The newly formed first line of Phil Kessel, Nazem Kadri and James van Riemsdyk accounted for every goal and combined for eight points in the Maple Leafs 4-0 victory over Edmonton Tuesday night, but it will take a lot more than one impressive performance to supplant injured center Tyler Bozak from his top line spot.
Head coach Randy Carlyle did not want to draw any conclusions, since the move of Kadri up to the Leafs top unit is in it’s infancy, but did express satisfaction in the line’s offensive prowess.
“If they continue to produce, it’s going to be hard to break them up.” Carlyle said. “When injuries take place, you want somebody else to fill that gap and take advantage of the situation.”
Bozak is not expected be available for the entirety of the Western Canada road trip, but will have his undisclosed lower body injury re-examined to determine if he will be able to get back into the lineup before the Leafs next home game against New Jersey on November 8th.
The factor that will play most into Kadri getting a shot at staying on the top line will not be his play making ability or goal scoring, but his work in the defensive zone and at the faceoff circle. The 23-year-old had a goal and two assists against Edmonton and was +4(I know….useless plus/minus statistics), but was under 50% on faceoffs.
How the young center does matched up against rookie sensation Sean Monahan in Calgary tonight and veteran Henrik Sedin on Saturday will go a long way in proving whether Kadri is staking his claim for the top center spot or just being a place holder for Bozak.
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Toronto will go with the same lineup in Calgary on Wednesday night, other than starting Jonathan Bernier in goal for the second of back-to-back games. The change between the pipes might come as a mild shock since James Reimer has played fantastic in his last two starts; a 4-1 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday and his 11th career shutout against the Oilers.
This should not be perceived as a slight against Reimer, since head coach Randy Carlyle is continuing to follow his philosophy of splitting the duties in games on consecutive days. In the two previous instances of back-to-back games in October(Montreal and Philadelphia - October 1 & 2 and Columbus and Pittsburgh - October 25 & 26), Bernier and Reimer have each played one game.
“We’ve been criticized and we’ve been maligned and we’ve been a lot of things in our market because we won’t or don’t seem willing to declare a (number) one(goaltender).”
Carlyle said following the 4-0 victory in Edmonton on Tuesday. “If we can go the rest of the year with a 1A and 1B and continue to have our goaltenders perform the way they are, then that’s what we’d like to do.”
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