The Toronto Maple Leafs hope they have a chance to show off their revived power play on Friday night when they host the Detroit Red Wings.
Toronto had three goals while on the man advantage Tuesday night in a 4-0 home win over the Boston Bruins. The Maple Leafs entered the game 4-for-40 with the man advantage for the season and now are 7-for-47 (14.9 percent). They also killed off six Boston power plays.
“It comes down to special teams, and obviously we did pretty well in that department, so that had a big impact on the game,” said Morgan Rielly, who had a goal and two assists on Tuesday.
“I don’t think we are going to get carried away thinking we got anything solved. I think it was just a matter of time; it was just about sticking with the process and we wanted to shoot more pucks, get more traffic and I thought we did those things, but by no means did we have everything all sorted out now moving forward.”
Anthony Stolarz also provided strong goaltending, stopping 29 shots to earn his first shutout of the season and the ninth of his career.
Toronto had lost two in a row, both on the road, before Tuesday. Scoring consistently has been a problem, but all facets of the game were working against the Bruins.
“Probably our most complete game of the year,” Stolarz said. “Boston is a very good team. We knew they were physical and they were going to try to grind us down and I think we matched their intensity, matched their physicality really well.”
Maple Leafs star forward Auston Matthews (upper-body injury) did not practice Thursday after missing his first game this season on Tuesday.
Toronto coach Craig Berube said on Thursday that Matthews, who led the National Hockey League with 69 goals last season, is day-to-day and could not say if he would play on Friday.
“That’s to be determined, still. It’s hard for me to answer that,” Berube said.
The Maple Leafs are 36-19-2 all-time with Matthews out of the lineup.
The Red Wings are coming off a 4-1 road victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday for their second win in a row. Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat each had a goal and an assist and Cam Talbot made 28 saves.
“When we have quality wins like this — a 2-1, a 4-1 — it’s usually driven by Dylan,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “And that line (Larkin, DeBrincat and Patrick Kane) had some pop tonight, and they did a good job.”
Larkin said Tuesday’s win could energize the Red Wings amid a 6-5-1 start.
“We just didn’t give much,” Larkin said. “Our goaltending was good. I thought that was the best third period we’ve played, the best 60 minutes we’ve played all season and something to build on. We were more on the attack, more rolling four lines, short shifts, changing in their zone, kind of suffocating them.”
Larkin has four goals and an assist over his past three games.
“You just try, when that’s happening, to just keep doing the right things,” he said. “Definitely playing with good players. Alex and I were finding each other tonight, and that was nice. Usually ‘Kaner’ is finding me, as well. It’s just going in. Just try and keep shooting.”
Detroit will be shooting for its second three-game winning streak of the season on Friday. It is the first of four meetings between the teams this season.
–Field Level Media
