The Detroit Red Wings dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, wrapping up a slate of 3 games played over the course of 3 evenings.
The Red Wings and Maple Leafs will reprise their roles on Saturday at Little Caesars Arena (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/TSN4, 97.1 FM).
Detroit dropped to 6-2-and-1 over the course of 7 exhibition games, but those sorts of things don’t necessarily count. Arguably, neither does the fact that the Red Wings brought a thoroughly Grand Rapids Griffins-tinted roster to play what might be the Maple Leafs’ 2023-2024 NHL roster (minus two or three roster decisions).
So we’re going to examine this game ahead of the Wings’ Saturday “dress rehearsal” like what it is to me–practice for regular season writing, analysis, blogging, and all that fun stuff.
We’ll start with NHL.com’s recap, because it’s succinct:
William Nylander scored twice, including at 1:34 of overtime, to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday. Nylander won it with a wrist shot from the high slot past Detroit goalie Alex Lyon.
Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist, and Mitchell Marner had two assists for the Maple Leafs. Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves.
Nate Danielson, Jonatan Berggren and Dominik Shine scored, and Shayne Gostisbehere had two assists for the Red Wings. Lyon made 34 saves.
Nylander gave Toronto a 1-0 lead during a 4-on-4 situation at 3:24 of the first period, but Danielson quickly tied it 1-1 on a deflection at 5:46.
Berggren gave Detroit a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal at 11:15.
Matthews answered with a power-play goal of his own, finishing off a tic-tac-toe passing play to tie it 2-2 at 19:52.
Tyler Bertuzzi scored his first of the preseason to give the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead at 8:12 of the second period.
Shine tied it 3-3 at 18:25 after Samsonov turned the puck over behind the net.
On the Maple Leafs’ side of the coin, this was Toronto’s “dress rehearsal,” and they played like they meant it. That being said, Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe told the Toronto Sun’s Terry Koshan that the Leafs need to continue to improve as they move toward the regular-season opener on Tuesday:
“We just need to continue to find our game, every area needs to get better,” coach Sheldon Keefe said after Thursday’s 4-3 overtime win at Scotiabank Arena over the Detroit Red Wings. “We’ll see how it is once you flip into next week when everyone is here and the regular season is right there. Tonight’s first period (rallying to tie 2-2 ) was probably our best this season. You talk about getting better as you go and for a lot of our guys, this will be their last (tune-up) game tonight.”
A few cuts must be made, injuries assessed and one more game in Detroit is up Saturday before the real shooting starts Wednesday when Montreal is at SBA.
While everyone wants to get this National Hockey League regular season going, the numerous experiments Toronto has tried in exhibition play still need some runway and newcomers need adjustment in their roles.
Auston Matthews, William Nylander and free agent first-liner Tyler Bertuzzi all got on the board Thursday, Nylander a second time to win it, but the stars clicked only once on five power-play attempts.
While the trial run of Nylander at centre 5-on-5 could be done (he was back on John Tavares’s wing), he added to an impressive list of forwards that Keefe injected into the penalty kill. All-stars Matthews and Marner alone make a formidable pair that can counter quickly, Matthews enjoying his new role and the extra ice time.
“The objective is to keep the puck out of your net, but you have some smart guys out there with elite sticks,” Matthews said of his kin. “They’re patient, can pick pucks off and kind of attack when necessary with space. There’s going to be that happy medium of knowing when to attack and when to put the puck in deep and live to fight another day. (The opposition) has their antenna up a bit when the other team’s top guys are out there. I just have to keep pushing. I find myself thinking out there a lot because (penalty killing) is not completely natural to me. But it’s been getting better and I’m having a blast doing it.”
The Canadian Press’s Joshua Clipperton spoke with William Nylander and Fraser Minten about the Leafs’ win…
“We stepped up our game there in the third,” Nylander said of a final 20 minutes where Toronto held a 14-3 shot edge. “That’s how we want to play.”
The Maple Leafs gave Fraser Minten, 19, another look at centre as he aims to crack the roster for a team that opens the regular season against the Montreal Canadiens back at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
Selected with the 38th pick at the 2022 NHL draft, the six-foot-two, 192-pound Vancouver native entered with a goal and three assists in four pre-season games. Minten, who finished with just under 13 minutes of ice time on a line with Matthew Knies and Calle Jarnkrok, had two shots, two hits and won eight of 12 faceoffs in another solid performance.
“He was good, just as he’s been,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He played smart, he competed, he had good pace, good speed on the puck, did well on faceoffs. Played better than he’s done some other games.”
Minten has surged to the cusp of making the team thanks to a solid, defensively responsible pre-season on a roster that includes the likes Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Toronto captain John Tavares.
“The star-struck factor is a little bit gone after practising with them for a few weeks,” Minten said. “But still super cool to be out there with them on this big rink with all the fans. Nothing but a ton of fun, honestly,” he added of the overall experience. “I’ve loved every minute of it so far.”
The Hockey News’s Nick Barden took note of Tyler Bertuzzi’s performance…
I originally had planned to write about how Bertuzzi hasn’t impressed me during the pre-season thus far. However, this was a big game for the new Maple Leaf.
The 28-year-old didn’t find the net before Thursday night, leading me to believe maybe Bertuzzi isn’t a fit with Matthews and Marner. I was wrong.
Bertuzzi looked involved in all areas of the ice against his former team. But what stood out most was that he finished one of his scoring chances. And it looked like, by his celebration, that not scoring was weighing on him a bit.
Credit to the 28-year-old on this play. He was relentless on the Red Wings’ players trying to get the puck, which he eventually did. We’ve known for some time that Bertuzzi’s shot is dangerous, and we finally got to see it on Thursday night.
Let’s see if he keeps this up.
Bertuzzi may or may not helped out two dumb high-sticking penalties on a careless Simon Edvinsson get noticed by the referees–as Bertuzzi used to do when he was a Red Wing–and the fact that he’s become the absolute darling of the Toronto Media Machine makes me roll my eyes, but I suppose Tyler’s earned his day in the sun.
None of the Red Wings’ media corps traveled to Toronto, but MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of Nate Danielson’s continued strong performance…
Nate Danielson, Jonatan Berggren and Dominik Shine scored for Detroit (4-3-0). Shayne Gostisbehere contributed a pair of assists.
Alex Lyon stopped 34-of-38 shots, playing the entire game. The Leafs outshot the Red Wings 38-23. Auston Matthews and former Red Wing Tyler Bertuzzi also scored for Toronto.
Danielson, the ninth pick in this year’s draft, has had a strong first training camp and preseason. He skated into the high slot and tipped in a blast by Gostisbehere to tie it at 1-1 at 5:46 of the first. Danielson, who will return to his junior team, WHL Brandon, this weekend, has four points (two goals, two assists) in five games.
Yes, Danielson will be sent back to the WHL, if only because he can’t be sent to the AHL until next season. It’s frustrating for those of us who want to see the Wings go “young and lean,” to be certain, but Detroit’s going to take Danielson’s preseason performance in stride, and place him where he’ll have the greatest opportunity to succeed.
That’s not on the Wings’ fourth line–it’s back in Brandon, Manitoba, where the Wheat Kings are looking to rebound from a rough campaign. Canada’s easternmost WHL team puts in its share of miles on the bus traveling around Western Canada, too, so don’t worry about Danielson not being ready for professional hockey’s grind.
Anyway, the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan kept it brief…
Just one more left, one more exhibition game and the real games begin. The Red Wings ended their road game portion of the preseason Thursday with a 4-3 overtime loss in Toronto.
William Nylander scored his second goal of the game at 1 minute, 34 seconds of overtime for the Leafs, who had the much stronger lineup on paper against an inexperienced Wings’ preseason roster.
Nate Danielson, Jonatan Berggren and Dominik Shine had the Wings’ goals, while Shayne Gostisbehere had two assists. Goaltender Alex Lyon stopped 34 shots, as the Leafs outshot the Wings, 38-23.
While the Free Press’s Ryan Ford, who did not have the kind of TV-and-internet issues that most of the Red Wings’ fan base dealt with (the game was supposed to air on ESPN+ in the U.S., and it did not. The game was supposed to be streamed by the Red Wings’ official website, and it was not. So we had to search for bootleg streams of TSN4’s coverage until folks figured out that it was on a free preview of Center Ice, in the nether regions of Comcast’s channel lineup), offered more of a narrative recap:
After 420 minutes of gametime on the ice this preseason, the Detroit Red Wings finally got to practice a key part of the NHL game: Overtime.
In their next-to-last exhibition, the Red Wings scrambled their way to a 3-3 tie in regulation despite mustering just three shots in the third period against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
Their luck ran out there, however, as William Nylander scored with 3:26 remaining in the three-on-three period to hand the Wings their third exhibition loss, 4-3. Nylander took a feed from Auston Matthews at the top of the slot and wristed a smooth shot past Wings goalie Alex Lyon. The 30-year-old, signed in the offseason to serve as the Wings’ third-string netminder, stopped 34 of 37 shots in regulation, including all 14 he faced in the third period, but whiffed on the only shot of the extra frame.
The Wings (4-2-1) got another encouraging performance from 2023 first-round pick Nate Danielson, who had a goal in 20:35 of ice time — tops among forwards. Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere also had a solid night, with two early assists off his work from the point while leading the defense with 23:52 on the ice.
The Wings and Leafs will wrap up the preseason on Saturday night when Toronto visits Little Caesars Arena at 7 p.m. (Bally Sports Detroit) for the back half of an Original Six home-and-home. Detroit then opens the regular season on the road against the Devils in Newark, New Jersey, on Oct. 12.
Detroit will play the Devils next Thursday on ESPN+/Hulu, and then the Lightning come to town for Saturday’s home opener on Bally Sports Detroit.
DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills provides us with our few quotes from coach Derek Lalonde and forward Jonatan Berggren, who’s in quite the battle to earn a fourth-line spot…
“Obviously we’d take that in the regular season,” Lalonde said. “It’s so hard to judge these exhibition games. That’s a huge balance in talent with lineups, no different with us in Pittsburgh last night. Sometimes those high-end skill guys just get what they need out of it. But with that said, I thought we competed well tonight.”
The Maple Leafs capitalized during a 4-on-4 situation shortly after puck drop, taking a 1-0 lead at 3:24 of the first period.
Then 2:24 later, Red Wings prospect Nate Danielson tied it, 1-1, after getting a piece of Shayne Gostisbehere’s point shot for a tip-in goal. Ben Chiarot had the secondary assist on Danielson’s second preseason tally.
Jonatan Berggren put the Red Wings up, 2-1, when he finished a shot from the right face-off circle on a power play at 11:15. On his first preseason goal, Berggren was assisted by Gostisbehere and Taro Hirose.
“It’s always nice to score,” Berggren said. “I think I’m more of a passer. But scoring is something I’ve worked on this summer. Finally, it paid off.”
Don’t stop shooting, “Johnny Burgers,” it might keep you in the lineup.
And we’ll conclude our survey of the media’s remarks by noting the following regarding Justin Holl’s return to Toronto. Holl has been passable during his time on the Red Wings’ preseason blueline, and I have few of the complaints that the Maple Leafs’ faithful heaped upon #3 during his time in Hogtown:
Keefe on Justin Holl: “I’m happy to see him get paid”@TheHockeyNews
— Mike Stephens (@mikeystephens81) October 6, 2023
Seems like basically half the Leafs roster went to go say hi to Justin Holl in the hallway after the game.
— Mike Stephens (@mikeystephens81) October 6, 2023
Multimedia:
Highlights: Sportsnet and NHL.com posted highlight clips:
Post-game: The Maple Leafs’ website posted post-game interviews with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Fraser Minten and coach Sheldon Keefe;
Photos: The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News posted photo galleries;
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:
Things you might want to notice: Shayne Gostisbehere actually led the Wings in ice time with 23:52 played, but Danielson played 20:35, first among forwards;
Justin Holl and Jonatan Berggren co-led the team in shots with 4 apiece; Danielson had 2 among 6 attempts, and Elmer Soderblom missed the net 4 times;
Klim Kostin led the Wings with 4 hits, and Jared McIsaac, Joe Veleno and Marco Kasper had 3 hits;
2 giveaways for Holl, Danielson and Amadeus Lombardi;
3 takeaways for Danielson;
3 blocks for Brogan Rafferty;
Veleno went a very respectable 10-and-12 in the faceoff circle, Danielson went 6-and-7, and Marco Kasper, who’s had a rough preseason, went 1-and-10.
That’s it for the recap. Three hard nights are at least three times the practice. Have a good night/morning!
