Toronto Maple Leafs at Winnipeg Jets game preview: Matthews vs Laine

Toronto Maple Leafs at Winnipeg Jets: Game #3

Time: 8:00 pm Eastern Time

Location: Indoors in Winnipeg

Broadcast/Streaming: Sportsnet, TSN 1050

Opponent SBNation Site: Arctic Ice Hockey

The Leafs head west for a three-game road trip the takes them from Winnipeg to Minnesota and then to Chicago before they come home to face Tampa Bay. The first game of three in four days is all about the rivalry.

History

Matthews

After a junior career in the US National Team Development Program, he played one year of pro hockey for ZSC in the Swiss league. He dominated his team, was one of the top few scorers in the league and flamed out in the first round of the playoffs, swept in four straight games while scoring only three assists.

Laine

After a junior career spent entirely within his club team, Tappara, he played one year on loan to a lower level league team and then returned to play one year of top level pro in the Finnish league. He was a key component of his team, scored a lot of goals and led the team to the championship in the playoffs taking the MVP award.

Draft Hype

In the frantic months as the NHL season wound down, Patrik Laine was tearing up the Liiga playoffs, and getting a lot of attention. Some experts and many fans talked up Laine to the point they’d talked themselves into believing he should be number one.

Of course Laine himself said he should be number one, but that is to be expected. His self image is nice and sturdy, and so is Matthews’ if a little more blandly presented.

By the time Finland was convincing the hockey world they were almost good enough to beat a decent Canadian team at the World Championships, the Laine hype train was in full swing, and there were people forecasting sorrow for the Leafs at having taken Matthews.

The World Cup of Hockey punctured that hot air balloon, and the first game of the regular season and Matthews’ four goals stomped all the remaining air out of it.

Rivalry?

Rivalries are not real. Individual players on different teams may hate each other. They might be the kind of casual friends who compete via text insults, but the rivalry thing—the Crosby vs Ovechkin or McDavid vs Eichel—that is for the fans.

Laine and Matthews, who won’t play each other more than twice a year ever until there’s an all-Canadian Stanley Cup Final, are never going to be rivals.

Matthews’ real rival is at the other end of the QEW in Buffalo. He and Jack Eichel will be competing for prominence on Team USA, both wanting the top centre’s job, and they will play each other four bitter games every year.

His other rival, the almost secret one, is William Nylander. They are the players who will compete for ice time and share of the salary cap and attention. They might always seem like friends, but it will be their competition that will be the strongest.

Laine’s real rival is two provinces away in Alberta, a long drive down the Trans Canada Highway. He and Jesse Puljujärvi will have years of jostling for status on Team Finland, and while they aren’t in the same division, they will still be compared and contrasted to each other for years, in the NHL and at home.

Laine’s team rival is Nikolaj Ehlers, another young left wing who has one year in the NHL already and will not want to concede any space, cap or lineup, to the newest member of the Jets.

NHL Play

A few preseason games and three NHL games for Laine and two for Matthews is not much to go on.

Matthews has evenly split ice time in both games so far with Nazem Kadri.

Matthews’ four goals came in a game where he says it was his mistake that caused the overtime loss. His second game was less successful against a better checking team, but it is obvious that he is solidly on equal footing as a centre with Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak, both in terms of ice time and results.

He has been matched in both games so far by the top defensive pairings, but in a home game against Boston, he saw the top two pairs almost equally. He has not been matched by the top forwards, and against Boston never saw David Backes who is subbing in for Patrice Bergeron as the Bruins’ top centre. That was Kadri’s job.

Laine has had the most five-on-five ice time of any Jets forward in all three games. He has been playing with Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler (he was with Matthew Perreault and Kyle Connor in the first game), and the drop in ice time from their top line to the third line is over two minutes most games.

Laine’s only goal so far is his signature power play shot that he will get goals on for years. It came at a time when the Jets were down and started the comeback that ultimately won them the game.

When the Jets played Boston, at home, their top line was matched up against Zdeno Chara and Brandon Carlo, who were Boston’s very effective top pair that night. They also saw Backes more than anyone else.

Laine is being sent out by his own coach against the toughest forward line on the opposing team, while Matthews is seeing an easier path to the net because Kadri gets the kind of opponents Laine is routinely seeing. Of course, that will change, and both of them will see approximately equal levels of tough NHL opponents every night for the rest of the season. But the Leafs’ ability to roll four very good lines in an equal rotation is an edge Matthews has over Laine.

The Teams

The results of these two Boston games were very different. Winnipeg stayed even the entire game in shots, and while the score looked lopsided (4-1 Boston), it was 2-1 until the last few minutes of play, and the Jets held their own for most of the game. Toronto beat the Bruins while conceding the shot differential to them for a large chunk of the game.

Winnipeg is a good team at five-on-five with a small number of rookies or near rookies on the ice. But one of those rookies is their goalie, making their lives interesting. The loss of Andrew Ladd means Laine is their top left winger, and he will have to swim hard in the deep end. The Jets struggled against the Bruins in holding onto the puck in the offensive zone, but their speed and authority through the neutral zone was excellent.

Toronto is flowing over with rookies and near rookies, but they have still achieved a more balanced lineup that just about any team, save a few cup contenders. Matthews is front and centre in the lineup, but he has more help carrying the load than you should ever expect the first overall on a last place team to have in his rookie year. Against Boston he and Tyler Bozak struggled with possession, so the fourth line got more minutes and Kadri did the heavy lifting.

Who is Better?

That has never been in doubt in my mind. Auston Matthews is the better player. But not by much. If the hot streak Laine was on last spring isn’t the real him, the cold streak he experienced in the World Cup of Hockey isn’t either.

Both of these players will push hard in their rookie year to be the best and win the most games. Who gets the most points this year is a sideshow. The game is played between goals, and they both want to win every one.

Between the Jets and the Leafs right now? That’s a tougher call. The Jets struggled with special teams last year, but their penalty kill this year is stellar. Not that that matters as the Leafs power play right now has a whiff of burning rubber to it.

At five-on-five the Jets are more familiar with each other and their systems and that might give them an edge, but the Leafs win on offensive depth.

Roster Notes

Check the Game Day Thread for the projected lines, but we do know that Jhonas Enroth will play in Minnesota this trip, leaving this game for Frederik Andersen.

Seth Griffith is getting some work in practice, but he’s not yet scheduled to get in a game.

Josh Leivo is not on the trip and is still on IR.

Expect the Leafs lines to be exactly the same as the first two games.

Winnipeg is still without Jacob Trouba of course after his contract talks turned into a trade demand.

Talking Hockey

Connor Carrick is the guy who can break down the system and talk hockey. He is always worth a listen.