Auston Matthews leads the NHL with 10 points, linemate William Nylander is tied for second in the league and prospect Brendan Leipsic is atop the AHL with nine points, but two weeks into the regular season, the focus on the Toronto Maple Leafs is goaltender Frederik Andersen and a defensive corps that has yielded an Eastern Conference high 26 goals against.
Toronto outshot Tampa Bay 43-24 on the night, but Andersen (a winner of one of his five starts) allowed a career-high seven goals. Some were a product of his early season struggles, others because Lightning snipers such as Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Drouin had time to pick the Leafs goaltender apart due to poor defensive zone coverage.
“It hasn't gone as good as (Andersen) would like it to go. We're very confident in his ability. We do a lot of work in advance to know what he's capable of doing,” head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “Tonight would be, I think, a point for him where he'd want to regroup from. He's a proud guy and it's very important that we support him, but he's got to get to work too and do his part. It's all part of being on a team.”
The Leafs are expected to go back to Andersen as the Florida Panthers and goalie James Reimer visit Air Canada Center on Thursday.
The former Leaf, who was traded to the San Jose Sharks and signed a five-year deal with the Panthers last July offered some advice to Toronto’s new starting goalie about the media attention and pressure of playing in the center of the hockey universe.
“You’ve just got to bury your head in the sand. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Toronto, Florida, San Jose, Vancouver – you name it. It’s one of those things where you just lean on what you believe in and what you think you’re capable of.”
Reimer said on Wednesday. “Everyone’s going to voice their opinion, and everyone’s allowed to do that. People can boo, people can cheer, it’s up to them. It doesn’t really matter, but you just have to focus on what you can control and how much you believe in yourself.”
Reimer will not get his first start against his old teammates, as veteran Roberto Luongo will be in goal for Florida.
Seth Griffith, who was claimed off of waivers from Boston on October 11, replaced Peter Holland on the fourth line with Matt Martin and Ben Smith and defenseman Martin Marincin was paired with Matt Hunwick at practice on Wednesday.
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Toronto is always a major gathering spot for scouts, so large numbers gathered at Air Canada Center is not proof of any impending deals. The traditional starting point for teams considering changes is late November (around US Thanksgiving).
The Toronto Sun’s
Terry Koshan, reported over 20 scouts at the Toronto-Tampa Bay game on Tuesday, including a pair from the new Las Vegas expansion franchise, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins.
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Leafs prospect Nikita Korostelev has been a major success story this season. The 19-year-old winger was the surprise star of the Leafs rookie tournament in mid-September and is 2nd in the OHL with 11 goals.
"You can see he’s starting to do things more consistently the right way and it’s paying off for him."
Sarnia Sting coach and former NHL defenseman Derian Hatcher said about the young forward.
The key to Korostelev’s success may be his improved skating. At the 2015 Rookie Tournament, the young Russian displayed an awkward skating stride, but he has worked with Leafs skating instructor Barb Underhill to improve his speed.
Despite the early season success, his skating is an area he continues to work on. It was a knock on Korostelev two years ago, and part of the reason he fell to the seventh round in his draft year.
After spending a month in Russia during the off-season, Korostelev was back in Toronto for part of the summer working with skating instructor Barb Underhil.
"It's no secret, (skating)’s been an issue for me, but I feel way better," Korostelev said. "I feel stronger after the summer of hard training. I think it's improved, I just have to keep working on it and hopefully good things are going to happen."
The 2015 seventh round pick, along with 2016 seventh rounder Nikolay Chebykin were named to Team Russia for the upcoming Canada/Russia series and may be a candidate for the 2017 IIHF World Junior squad.
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