Maple Leafs return to friendly confines to battle Penguins
The Toronto Maple Leafs resume their home-heavy early schedule Monday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Maple Leafs gained a split of a two-game road trip Saturday with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers that featured the first NHL goal by their top rookie, Easton Cowan.
They now play their next four at home. At the end of the homestand, they will have played 12 of their first 16 games at home. The Maple Leafs had lost their first three road games before their success in Philadelphia.
The Maple Leafs played their second straight game, and third of their past four, without William Nylander (lower-body injury). The absence of Nylander, a 45-goal scorer last season, created an opportunity for Nicholas Robertson to play on the top line with Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies.
Robertson had the game-winning goal and an assist against the Flyers, one game after posting a goal and an assist in a 6-3 road loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has five points in his past four games.
"It's a great opportunity," Robertson said. "It's a blessing, for sure. I think for me, I try to take advantage of it. They're just such good, talented players. I think with more minutes played, more pucks on my stick, just more confidence. Nothing's changed for me as a player or anything, I think it's just I got more of an opportunity."
"It's effort, right?" Toronto coach Craig Berube said of his forward. "You know, if you look back before he scored that goal (against Philadelphia), he had two big blocks in our zone. Just the speed, his shot, are dangerous, obviously, but his work ethic drives everything for me."
The Maple Leafs announced on Sunday that defenseman Chris Tanev was returning to Toronto following his discharge from a Philadelphia hospital, where he was evaluated overnight after being removed from the ice on a stretcher at 8:23 of the third period on Saturday.
Tanev collided with Flyers forward Matvei Michkov at the Maple Leafs' blue line. Michkov received an interference penalty. Tanev had just returned from a concussion and had an assist in the game.
Veteran center Scott Laughton could return to the Toronto lineup on Monday from a foot injury.
The Penguins had their eight-game point streak (6-0-2) stopped on Saturday with a 5-2 road loss to the Winnipeg Jets. The Toronto game marks the end of a four-game road trip for Pittsburgh. In contrast to the Maple Leafs' schedule, the Penguins are playing nine of their first 14 on the road.
The Penguins fell behind Winnipeg 2-0 at 2:43 of the first period and did not recover.
"You get down, you start chasing the game a little bit," said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who scored one goal. "I think it's tough to fight that, but you've got to find a way to stay patient. You've got to understand there's a lot of hockey left. So, unfortunately, they got to build on that lead."
The lead reached 4-0 before Crosby scored on a power play at 19:48 of the second period.
"Definitely too many odd-man rushes, which really hurt us," said Penguins coach Dan Muse. "I think they came for different reasons. ... You also have a lot of situations where they're coming in, the numbers might be even, but they have a lot of space. And when you give a team like that too much space, you're not going to like the chances you're giving up."
Blackhawks have progressed to learning next-level details of Jeff Blashill's defensive system
SEATTLE — Coach Jeff Blashill’s aggressive defensive system appears to be working relatively well for the Blackhawks.
They rank 12th in the NHL in goals allowed per minute during five-on-five play, although Spencer Knight’s excellent goaltending has contributed to that stat.
In terms of expected goals allowed, they rank 21st, but even that ranking is much improved compared to the last few seasons. Their analytics are less atrocious across the board, according to Natural Stat Trick, plus they’re improving over time.
The Hawks’ system encourages their defensemen to follow their marks and pressure the puck toward the perimeter of the defensive zone to try to kill plays quickly. It subsequently puts pressure on everyone — defensemen and forwards alike — to box out effectively because there’s less team support in the interior of the zone and around the net.
The Hawks have done a good job of boxing out, giving Knight clean sight lines to make saves. They’ve blocked only 25.4% of opponent shots, and that’s largely intentional; they want to reduce traffic wearing any color.
Now that they’ve gotten accustomed to the basic tenets of the system, Blashill has shifted toward coaching and explaining next-level intricacies. There’s still a ways to go until they master it completely.
“You can’t teach every little detail in a system right away,” Blashill said recently. “You give the main version of it, and then you start to teach the details within it as you go. That’s what we’ve tried to do. Part of it is just repetition. We try it in practice, get those reps, [get more] repetition in games and then guys get more comfortable with it.”
That’s true in all areas, not only the defensive zone. The Hawks have dived into greater detail about plays at both blue lines, forechecking strategies, penalty-kill entry defense and all sorts of other things. On Sunday, they practiced setting up below the goal line on five-on-three power plays — a trendy thing.
In the defensive zone specifically, though, a critical detail they’ve worked on involves cutting the zone in half vertically. That requires not only blocking lanes for always-dangerous seam passes but also cutting off pucks rimmed around the boards before they make it to the opposite corner.
To do that, Hawks wingers must pressure the opposing defensemen at the point, block their shooting lanes and angle them in such a way that their only option is to rim the puck down low.
“[We need to] find where the puck is and get our body or stick in the lane where it makes him uncomfortable to shoot,” forward Colton Dach said. “You have to have a good angle, as well. If you go straight at him, he could make the play around you. But you’ve just got to find a way to make him force the puck low.”
If a Hawks defenseman has his eyes up and can recognize and anticipate that’s about to happen, he can stop boxing out — leaving his man in front of the net — and jump the play, so he reaches the puck first behind the net. Blashill calls it “cutting the bottom off.”
Then he can send the puck back toward the side it came from or, if he has enough time, orchestrate a breakout by looking for a tape-to-tape pass.
“That’s the next progression to allow us to play less D-zone and put the puck in the forwards’ hands, which is where we have a lot of speed and skill,” defenseman Matt Grzelcyk said.
“That’s a tough balance as a D-man, [deciding] when to box out or when to jump off your check a second early. But we watched some clips [Thursday about] understanding when the puck is at the point, maybe just take a look — more than you would.”
