It’s the pre-season for both hockey players and hockey bloggers, so let’s keep things civil folks. To help bolster my recap I’ve decided to give Twitter some ATO’s so I’ll sprinkle in some tweets here and there.

You can check out the preview here if you want the full game day experience.

Preseason Preview Game 2: Toronto at Montréal

Jack Campbell got the start before ceding the net halfway through the game to Petr Mrazek, and we saw the debuts of David Kämpf, Nikita Gusv, and Ondřej Kaše.

Ilya Mikheyev, playing in his second pre-season game after wanting more ice time*, makes the first big impact of the game by shooting right into Jake Allen's chest point blank.

*He never said when he wanted the ice time.

Shortly after the almost goal, Brett Seney gets called for tripping and the Leafs penalty kill gets it’s first reps of the game. Who the hell is Brett Seney? We never find out, but after that penalty is killed, Morgan Rielly is called for cross-checking, a weakish call but it falls under the new crackdown and off he goes.

NHL Cross-Checking Crackdown Explained

It doesn’t take long into this power play for Montréal to score, with Josh Anderson putting one past Jack Campbell.

The Canadiens continue to draw penalties and score. David Kämpf gets called for high-sticking Anderson and on that power play the Canadiens make it 2-0 with a Christian Dvorak goal.

The Maple Leafs penalty parade continued, with Kirill Semyonov called for high sticking Johnathan Drouin. Thankfully, blessedly, this penalty is successfully killed.

If you didn’t look at the shot clock you probably wouldn’t realize, but the Maple Leafs led the first period in shots, and weird almost shots like this one:

With five seconds left, the Canadiens finally get a penalty of their own. When the whistle is blown it’s Jake Evans called for both roughing Adam Brooks AND boarding Justin Holl, the latter of which pushed Nick Ritchie to throw hands with Ben Chairot(?) before the two get separated by the refs.

How was that first period?

Yep.

The Maple Leafs first power play of the game is a long one, and the second period opens with the Leafs having a 4 minute man advantage. The power play isn’t as powerful as it could be with a roster full of full time NHLer Maple Leafs, but they’re clearly trying new things from last season and that’s good! That’s what the pre-season is for. Even if they don’t score a freaking goal on a four minute power play.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Maple Leafs:

Midway through the period the Maple Leafs start putting the offense into gear, with more rapid shots and attempts on the Canadiens net. Ritchie and Marner comes close, as does Kaše.

The Montreal Canadiens take their time however, and the first even strength goal of the game goes to them, so it’s now 3-0 Canadiens. Michael Pezzetta tips in a Jan Mysak shot.

Both teams change goalies, with Mrazek in for Toronto and Kevin Poulin takes the Canadiens net.

The Maple Leafs come back quick and ‘Prairie Jesus’ Adam Brooks kills the shutout after Mitch Marner, paying rough in front of the net, gets the puck up to Brooks in the slot.

The Canadiens challenged the goal for offside and fuck them for doing this in the pre-season.

The goal is deemed offside and it’s back to 3-0. Woo.

Kirill Semyonov gets a penalty for a hand pass off the face-off. His second of the game and the fourth for the Maple Leafs.

David Kämpf scores a hilarious short handed goal after Poulin just gives it to him in front of the net. I don’t think Poulin will even make Trois-Rivières after that. 3-1 Montréal.

The goal was credited to Justin Holl, which maybe Kämpf didn’t touch it?

Aha!

Then Josh Anderson scores his second of the game. Yay. 4-1 Habs.

The Maple Leafs get another power play as Joel Armia is called for tripping. This one’s only two minutes though. And it wasn’t enough.

The Maple Leafs work out some great patience and passing around the Canadiens zone, and Morgan Rielly comes down into the zone, passes across the Habs net and Ondřej Kaše scores to make it 4-2.

Nothing exciting from the first five minutes of the third period, but players are doing little things to try and impress their NHL teams.  Simmonds, Kaše, and Kämpf all get shots that were saved, one after another.

It isn’t all fun and games though.

After 5/6’s of the game is played, the Maple Leafs have nearly doubled the Canadiens on shots - 31-18 - but have half as many goals. A true example of quality over quantity.

Late in the period both teams trade amazing saves, as Kevin Poulin makes a great stop on Adam Brooks then Josh Anderson turns around race down to the Leafs end and Petr Mrazek makes a highlight save to deny the hat trick.

With three minutes to go the Maple Leafs pull the goalie, hoping the extra man gets them the goals they need to win. It doesn’t but it gives Michael Pezzetta his second goal of the game. Ride the wave Mikey, it won’t last forever.

The Montréal Canadiens win the game 5-2.

What do we take away?

  • Game two of the pre-season is a silly time to start watching games.
  • Petr Mrazek can make some dramatic saves.
  • Off-side challenges should be abolished.
  • Ondřej Kaše could make an impact in the top six if he stays healthy./

The next Maple Leafs game is Wednesday night at 7 in Ottawa, which is good because they play the Senators.

Who was best at not being the worst?

Mitch Marner82
Morgan Rielly24
Semyon Der-Arguchintsev26
Ilya Mikheyev40
Ondřej Kaše133
Petr Mrazek48
Game Coverage