More scrimmage highlights for you today. There’s no Matthews line, rather it’s Kadri vs Tavares today.
Josh Leivo does it where it counts — on the ice. He has a goal and some other interesting chances. Playing with Nazem Kadri and Connor Brown really does help him.
In the opening segment, you can just see Igor Ozhiganov, playing with Travis Dermott, keeping the puck alive on the right point for the blue team.
Leivo then scores by rushing the net, and that is a nice move from Connor Brown to set that up. That’s 91, not 92 defending with Dermott on that play, so I’m not sure what caught Ozhiganov up-ice, but he was very late back.
Next, on the power play, Kasperi Kapanen hits the jets and sets up Andreas Johnsson for a goal.
Next up, Dermott strips the puck right off Leivo’s stick, just as he’s getting some props from the commentary, and he knocks it over to Hyman, who looks around, finds Mitch Marner on the doorstep of the opposing blueline already because the man knows how to transition, and then he just has to look around, and wow, that’s John Tavares right there ready for the puck, and how many times will that happen this season?
And that’s it. The White team wins.
Not sure yet about Ozhiganov, but when Dermott stripped that puck, he was covering on the right side. It’s hard to judge when you don’t see the whole play.
There should be more interviews later, but for now, that’s the small dose of hockey-like activity until tomorrow.