The Maple Leafs' goal song remained unchanged despite a lot of talk about it going into the game.
The Maple Leafs' goal song remained unchanged despite a lot of talk about it going into the game.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs selected Easton Cowan with their first pick (28th overall) in the 2023 NHL Draft, many scouts and experts thought it might be a bit of a reach.
But after an impressive rookie tournament performance in Traverse City, Cowan has carried that into his first pre-season game with the Maple Leafs on Monday. He scored a goal, added an assist and got the trust of head coach Sheldon Keefe to be the extra player on the ice in a 6-on-4 situation that led to the club's overtime-forcing goal by Mitch Marner.
It got to the point where Keefe had to talk himself out of playing Cowan more because of older players like Auston Matthews, David Kampf and Pontus Holmberg centering the other lines.
"It was hard not to. Every time he went out there he's making something happen," Keefe said of Cowan. "I got sick of talking myself out of it and just started playing him more in the third (period) and he was great."
Before making an impact on the scoresheet, Cowan drew a penalty shot opportunity
Although he didn't capitalize on the chance, he atoned for it later in the frame when he was playing the bumper spot on Toronto's second power-play and snapped in the feed from Noah Gregor for the Maple Leafs' first goal at 10:08.
Toward the end of the first, Cowan demonstrated his hand-eye coordination by deflecting defenseman Topi Niemela's shot. Joseph Blandisi got the last deflection past Ottawa Senators goaltender Mads Sogaard for Toronto's second goal.
Cowan finished the game with the fifth-most ice-time among Maple Leafs forwards at 16:29. He also led all four Toronto centers with an expected goals rating of 61 percent at 5-on-5 according to NaturalStatTrick.com. While teams around the NHL have begun to send down junior players, Cowan will stick around a bit longer after a solid endorsement from Keefe. It wouldn't surprise anyone to see Cowan get back in the lineup for Toronto's next game on Wednesday when they take on the Buffalo Sabres in St. Thomas, Ontario. Cowan is from Mount Brydges, a 30-minute drive away.
Oh, and the Leafs fell 4-3 in overtime to Ottawa. But the result is of little consequence during the pre-season.
Bertuzzi's first game on top-line
Tyler Bertuzzi showed glimpses of fitting in alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner in the trio's first game together.
"Bert's opened up a lot over the last couple of weeks and we're just going to get better and better," Marner said of Bertuzzi. "A couple of plays we were in the right spot but we just didn't connect on them."
It's a work in progress but appeared to get better as things went along.
"Bert found himself around the net which is where we need him with those guys," Keefe said of Bertuzzi. "They were definitely out of sink tonight. Not just as a line, but even individually. Pucks are not quite flat for them.
John Klingberg
Much like Bertuzzi, it looked like defenseman John Klingberg was a bit out of synch in his first game with the Leafs. Signed to1 a one-year, $4.15 million contract with this summer. The Swedish defenseman took a while to find some chemistry on the ice, along with partner Jake McCabe.
"A little scrambly like it always is with the first pre-season game," Klingberg said. "There's obviously some situations where you want to handle the puck a little bit better and stuff like that."
Klingberg eventually found his groove offensively with eight shots on goal. But his progress will be watched closely, particularly with McCabe who finished with a team-worst expected goals of 24 percent at 5-on-5.
Matthews getting PK reps with Marner
Auston Matthews registered 2:29 of penalty-killing time and skated primarily with Mitch Marner in the role.
It's probably not the position you would have expected Matthews to dip his toe into the special-teams unit, but if there is anyone Matthews can learn from in terms of how to play what has been referred to as a 'power-kill' position, it's Marner.
"He's incredible at getting in lanes and sacrificing his body," Marner said of Matthews. "I don't want him doing it too much in pre-season because we don't need him to go down or anything but he did a great job out there keeping his feet going.
Neither Matthews nor Marner were on the ice for Ottawa's lone power-play goal of the evening.
Joseph Woll
Woll had a bit of a rough 30 minutes of work allowing three goals on 21 shots but he really didn't have much help on two of the goals.
The Maple Leafs are expecting big things from Woll this season after a 6-1-0 record last season when he was called up.
Woll had a hard time picking up Jakob Chychrun's shot that made it 3-2 Ottawa. It's hard to extract much from his outing in what was a fairly sloppy game from both teams.
Martin Jones played the second half of the game and made 16 saves on 17 shots.
Maple Leafs' goal song is unchanged.. for now
When Cowan opened the scoring at Scotiabank Arena, the Hall and Oates tune 'You Make My Dreams' track was heard around the venue. Does that mean the song is sticking around this season? Maybe. But it's not certain.
If the Leafs do change things up, it wouldn't be unlike them to wait until opening night before debuting a new track. The club has also changed tunes midseason.
There are mixed feelings about the song among Leafs fans. Personally, I think it's time for a new one.
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