OTTAWA – It’s amazing how much can change in half a season. How dramatically reality shifts over the course of 41 hockey games.
For even when Auston Matthews made his four-goal debut here back in October we couldn’t have envisioned the Toronto Maple Leafs returning in mid-January on pace to hit 96 points – more than any of the organization’s previous 11 seasons of repeated futility.
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All of that ugly past is washed away now. The future is here and it’s no mirage.
“When you look at their team, they were able to get a top goalie and they got two stars that came in,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said Saturday before his team’s 4-2 loss to Toronto. “I mean that just transformed their team this year. So basically it transformed the expectations, I guess.
“Any team that gets two stars like (Mitch) Marner and Matthews coming in, you’re just a different team.”
All of a sudden Nazem Kadri is playing a little further down the lineup, but still capable of the two-goal performance that sunk the Senators on this night. The added depth also allowed for Matthews and his linemates to mix in a rare ineffective performance and have it not hurt the larger cause.
Heck, they still managed to get the insurance goal off an impressive set faceoff play.
“Well they just wanted to get in on the action,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. “They weren’t great through two (periods).”
The Matthews trio also soaked up the toughest minutes Ottawa could offer at even strength in a matchup with Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Tom Pyatt and Mike Hoffman – leaving better opportunities for others.
“If you’ve got depth, which they have right now, well they’re able to sustain the matchups that the opponent is giving them,” said Boucher.
Another potential ray of sunshine may even have arrived in the Leafs crease with the debut of Curtis McElhinney, who made 35 saves a couple days after being claimed off waivers from Columbus.
The 33-year-old need not be a saviour. All Toronto is searching for is someone to provide an average start here and there so that Frederik Andersen isn’t overtaxed down the stretch. He allowed them to sweep a back-to-back coming out of their bye week.
“For me it was just going in there and building some trust with the guys,” said McElhinney.
At this point, it appears the only thing likely to keep the Leafs from qualifying for the playoffs is a critical injury or two. Add that to the list of things you wouldn’t have expected to hear with 41 games still to play in 2016-17.
It speaks to just how remarkably this campaign is unfolding.
Consider that when Kadri opened the scoring by shovelling the puck through Mike Condon’s legs it gave Toronto 49 first-period goals. They had 48 all of last season in twice as many games.
For good measure, the veteran centre surpassed his personal total from last season by scoring his 18th later in the night. And he’s still three behind Matthews for the team lead.
“It feels like a complete 180 (from ’15-16),” said Kadri. “Being here for as long as I have, it really feels good to see the organization moving in a positive direction. There’s a lot of brightness in our future and obviously we didn’t want to wait too long (to realize it).
“We wanted to get at it as soon as possible and I think we’re doing a great job doing that.”
They are now 10th overall in points percentage and tied with Ottawa for third in the Atlantic Division. They’ve seized control of their own fate by going 10-4-4 since Dec. 3, including a stretch of 10 consecutive road games where they’ve earned at least a point.
Where we’ve seen the most dramatic transformation is in the ability to grind through the tough evenings and still salvage something.
“I think the big thing is you’re expecting to win and that’s a big difference,” said Babcock. “What you expect you often get because you do things to make that happen.”
Take Game No. 41 at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The Leafs had squandered a 2-0 lead with a sloppy second period and were in danger of frittering away a good opportunity.
Then Leo Komarov pushed a struggling Kadri out of the faceoff dot for an offensive draw and started a sequence where Kadri whacked in a loose puck to make it 3-2. Five minutes later Matthews intentionally lost a faceoff, jumped on the loose puck and fed Connor Brown for a backbreaking goal.
“It’s not an easy play but when it works out like that it’s definitely a nice feeling, especially after a pretty tough two periods for us,” said Matthews. “As a team I thought we played pretty solid – other lines definitely contributed, guys came up big, Mac was huge for us tonight. He made some big saves, really kept us in the game, so all and all it’s a good two points for us.
“That really feels good.”
It was an entirely different mood than 94 days earlier when they walked out of this building with an overtime loss even with his four goals.
This team has come a long way. There’s a second half of hockey still to play, but the Leafs are poised to make some noise.
“It’s all about depth, especially the second part of the year,” said Boucher. “Your quality depth is what matters. The teams that don’t have enough depth sink and the ones who have enough depth they usually rise and that’s where the separation happens.”
At this point it’s pretty clear where Toronto fits into the equation.