Breaking: Maple leafs has appointed new president and CEO.
This wasn’t quite the first impression the Maple Leafs wanted to make with their new uber-boss in the house.
But at least Keith Pelley, the incoming president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, got to see a 3-2 win at the Bell Centre.
While not officially taking duties until the start of April, an MLSE spokesman said Pelley is home from Europe where he was running that continent’s PGA Tour and after watching TFC beat Charlotte at BMO Field earlier in the day, headed to Montreal.
Leaf president Brendan Shanahan was also in attendance and both saw coach Sheldon Keefe conduct what amounted to a fire drill; two key players out, two new ones in, with altered lines and defensive pairings.
John Tavares’ third-period goal broke the tie, as Toronto played without injured sniper Mitch Marner, while Keefe made defenceman Simon Benoit a controversial healthy scratch to play Timothy Liljegren and unveiled defenceman Joel Edmundson and centre Connor Dewar.
Both newcomers garnered good reviews from the coach and teammates for their specialties, Edmundson’s physicality to help exits from the zone, and Dewar’s checking and penalty killing, neither with an opportunity to practice.
“No doubt we weren’t very fresh today,” Tavares told media in Montreal. “But that’s the nature of the 82-game grind.
“They got the start they wanted (defenceman Mike Matheson’s opening-minute goal against the hastily assembled first line of Auston Matthews, Tyler Bertuzzi and William Nylander), but we stayed with it.
Winger Bobby McMann scored on a very effective unit with David Kampf and Matthew Knies.
“Bit of a learning curve you could say,” commented McMann of his different assignment. “It’s an adjustment, but it also brings excitement, especially at this point of the season.”
But with Marner listed day-to-day, a lower body injury from an awkward fall Thursday in Boston, Keefe expected Matthews to have better chemistry with second liners Nylander and Bertuzzi.
“They weren’t very good, just individually weren’t very good,” he said. “It’s a night where the group picked them up, so that’s good.
“We got great goals from guys at key times. Didn’t generate a lot, didn’t give up a whole lot.”
With a four-day break after Saturday, it made sense to rest Marner and let Keefe move Bertuzzi back up with Matthews, an early season experiment the coach wanted to re-visit at some stage before playoffs.
While the trio didn’t make much noise at 5on-5 or on the power play, the penalty-killing Leafs survived a 6-on-4 Montreal power play with Calle Jarnkrok off and a 6-on-5, all in the final three minutes, with Ilya Samsonov making the last of his 29 saves.
While the Leafs are trying to get dialed in on defence for April, they created several odd-man rushes, two that resulted in goals, before giving up the tying marker to Alex Newhook with Liljegren in the box.
Tavares drove the net for his 20th of the year, the 14th time in his NHL career he’s reached that milestone and his 400th point as a Leaf, ninth fasted to that mark in just 422 games.
The new first line was caught up ice on its first shift when Ilya Lyubushkin’s drop pass was picked off and Matheson beat a cold Samsonov with a nice deke. A near 10-minute delay for a broken pane of glass allowed Toronto to re-focus.
McMann’s trio was rewarded for a strong first period with the starting shift of the second, McMann stealing at Toronto’s line and working his way to a 2-on-1 with Knies. Hanging on to the puck, he flicked in his 10th of the year.
Max Domi, back on the left side in this temporary alignment with Tavares at centre and Jarnkrok on the right, busted through two Habs to catch up to a long Jarnkrok feed.
“That was like a Tom Brady pass, might have been a Randy Moss route,” praised Domi.
It was much harder for Keefe to tell Benoit he was sitting a game in his hometown as he worked Edmundson into the lineup with Liljegren and tried to assess the most workable pairs of right and left-handed defencemen.
Morgan Rielly marked his 30th birthday, but it included two minutes for interference that negated Toronto’s first power play.
There was no clarity in the standings on the Leafs’ first round opponent as Boston and Florida both won on Saturday to stay nine and 10 points ahead, respectively.
Samsonov played well again after Joseph Woll absorbed a couple of 4-1 losses to Boston and is now 12-2 in his past 14 starts.
