Leafs Report Cards: Game 43 at New Jersey (2024)

That was probably one of the most extreme This Is A January Game I’ve ever witnessed, especially for a team as good as Toronto. Over the past decade, the January Game has usually been one for other teams playing a weak Toronto club so it’s good that they’re on the right side of the ledger in this one, but there were many parts that left you longing for the Oh My God It’s April Game. Ya know?

This was a game the Leafs thoroughly controlled from start to finish, earning their best shot share of the season at 64.8 per cent. There was a brief lull where all parties involved took a nap and the Devils made it close late in the second, but the Leafs shut things down after that, realizing that even though it was a January Game, there still needed to be some modicum of effort to seal the deal.

One or two words to describe how the team looked

Never in doubt— The Leafs cruised to a 3-0 lead, coasted, saw the Devils make it a one-goal game, and then completely shut New Jersey down in the third, giving them nothing to work with. It was one of this era’s best defensive performances, a huge upgrade from the team’s first year of its competitive window where they would routinely lose leads. Not tonight where Toronto put on a possession clinic, out-attempting the Devils 23-9 (8-1 by scoring chances) in the third despite carrying a one-goal lead.

Player Reports

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Best player on the ice: Zach Hyman –16.7 minutes, one assist, three shots, approximately 17 board battles won, zero stolen empty net goals

It’s extremely off-brand of me to give tonight’s BPOTI honour to someone with a single assist who didn’t even lead the team in Corsi, but if you saw tonight’s game you know there was only one answer for tonight. Zach Hyman was the damn truth tonight, catching bodies along the boards and taking names along the way. The Leafs were up 3-0 after one, and Hyman had a hand in making sure every goal happened, even if he didn’t get credit for it. The opening goal, his only assist, was a reminder of how important Hyman is to the team: he retrieved the puck off the dump-in, won the battle along the boards, put the puck to the point and then went to the net. Textbook stuff. On the second goal it was more board-battling as the Devils were forced to weakly clear the zone, a failed attempt that went right to Gardiner who threw it on net for Tavares to clean up the garbage. The third goal? You guessed it, more board work and cycling to make things happen. I remember being skeptical of Hyman’s place on the top line last year and the year prior, but games like tonight make it harder and harder to be skeptical. He brings an element to the Leafs’ game that was sorely missing in his absence. Sometimes, you need someone to leave to know what you have. In Hyman, that’s Toronto’s brand of heavy hockey that seamlessly meshes with the core’s dynamic skill.

John Tavares – 16.5 minutes, two goals, one assist, six shots, plus-six Corsi

Tonight’s Game Score leader with a three-point night doesn’t get BPOTI honours, but that’s only because Hyman felt like a major catalyst tonight. Still, Tavares brought the heat anyway scoring twice, both times being Johnny On The Spot right in front. He knows what to do to get to those areas and make teams pay and that’s why he makes the big bucks. The first goal was a masterclass in that as he used his body to retrieve the rebound and then shows some good patience to put it in. Outside his two goals, he had a number of chances to add to that total too, leading all Leafs with six shots on the night.

Mitch Marner – 18.8 minutes, one goal, three shots, one wicked secondary assist

This pass made my jaw drop.

John Tavares 🚨

Insane pass from Marner and then the patience by Rielly to find JT for his 2nd of the game. 3-0 Leafs. pic.twitter.com/OaJxPwCo9j

— Flintor (@TheFlintor) January 11, 2019

That’s an elite play from an elite player. It’s amazing he won’t be going to the All-Star game to be honest. He even checked the time first to see if there were enough seconds left for him to ruin Miles Wood’s life. Savage.

The pass was great, but there were some other key moments contributing to the five-star effort. He started the night with a terrific read to stop a backdoor pass to Will Butcher from the right circle, had another great chance in the third walking right into the slot and sealed the game with an empty netter. Oh yeah, he also took a slap shot (???) on a partial breakaway? I’m still not sure what Marner was thinking there, but I know what I was thinking:

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Morgan Rielly – 24.2 minutes, one All-Star calibre pass, plus-five Corsi

I wasn’t fond of Rielly’s play on the first goal against as he cheated up a bit, allowing Blake Coleman to sneak behind him, but his ability to join the play up front and get back in time when necessary has been excellent this season. Today was another great example of that where he jumped into the rush often and didn’t leave ol’ Ron hanging too often. His assist on Tavares’ second goal was simply amazing: the awareness to slide in the backdoor, the patience to outwait the goalie and defenceman, and then the slick feed for an easy goal. It was perfect.

Ron Hainsey – 24.7 minutes for some reason, one epic clap-bomb

Am I really going to give Hainsey four stars for taking a routine slap shot that just happened to find its way past a weak goalie? You bet I am. He’s also the star of today’s Most Important GIF, so how could I not have him up here? Look, I know Hainsey isn’t a fan favourite, but every player deserves some time to shine at the top and this felt like the right day for it. The pair was fine and he didn’t do anything too egregious tonight to downgrade him to three stars. Just let him have this one, OK?

Jake Gardiner – one assist, a few MisJakes, plus-eight Corsi though

There were a couple of blatant misjakes tonight: a bad power play pass that led to a 2-on-1 (that he did break up though) and his play on the second goal – he whiffed on the shot to start a rush the other way, picked the wrong guy to cover, and then screen the goalie – both come to mind. There were some other questionable moments in defensive zone coverage too now that I think about it. But what he did otherwise mostly made up for that, leading to his pair’s team-leading Corsi rate. Gardiner was the team’s best at exiting the zone tonight with six controlled entries and was doing a lot of clean-up work to get the puck out tonight. It was rare that the Devils had much to work with when Gardiner was out – even if the few times were blatant. He also had a hand in Tavares’ first goal, getting a shot through traffic for him to get the rebound. You take the bad with the good with Gardiner and today was mostly good – though I imagine that might be a controversial opinion.

Nazem Kadri – at least sixteen chances to score

Kadri will never score it seems. He had a few decent chances tonight to do so, but just couldn’t find twine. There was one shift in particular that was very eventful where he had three – it was frustrating to witness. Kadri’s line was the Leafs’ best on the shot clock tonight and Kadri himself led all forwards with a plus-eight Corsi.

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Michael Hutchinson – Forgive me for forgetting the Leafs had a goalie since they barely needed one in the third. Hutch was solid tonight and is building a decent case for himself as an NHL-calibre goalie in this recent stint with the Leafs. He looked calm and composed out there as he usually does and made a couple of key saves, including a Drew Stafford breakaway chance. The second goal was really soft though and it gave the team a small scare turning it into a 3-2 game. That’s the only thing separating this from a four-star performance.

William Nylander – No results again and another night where Nylander struggled to hit the net (one shot on target on four attempts), but Nylander was still very effective in transition with six controlled entries to lead all Leafs tonight to go with three controlled exits which was second among forwards. Nylander hasn’t found success in the offensive zone, struggles at times in the defensive zone, but his skill in the middle of the ice hasn’t wavered since last season – he’s still elite there.

Connor Brown – Great board work on the opening goal and a nice job getting to the net to apply a screen on Hainsey’s shot. Brown had another decent play later on, a rare shift away from the fourth line where he found Kadri in the slot, but he couldn’t convert.

Nikita Zaitsev – I don’t know how he did it, but he did. Zaitsev has slowly been picking up his game when it comes to controlling shot share and tonight was another step in the right direction. Based on the fact I didn’t track a single controlled exit from him (with four dump-outs) and what Gardiner did today, it’s hard to give him too much credit for tonight, but as has been mentioned previously, simply leading the team in Corsi is usually worth three stars at minimum. Sorry Corsi haters, those are the rules.

Patrick Marleau – I didn’t mind Marleau’s game tonight, though the first instance I noticed him was when he took a penalty. Not ideal. He looked more involved than usual and his four controlled entries was actually second to Nylander. That line was the Leafs’ best at 5-on-5 and it sure helps when the two wingers are slicing and dicing through the neutral zone.

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Auston Matthews – That was one of Matthews’ quietest games of the season. He was noticeable on the screen in the sense he had the puck a lot, skating through a number of Devils, but rarely did he actually look dangerous. Had four shots on net, second to Tavares, but I can’t recall one that looked all that threatening (though Natural Stat Trick does credit him with five scoring chances). Still, I wouldn’t call his game a terrible by any means, just a mostly uneventful one.

Kasperi Kapanen – If Matthews ain’t going, the whole line likely isn’t either. Kapanen had one cool play though, a huge burst of speed to put on the jets while shorthanded to track down a loose puck for a breakaway. Unfortunately, Keith Kinkaid skated out to the blueline to negate it, but boy did Kapanen look fast.

Worst player on the ice: A five-way tie between the players I did not notice tonight, an unusually high mark for me

Did he even play tonight or am I blind or was the TSN stream so awful that half of the game was a pixelated blur?

Andreas Johnsson – I definitely saw Johnsson out there, but I’m not sure I saw him doing anything other than watch Matthews skate in circles around the zone. That whole line was rather invisible tonight, but Johnsson stands out as being the quietest.

The non-Connor Brown members of the Fourth Line – Really strange and funny that the fourth line looked like that the second Trevor Moore was sent away from it. Definitely not a coincidence, no way.

The Third Pair – My heart stopped when Travis Dermott went into the boards (we hate Brett Seney now), so it was nice to see him come back, even if he didn’t really do much of anything when he did. Ozhiganov also existed I guess. The pair were both at 12 minutes tonight, so you can’t really blame me for this one.

Game Score

Most important GIF of the night

“He just said f*ck it and left?”

Hainsey just leaves the puck and goes to the bench as the Devils made a hand pass and thus would stop play if they touched it. pic.twitter.com/TeRUacn51l

— Flintor (@TheFlintor) January 11, 2019

Questions and concerns from the game

Are you tired of thinking of questions and answers 43 games in?

Oh my god yes.

Will anybody miss these if we axe them from the report cards, a charming idea for the first 10 games, but a tedious one in January?

I hope not!

(Top photo:Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports)

Dom Luszczyszyn is a national NHL writer for The Athletic who writes primarily about hockey analytics and new ways of looking at the game. Previously, he’s worked at The Hockey News, The Nation Network and Hockey Graphs. Follow Dom on Twitter @domluszczyszyn