The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 3-2 last night. Erik Kallgren won his second straight start. Who’d have thought?
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Takeaway One: Erik Kallgren’s Team Is Taking Care of Him
The thing about Erik Kallgren so far has been refreshing is that he simply projects confidence. In three games, he’s surrendered three goals – which isn’t many. In addition, not a single goal trickled through his pads and slid into the net. Not a single goal was the result of a huge mistake that he made.
Good for Maple Leafs’ head coach Sheldon Keefe for having the faith to start Kallgren again in the net against the Carolina Hurricanes. Kallgren stopped all 35 shots he faced in his first NHL start against the Stars on Wednesday and he was given another chance right away last night. He stopped 34 more.
Given his performance, there’s no reason to think that Kallgren won’t see more starts even when starting goalie Jack Campbell comes back. The 25-year-old Swedish goalie is playing really well. Last night it really should have been only a single goal; but, with less than four seconds left, the Hurricanes pushed one past him into the net to make it close.
Kallgren is amazingly calm for a youngster with only two NHL starts. In an interview earlier this past week, Kallgren noted that although he hadn’t played in the NHL to date he’d played some big games in his home country of Sweden. He’s correct. He was the goalie who led Vaxjo to an SHL championship last season.
Kallgren’s composed and is giving his teammates confidence. In turn, the team is playing great in front of him. There’s no doubt the team is working hard for him.
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Takeaway Two: Ilya Lyubushkin Has Been a Great Addition
Ilya Lyubushkin’s game is solid and simple. He battles and he’s physical. There’s a lot to like about him. What a great addition he’s been to the Maple Leafs’ lineup. He “brings it” every night, battling and competing.
When Lyubushkin came over from the Arizona Coyotes, forward Michael Bunting was adamant that the Russian defenseman was a great guy and good teammate. He’s proved to be just that and seems to have become one of the guys.
One of the things that coach Keefe noted after the game is that “We have come to expect Boosh to compete and battle every night. Guys are responding on the bench to it. It is great to see.”
He’s been a great addition to the team and has come to take his place on the first pairing with Morgan Rielly. His solid defense allows Rielly to jump into the play with more confidence. It’s working in all sorts of ways.
Takeaway Three: Mitch Marner Is One of the NHL’s Smartest Players
Mitch Marner has accepted the challenge of helping lead this team with Auston Matthews serving a suspension. Who would have thought the team would win two games over strong teams like the Stars and the Hurricanes with a rookie goalie making his first and second NHL starts and with Matthews out of the lineup?
Until this season, I admit that I haven’t been a great Marner fan. I’m converting. It’s been weeks now since I’ve heard any call at all to trade him. He’s been playing his best hockey ever I think — certainly since I’ve been covering the team. Last night in the win against the Hurricanes, he scored a goal and played smart hockey all over the ice.
Marner’s goal gave the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead and helped propel them to the win. Marner’s been great on offense and now has collected at least a point in 10 of his team’s last 12 games. The 24-year-old now has 24 goals and has added 41 assists (for 65 points) in 52 games on the season.
But perhaps even more impressive is how amazing Marner is playing defense and on the penalty kill. He’s in the right spot almost all the time and seems to have the rare ability – like Wayne Gretzky – to see the entire ice surface at one time. He anticipates well and seldom makes a mistake.
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getrdone
March 18, 2022 at 8:16 am
When I look at the shots and where they came from, it appears that the Leafs didn’t give up so many really difficult chances with at least 10 shots from Carolina coming from the blue line or beyond. The Leafs were more opportunistic on their good chances. All in all a good hard game that had the Leafs skating the whole game. Carolina’s last goal I thought Kallgren had it covered and it was dug out.