Saturday night. Edmonton Oilers versus Toronto Maple Leafs. Hockey Night In Canada.
There aren’t many bigger stages in hockey, particularly during the regular season. This game had plenty of narratives coming in too for the two playoff bound squads. Auston Matthews in chasing 70 goals. Connor McDavid is trying to become the fourth player all time to reach 100 assists. Zach Hyman came into the game two goals away from his first 50-goal season. Kris Knoblauch was going back to his starter in Stuart Skinner, while Sheldon Keefe was going with Ilya Samsonov.
Toronto scores first
Darnell Nurse is caught up the ice, so Vincent Desharnais tries to cheat over to the left side of the ice to retrieve the dump in. Timothy Liligren is able to knock it down low for John Tavares, who is bodied up by Sam Carrick but there’s no stick check involved. This leaves Bobby McMann wide open out front, with Connor Brown being late to the net and more so Nurse coasting back from his failed zone entry defence. Skinner squares up to the shot but doesn’t have time to get a ton of depth, with McMann’s momentum to the blocker side helping him open an angle to beat Skinner far side.
Toronto scores on a power play
After Nurse took a dumb penalty putting the Oilers shorthanded, the Leafs take advantage. Liligren has the puck at the point, with Skinner looking to the inside of Desharnais who is trying to fill the lane. William Nylander sneaks to the shortside doorstep, with Liligren able to find him. Skinner sees the pass to the far side late, and because of his initial lean has a long way to go back to the short side post. He does a good job at reaching towards the stick blade on the tip considering still being out of position, but the second contact off Nylander’s skate puts it back towards the post just beyond his reach. Only thing Skinner could have done is potentially taking a straighter line back towards the post.
Maple Leafs score again
Evan Bouchard takes a horrible line to the puck, allowing Matthews to get the puck in the corner. Pass goes to Max Domi in the slot, where Skinner is able to set and square. Mattias Ekholm was behind the net, so he’s racing back to the net front to cover, and ends up pulling Skinner to the left by skating through his stick. As this happens, the pass goes back door to Pontus Holmberg who has a wide open net.
The Oilers let another one in
Adam Henrique makes an absolutely horrible play to leave the puck inside the blue line for Conor Timmins, who springs the Leafs for a three-on-one. McMann gives the puck to Morgan Rielly, who goes back low to McMann. At this point, Nurse leaves his feet taking himself out of the play. This allows the puck to go back across to Holmberg, who basically takes a chip shot over Skinner. Skinner had dropped to a knee to prevent a five hole shot from McMann, and is able to stretch to seal the bottom of the ice but the chip shot goes over him as he’s sprawled out.
McMann with his second
The Leafs break in on a three-on-three, in what looks to be good position. Bouchard eliminates his guy, leaving Ekholm on Nylander. The Oilers dman stands up Nylander, forcing a pass out of the slot to McMann. However, McDavid completely looses his man, allowing McMann time to get off an uncontested shot. Skinner was sliding over expecting a one timer, but when McMann has time to regroup, Skinner starts to grab an edge to get back to his feet. As he does this, McMann shoots top glove just off the ear, so Skinner is trying to get a piece in one looks like an awkward play.
Edmonton finally scores
McDavid was determined to set up Zach Hyman on this power play, and gets another opportunity after getting the puck from Bouchard. He slides down the dot lane, moving across sightlines for Samsonov. Samsonov keeps sight, but is drifting with his feet rather than small shuffles. When McDavid makes the pass to the top of the crease, Samsonov is still moving to his left so he’s not able to get any rotation and is just reaching with his pad. This leaves the five-hole wide open, which is where Hyman pots the goal.
Perry gets a goal
Evander Kane actually looks off a shot and makes a great pass to the back door to hit Corey Perry. Once again, Samsonov gets no rotation, and his reach with his pad does not come close to the Perry tip just inside the post.
Can Edmonton catch up?
McDavid makes a great feed across the seam to hit Draisaitl for an off-foot one-timer. Samsonov is looking through traffic but is able to react quickly off the pass. However, he starts pushing before getting a full rotation once again. This partially leads to him getting needlessly extended past the angle of the shot, leading to his apparent pulled groin and the goal going in five-hole.
Edmonton did not show up
The Maple Leafs thoroughly dominated the first 40 minutes. The shots were relatively even, but Edmonton barely generated any quality looks while the Leafs were able to capitalize on five high danger goals, while Skinner thwarted numerous more. Knoblauch went to the mercy pull for Pickard at the second intermission, which helped spark the Oilers offence in the third. Finally able to generate some chances, which helped expose Samsonov’s lack of rotation on some chances with some puck movement.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
