Leafs “Cowboy” Up In Boston

The Toronto Maple Leafs play their second of back-to-back games at home against the New York Rangers on Wednesday after a regrettable 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. Regrettable in the minds of all Leafs fans who recognize that one of the few things that can be accomplished in the remaining 10 games is to improve the club’s chances of selecting in the top-five, by finishing as low as possible in the standings and improving the club’s odds at winning one of the top three spots in the NHL Draft Lottery. 

On the bright side of that pursuit, Florida, Winnipeg, Chicago, St. Louis, New Jersey, and Calgary also won and Seattle earned a loser point, so the Leafs are pretty much where they were before Tuesday’s action, but a loss would have improved their positioning. 

In the game, the most consequential event of the contest was not Matthew Knies two-goal performance (although that should serve as another exclamation point on why the 23-year-old should not be traded), but the response of 20-year-old Easton Cowan after Nikita Zadorov’s crunching check on John Tavares late in the second period. Cowan was one of the four players on the ice when Auston Matthews’ knee was taken out by Radko Gudas earlier this month, but his lack of response was the most forgivable since he is a rookie and maybe does not know better, as opposed to the three veterans who did squat in defense of their team captain. 

The responses in the games following Matthews’ season-ending injury rang quite hollow, or “performative” as Leaf Nation’s post-game host Zack Phillips referred to them as, but on Tuesday, after the veteran center was left crumpled on the ice after the hit by the 6’7”, 255 lb. blueliner, the 6’0”, 190 lb. Cowan did not hesitate and jumped on the big Russian defenseman. If one lesson is to be learned from the Matthews incident, it’s that it does not matter if you get beaten up after responding to a dirty hit, you have to respond or you are just encouraging your opposition to do it again and again.

Cowan has displayed growth with the increased responsibilities and ice time of a top-six role, and that is encouraging towards him being an impact player going forward. That just makes his month-long respite before and after the Olympic break that much more baffling. 

Another factor that has to be considered when the MLSE board and chairman Keith Pelley make a decision on the fate of Berube has to be roster management and how he and and GM Brad Treliving have not been on the same page. The goaltending misuse, the insistence on playing non-NHLers like Philippe Myers on defense instead of Henry Thrun or William Villeneuve, are glaring, but also how Berube utilized players that Treliving spent valuable assets to acquire. 

The reason that the acquisition of Scott Laughton was justified last March was that it would give the Leafs the third-line center they needed behind Matthews and Tavares. Someone should have told Berube that, since he was used only a few games on the third line and for the balance of last season and all of this year before the trade, he was installed on the fourth line.

In 43 games with the Leafs, Laughton’s TOI (13:40) was only that high because he was a primary penalty killer and averaged more than two minutes per game on the PK. In nearly three weeks with the Kings, Laughton is averaging just under 16 minutes per game. 

Leafs fans can also be thankful that Treliving was not able to pull off some of the deals that he was trying to make. Toronto was attempting to acquire veteran Brayden Schenn and he would reportedly only waive his NMC if his brother Luke was brought to Toronto.

Luke went to Winnipeg for a second and fourth round pick, which was not possible for Treliving to match since the Leafs lack the draft capital. The reported deal to bring the 34-year-old Schenn from the Blues was Cowan and 2024 top pick Ben Danford. Put that on top of the deal of Fraser Minten and a #1 for Brandon Carlo, and that would have left the Leafs bereft of any top prospects and with another aging forward. 

Joseph Woll is expected to get the start for Toronto after Anthony Stolarz got the victory in Boston. Igor Shesterkin will be between the pipes for New York.