FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Well that certainly wasn’t the prettiest of wins but they all count in the standings. And the ones against the Leafs count a little bit more. From the moment the puck was dropped, you could tell there was going to be some rust to shake off. The Senators had no legs, seemed confused in the defensive zone and could not break out of their own end of the rink. Boucher has preached patience in the early part of this season and last night you could see why. The good news is they seemed to settle down as the night rolled along and by the third, looked far more competent in their own end. Baby steps.
-Lost in the Sportsnet broadcast fawning over Auston Matthews and his parents from the moment the puck was dropped- Erik Karlsson picked up right where he left off. It’s hard to imagine repeating an offensive season like the one he had last year but if last night is any indication, he might actually take a run at 100 points this year. Karlsson picked up an assist on Ryan’s goal, scored one of his own, and was instrumental in setting up the overtime winner. He had 8 shots on goal. Thought he looked especially dangerous on the power play, with Hoffman setting him up for a couple good one-time looks. That power play is going to be fun to watch this year.
-It’s going to be interesting to keep an eye on ice time early in the season as we get to know Guy Boucher a little bit. Of note in last night’s game- how little the third pairing played. Wideman finished with 12:09 and Borowiecki played just 10:34 (and only 8 seconds on the penalty kill). Similar situation with the forwards where both Ryan Dzingel (7:14) and Chris Neil (5:49) were used sparingly. Boucher has talked a lot about wanting to roll four lines- clearly he didn’t feel comfortable doing that on opening night.
-If Kyle Turris, Derick Brassard, Bobby Ryan and Erik Karlsson are going to be consistent offensive contributors over the course of the season, this team is going to be a handful on many nights. Yes, there are still issues to clean up in their own end of the rink but there’s a ton of talent at the top end of the line up and they should be able to score goals at a pretty serious clip. There were many times in this game when the Senators could have just rolled over and let the Leafs pull away but their top players found a way to keep them in the hockey game. That’s a good sign early in the year.
-I was quietly hoping that Auston Matthews would somehow be a bust. I mean, I knew he wasn’t going to be but I really liked the idea of the Leafs being punished for last season’s tank by ending up with an Alexandre Daigle style first overall pick. Yea, so that’s not going to happen. Matthews was a handful in this one. We all knew he was going to get his first goal against the Senators but he didn’t have to get four! At least he got a pretty good view of that overtime winner by Kyle Turris. “Auston Matthews scores four goals in a Leafs loss” might be the most Leafs headline ever.
