DETROIT — On American Thanksgiving, the Maple Leafs were treated to a wild turkey shoot.
They beat up the Red Wings 6-0 on Wednesday, giving new coach Sheldon Keefe three wins, the most by a Toronto in-season bench replacement since expansion and the most since Pat Quinn debuted with three in 1998-99.
The rebuilding Wings, winless in seven, are as bad as advertised, but have an injury list that includes top scorer Anthony Mantha, with the added misfortune of two ailing goalies in this mismatch. Jimmy Howard left with a groin injury after Toronto’s third goal at 9:48 of the first. A flu-ridden Jonathan Bernier allowed three, but he also made 30-plus saves.
When it was mercifully over, the Leafs had outshot Detroit 54-25, with 40 coming in the first 40 minutes. They had one shift in the Wings zone that lasted more than a minute, spent more than half the middle period inside Detroit’s blue line and increased the latter’s league-worst goal differential to minus-45, while improving their own to plus-2.
By the loud music pumping from the dressing room and the broad smiles on faces that were frowns just a week ago, it’s hard to believe this is the same team Mike Babcock coached.
“You get a new coach, you want to work hard and be detailed in everything,” said winger Andreas Johnsson, who had the Leafs’ final two goals. “Some new things he put in our system give us more speed and we wear teams down. It’s been good so far, but we still have a lot to work on.”
Keefe’s Leafs are still two games under .500, but the 39-year-old coach quipped that his fast start “is better than the alternative.”
“We feel good about how things have gone. The players have responded beautifully and deserve all the credit,” he said.
EMPTY NETTERS
Bernier was announced as the starter earlier in the day, but became too sick. He was in the Wings’ room when Howard, who’d been beaten on deflected shots by defencemen Travis Dermott and Tyson Barrie, stretched for a John Tavares rebound. As they’d done from puck drop, the Leafs kept coming and seeing that Howard couldn’t push himself up, Tavares wired a high goal to make it 3-0.
With no goalie on the bench or the ice, a timeout had to be called with the officials conferring with hockey operations in Toronto.
Eventually Bernier appeared, needing an IV hook-up between periods to avoid dehydration.
William Nylander scored with some mid-air trickery — twice tapping an airborne Morgan Rielly pass — before Johnsson was pushed into the net along with the the puck for the fifth Toronto goal. And just to show how everything was going the Leafs’ way, they added a power-play goal with Jason Spezza feeding Johnsson.
“We’d heard Bernier had the flu and thought we might see a Scott Foster (an emergency goalie pulled out of the stands in Chicago in 2018),” said Barrie. “We were getting a little excited, but Bernier played well.”
Ex-Leaf Calvin Pickard was summoned by Detroit after the game. The Wings did have their practice goalie ready if needed.
Meanwhile, Frederik Andersen collected his 11th Leafs shutout, improved his record to 9-0-1 against Detroit, and made a couple of impressive saves, despite the disparity in play.
“It felt the guys had the puck the whole second period,” said Andersen. “You see how much the skill shows. The more we can have the puck like that, the better. Teams get tired out.
“Guys are playing very free and enjoying it a lot. We came out hot and scored.”
The question now is whether Keefe decides that Friday in Buffalo is a good place to plug in Michael Hutchinson. Zero wins by a backup was another factor in Babcock’s firing.
BARRIE VERY GOOD
After talk that he was disgruntled in Toronto, Barrie has become the first Leafs blueliner in franchise history to score in three consecutive road games, in addition to consecutive two-point games.
His goal, which pinged in off a Wing in the slot, and Dermott’s were the type of bounces the Leafs weren’t getting before.
“Mine was a brutal shot that caught a stick and went in,” Barrie said. “When things are going well, you’re getting those bounces.
“Start to finish that was a good game for us. We employed our system and had a lot of fun out there. We spent a lot of time in the o-zone and carried that theme throughout.”
NYLANDER BURIES THE PAST
Nylander said he was going through old pictures on his phone on Wednesday and found one of him a year ago in Switzerland, just before his contract stand-off with the Leafs ended. This year is going much better, up to nine goals and now with Keefe now behind the bench, an early influence on him with the Marlies.
“He came in and we had a great first meeting, everyone understood the way he wanted to go,” Nylander said. “Our team is built to be a puck possession team.”
LOOSE LEAFS
Somehow, Leafs sniper Auston Matthews did not get a point on Wednesday, while Andreas Athanasiou, the NHL’s lowest plus-minus player, was not on for any Toronto goals … Barrie’s goal followed a big push by Keefe’s all-Marlies grad line of Frederik Gauthier, Dmytro Timashov and Pierre Engvall, all getting generous ice time … Alex Kerfoot began serving a two-game suspension for an illegal hit in Saturday’s game in Colorado, so Nic Petan moved up to the third line with Spezza and Kasperi Kapanen … The Brampton-born Keefe was in his first Original Six match as a coach. “It’s exciting. I hadn’t thought of it that much in that context, but playing here now this week, in the conference and in the division, it has been a little bit more normal in terms of the way the days have gone. We get to play a home game this week. There’s lots to look forward to” … The Leafs had a 6-0 win over the Flyers last year, but the 54 shots were two off their high in 2018-19, in a loss against the Rangers.
lhornby@postmedia.com
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November 28, 2019 at 02:16PM
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