of the ice, and don’t hesitate to shoot.
While it seems simplistic, an emphasis on swift puck movement, equally swift player movement and firing shots off from the slot is something the Leafs can build on. Players have shown a heaviness when discussing the power play this season. That heaviness was gone postgame. Saturday seemed to be a reminder for players, if anything, of how dangerous their power play can be.
It also demonstrated, crucially, how a well-executed power play can help them claw back up toward where they want to be in the Atlantic Division.
“We were playing a little bit more free,” Domi said of the changes on the power play against the Senators. “Guys were sniffing. And sometimes when the power play doesn’t go right, it’s really tough to not get frustrated. But I think we’ve just simplified (the power play) here.”
