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Auston Matthews answered the bell on Saturday night time.
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Hours after he was known as out by Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe, Matthews did nearly every thing however rating the time beyond regulation winner towards the Boston Bruins.
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As an alternative, it was Bruins captain Brad Marchand who put yet one more one in all his daggers into the Leafs, getting the deciding objective with a mere eight seconds remaining within the additional interval for a 4-3 Boston win.
Matthews, who had one objective in his earlier 9 video games, had two towards the Bruins, together with the tying objective with six seconds left in regulation. That one-timer got here off a cross from Mitch Marner and with goalie Joseph Woll on the bench.
This was Keefe within the morning, when requested whether or not he was seeing Matthews doing the issues he must do to get scoring possibilities:
“No,” Keefe stated. “He has to do higher in that space. Don’t concentrate on the tip end result and get involved with something apart from doing the issues that will let you have success individually and for us as a crew, most significantly.
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“Auston is a driver for our crew. When he’s going, we’re going. And if that occurs, whether or not he scores or not, we’re in a extremely good place to manage play and have an opportunity to win the sport.”
When Matthews was on the ice, he offered the Leafs with that probability.
Within the five-on-five time that the road of Matthews between Matthew Knies and William Nylander was on the ice — a complete of 13 minutes, 34 seconds — the Leafs outshot the Bruins 15-4. No easy job, contemplating the opponent. The Bruins, no less than earlier than the Vegas Golden Knights performed late on Saturday night time, moved right into a tie with the New York Rangers for first place general within the Nationwide Hockey League standings.
Matched principally towards the road of Marchand, Charlie Coyle and Danton Heinen, the Matthews trio gave up little and spent more often than not within the offensive zone.
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Matthews and Nylander every had seven photographs on objective to guide the Leafs, and each had 12 makes an attempt.
Keefe had a unique view after the sport of Matthews, who’s tied with Florida’s Sam Reinhart for second within the NHL with 16 objectives.
“I believed he was a beast on the market,” Keefe stated. “I believed he was all around the puck. He attacked the web, he shot the puck. Two large objectives for us. I believed he was glorious.”
That unfold to the road as an entire.
“That’s a tough crew to play towards,” Keefe stated. “They don’t provide you with a lot. It’s a must to earn completely every thing. We discovered our option to the inside of the rink towards a crew that makes it actually exhausting to take action.”
General, the Leafs’ effort and course of didn’t stray a lot. Matthews led in that regard.
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“Two aggressive groups,” Matthews stated. “They’ve been the category of the league the final two years. I like the best way we performed.
“(The loss) undoubtedly leaves a bitter style in your mouth, however (there have been) loads of actually good issues we did as a crew. It’s a must to take these positives and proceed to construct momentum transferring ahead.”
LOOSE LEAFS
Among the many Leafs who wish to put the sport previously as rapidly as doable had been defenceman Morgan Rielly and fourth-line winger Ryan Reaves. Rielly was on the ice for all 4 Bruins objectives, together with the primary when he might need given David Pastrnak an excessive amount of of a niche earlier than the Bruins star beat Woll. On the third, Trent Frederic, a childhood pal of Woll in St. Louis, was capable of bump the puck over the road earlier than Rielly might react … The sport was a little bit of a actuality examine for Reaves, who had simply eight shifts and performed simply 5:57. He had two shifts within the second interval and none after that … Knies had 5 photographs on objective and 5 hits. Defenceman Jake McCabe had a team-high seven hits for Toronto … The Leafs could have a uncommon Sunday observe earlier than taking Monday off.
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