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Newcomers Reaves, Gregor help Maple Leafs ‘win ugly’ in wild season opener

TORONTO — On the cusp of this night, the first of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2023-24 campaign, Sheldon Keefe didn’t talk of blank slates and new beginnings, of leaving the past in the past and starting fresh.

He spoke about learning from the ghosts that have haunted seasons past.

“It took us too long last year to really find our game, to be playing with purpose, all those kinds of things,” the coach said Wednesday morning, ahead of his club’s bout with the Montreal Canadiens. “That’s what I’m looking for [tonight] — and what we’ve been talking about for the last week or so specifically.”

After a rollercoaster season opener under the Scotiabank Arena lights that saw his Leafs fall two goals down, score three straight, give up three straight, and ultimately claw their way back to win in a shootout, it’s safe to say Keefe’s side hasn’t fully found their game just yet.

Still, despite the disorganized chaos in their own zone, the uneven performance from Ilya Samsonov, and a night that needed three different stretches of heroics to put away, there were still some positives to draw from the eventual 6-5 whirlwind win. And not just the fact that Auston Matthews has his opening-night Midas touch back.

“I thought our fourth line was outstanding — (David) Kampf, (Noah) Gregor and (Ryan) Reaves were great,” Keefe said from the bowels of the arena post-game, calling attention to the depth trio unprompted when asked who stood out most on the night.

The tape confirms the coach’s assessment.

While the game sheet might be marked up with Nos. 34, 88 and 3 after a night that saw Matthews pull out a hat trick, saw William Nylander and John Klingberg add a couple of points apiece too, it was the steady, blue-collar work of Keefe’s new-look fourth line that kept these Maple Leafs alive before they finally woke up.

It started early, when the squad’s big-money playmakers were still bobbling passes, still putting pucks in skates, still looking out of sync. When the rust was still being shaken off, there was Ryan Reaves, doing what he was brought here to do. The squad’s new resident intimidator wasted no time in making his presence known, laying the body midway through the opening frame — so bone-clattering was his first check, the crowd was all “oohs” and “ahhs” as he geared up for another a moment later. 

The follow-up spurred a response from Montreal’s own big man, Arber Xhekaj, who pulled Reaves into a tussle — all of which amounted to No. 75 firing up the crowd and the Maple Leafs earning a power play to try and bounce back from an early one-goal deficit.

Throw in a couple more quality shifts that saw Gregor and Kampf find some looks on net, and there was little more you could ask of the depth trio through the early goings.

“Reaves, the way he started the game — two great hits, gets the crowd involved, draws an instigator, a fight, gives our team every opportunity to score on the power play. [That line] was consistently good throughout the game.”

Still, the unit’s most pivotal moment came a period later.

Down 2-0 by this time, the Maple Leafs’ continued disorganization had them on the penalty kill, watching as the young Canadiens whipped the puck around their zone. A deft pass from Sean Monahan set up a back-breaking goal from Cole Caufield, seemingly putting the visitors up 3-0, the ice at this point tilted firmly in one direction.

But the home side caught a break, a misstep allowing for a successful coach’s challenge, that third goal of the night ruled offside, nullified.

Toronto managed to hold on for the rest of the penalty kill, sensing the door opening just a hair. 

And then came Gregor over the boards, picking up the puck off a quick-trigger Klingberg stretch pass, walking in on Jake Allen, and matter-of-factly firing in his first goal as a Maple Leaf.

“Getting the goal back is a big moment — 3-0 to 2-0, that’s a huge swing,” Keefe said of the game-changing sequence. “Any team responds well to that, being down two versus three. And then Gregor shoots one in the net for us, off the post and in. That’s a huge goal. 

“Now you have a little life.”

It was a moment the 25-year-old likely won’t soon forget, after joining this Maple Leafs group on a PTO a month ago, and ultimately fighting to earn his spot in the lineup.

Getting his new squad on the board, cutting the deficit to one shot, he and his fourth-line mates went back to work, stringing together a couple more solid offensive-zone shifts before Matthews and the rest of the heavy hitters finally found their footing and did their thing. Seven minutes after Gregor’s tally, Matthews added one of his own, then Nylander added another, and they were off to the races.

Asked at the end of the night what positives could be pulled from the messy win, Matthews — who himself accounted for half his club’s total output with an opening-night hat trick — similarly directed the spotlight to the bottom of the lineup.

“I thought Kampfer’s line was probably our best and most consistent line tonight,” No. 34 said from the locker room post-game. “That’s always a positive.”

The line added a much-needed vein of steadiness on this night, amid a game that was anything but even-keeled. If nothing else, the task ahead has been clarified, the messes to be cleaned up made clear, before the season continues with a Saturday-night test against the Minnesota Wild. 

That said, the Maple Leafs can rest a bit easier knowing they managed to balance out their early rust with some late-game fight before the night was through.

“It’s obviously good to get the two points. I think first and foremost we have to acknowledge winning in this league is difficult,” John Tavares said of the wild win. “We know we weren’t [at our best] at many points tonight. But there were still a lot of good things that we can take away. It’s a long season, a long grind. 

“Sometimes you’ve got to win ugly, and we found a way to do it today.”

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