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Opening nights in the NHL saw the Vegas Golden Knights score eight times, the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames score six, and Utah and Vancouver score five times, but in spite of the Toronto Maple Leafs propelling 48 shots at Samuel Montembeault, they could not manage to beat the Montreal Canadiens goalie as Cole Caufield’s first period goal stood up in a 1-0 loss at the Bell Centre on Wednesday.
“(We did) a lot of good things, a lot of shots” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said after the game. “I thought the execution was off, whether it was a shot or the passing a bit, it just wasn’t clean enough at times. Power play included.”
Anthony Stolarz was sharp in his Maple Leafs, with 26 saves, but the big question is whether the veteran netminder will play back-to-back nights to open the season or if promising rookie Dennis Hildeby will make his NHL debut against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center in Newark on Thursday. Toronto in the wake of the injury to Joseph Woll placed the goalie on injured reserve, which will make him ineligible for at least the first three games of the regular season.
Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun reported that Woll had some back tightness and the club opted to be cautious with the same issues that made him unavailable for Game 7 against Boston six months ago.
The Leafs will be going down memory lane in their next two games, as they take on former head coach Sheldon Keefe’s undefeated Devils on Thursday (in their first game since opening the season with a sweep of the Buffalo Sabres in Prague last weekend), followed by their match against former GM Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
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One interesting aspect of the opening in Montreal was that Conor Timmins debuted on the bottom pairing with Simon Benoit and that the Leafs healthy scratched Timothy Liljegren. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that GM Brad Treliving is working to find a landing spot for him since he’s down the depth chart. Right-handed Philippe Myers also made the club out of training camp, and big Jani Hakanpaa will reportedly be ready to play in a few weeks.
There was some criticism of the Leafs in signing the 25-year-old to a two-year, $6 million extension this summer, but the right-handed Swede played well in 55 games last season (3 goals, 20 assists). Clearly, Toronto wanted to see if Liljegren would be a fit in Berube’s system and they were confident they could move him if he wasn't. Any critique of the re-signing is rather short-sighted, as many teams can use a right-handed blueliner who can skate. $3 million is not an outlandish salary when you consider that Justin Holl was signed just last year by Detroit for $3.4 million.
With the Leafs lack of draft capital in 2025 (only one pick in the first four rounds), Treliving will likely be looking for at least a second-round pick for Liljegren.
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