Maple Leafs vs. Avalanche observations: Milestone night for Tyler Bertuzzi in win

By / / Sports / 6 minutes of reading


If you are a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you’ve likely felt cursed by the hockey gods plenty over the years, but they were with Sheldon Keefe’s team Saturday night.

The Colorado Avalanche out-chanced the Maple Leafs by a significant margin but couldn’t convert enough to put them away. While Colorado was struggling to get the puck across the line, Toronto received yet another hat trick — this time from Tyler Bertuzzi, the forward on the team who’d had the most trouble finishing his chances this season.

Ilya Samsonov didn’t steal this one for Toronto, but he kept the puck out of the net in myriad improbable ways that ensured this one was tight from start to finish. After all the talk about the Maple Leafs’ playing their best hockey of the season, Saturday’s effort didn’t feel like a continuation of that despite the win, but it wouldn’t have been fair to expect the team to steamroll the Avalanche in Denver.

Ultimately, Toronto beat a quality opponent on the road to extend its win streak to seven.

Three stars

1. Tyler Bertuzzi

One game after Max Domi produced his first two-goal game as a Maple Leaf, Bertuzzi did him one better. He got the Maple Leafs on the board in the first period by banging one in from the right side …

… and tied the game in the second by trailing a jumbled rush opportunity created by Domi and William Nylander:

His special night was completed by a game winner with less than four minutes left in the third.

Not only did Bertuzzi make good on the offensive opportunities afforded to him, but he also authored a stellar defensive moment with a tough shot block that briefly sent him to the dressing room.

When Bertuzzi is at his best, he’s creating offence close to the net and making high-effort plays all over the ice. He was at his best Saturday.

2. Mitch Marner

Marner’s multi-point streak was extended to 7 on Sunday thanks to his fine pass on Bertuzzi’s first goal and a long-distance shot that gave the Maple Leafs the lead late in the second.

The winger was an energetic difference-maker throughout the evening. In the first period his effort on the first penalty unit killed off much of Colorado’s man advantage before the second unit conceded the game’s opening goal, and he generated one of the game’s best chances.

After scoring in the second, he had a relatively quiet third like most of the Maple Leafs. When it was all said and done, Toronto had outshot Colorado 8-4 in his five-on-five minutes with an expected goal rate of 59.45 percent.

3. William Nylander

There are a few things you could nitpick about Nylander’s night considering one of his three assists was a secondary helper, and another came off a bit of a scramble. Add in some middling on-ice numbers, and there’s an argument to be made that the 3 points he collected exaggerated his impact.

At the same time, three assists is tough to overlook, particularly when they give him 300 for his career and put him back in the team lead with 78 points.

Nylander’s pass from behind the net on Bertuzzi’s winner was also a stellar play in a critical spot. The winger now has 16 points in his last nine appearances.

The Hart Trophy matchup

This game was billed as a showdown between two of the NHL’s top Hart Trophy candidates, Auston Matthews and Nathan MacKinnon. Matthews entered the gap lapping the rest of the league in the scoring race and MacKinnon brought the NHL’s second-highest point total into Saturday’s action.

When these two last met Jan. 13, there’s no doubt MacKinnon got the better of Matthews. The Avalanche centre scored the winning goal and added an assist while playing a beastly 24:56 — during which Colorado earned 83.56 percent of the expected goals. Meanwhile, Matthews was held off the scoresheet, had a minus-3 hung on him and managed a single shot on net.

Saturday, MacKinnon produced three assists and Matthews was blanked once again — but the battle wasn’t quite as lopsided as the box score indicated. Matthews didn’t light the lamp, but he was a dominant play driver at five-on-five as the Maple Leafs outshot the Avalanche 10-3 in his 17:49, producing 69.55 percent of the expected goals. In contrast, Colorado was outshot 8-5 in MacKinnon’s five-on-five minutes with less than half of the expected goals (45.91 percent).

MacKinnon deserves plenty of credit for what he was able to create, but he did not dominate this battle.

Tyler Bertuzzi’s milestone night

Bertuzzi celebrated his 29th birthday Saturday night by scoring the 100th, 101st and 102nd goals of his career.

Although the winger has two 20-goal seasons and one 30-goal campaign on his resume, the march to triple digits has been slow. In the last two seasons, Bertuzzi has scored just 18 times in 106 contests. During that span, his shooting percentage sits at 8.3 percent and he’s fallen well short of his expected goal total of 27.96.

In his brief Maple Leafs tenure, failing to convert on scoring opportunities has been a significant storyline, but he helped reverse that narrative in Colorado.

Though he lit the lamp just twice in the 24 games before Saturday, he seems like a good bet to exceed that total by a significant margin in the final 25 games of the season — particularly if he continues to earn PP1 time.

Game Score

Final grade: B+

The Maple Leafs have set a high standard in recent weeks, and they did not play up to it against the Avalanche.

Colorado was the better team in the first period and dominated Toronto in the third. The Maple Leafs didn’t even get a shot in that frame until there were less than five minutes left.

Toronto needed its power play to step up in a big way to win, as well as a little chaotic magic in Samsonov’s crease. While the performance wasn’t inspiring, the degree of difficulty was significant. Colorado brought the best home record in the NHL (22-5-0) into Saturday’s contest.

It’s tough to beat any team of the Avalanche’s calibre on the road, let alone one with a high-altitude advantage. This victory didn’t extend Toronto’s win streak in awe-inspiring fashion, but it was a notable accomplishment.

What’s next for the Leafs?

They head home to face the Vegas Golden Knights at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday on TSN.

(Photo: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)





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Avatar of Miranda Washington
Miranda Washington is the newest member of our news writing team, and she's already making waves. In addition to being a writer, Miranda also has a passion for photography and art. She loves to travel and experience new places, both near and far, whether through her camera lens or in person.

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