Leafs clean Oil Slick, but lose Tyson Barrie to injury

The low end of the salary scale had the goals, while the brawn on the blue line supplied the minutes when Tyson Barrie was hurt.
All that and 36 saves from Frederik Andersen — now the fastest European goalie to 200 NHL wins — sent the Leafs home on a high from their four-game road trip. They not only beat the Oilers 4-1, but kept NHL leading scorer Connor McDavid off the board for just the eighth time this season, and bent but didn’t break when their third-period lead was threatened.
Take away the first three minutes of the final period in Calgary and the Leafs could’ve swept a trip against four teams higher than them in the standings. Seven teams are separated by five points in the Eastern Conference wild card race as a result of Toronto’s win.

“It’s been a bit of roller- coaster on the trip,” said coach Sheldon Keefe, now 7-4 as Mike Babcock’s replacement. “There were a lot of positives, lots of things that were covered up by the nature of how the games went and some of the chances we gave up. It masked some of the good things.”
The immediate concern was Barrie, who took a shot off his ankle midway through the first period. He went right to the dressing room, tried to skate during a timeout, but then packed it in.
“No update, other than his X-rays were negative, but he didn’t feel comfortable coming back,” Keefe said.

That meant the Leafs leaned on the shutdown pair of Justin Holl and Jake Muzzin. McDavid danced around each of them early in the game, but was held to one shot, one miss and nothing on the first of two power plays in which he and Leon Draisaitl didn’t come off the ice. Keeping the Oilers to the outside and not getting burned in transition was well- executed.
Holl, named the second star at Rogers Place with 26:10 of ice time, joined Muzzin (27:01), Morgan Rielly (24:53) and Cody Ceci (22:56) as the busiest Leafs.

“It takes a lot to play five guys that long of a game,” praised Andersen. “Muzz had some nice blocks at the end (a team-high three). They showed a lot of character.”

McJesus

While the line of John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Zach Hymandid not score until a power-play empty-netter with 1:21 to go, they were glad McDavid and Draisaitl didn’t bust out.
“Those two guys, we know how dynamic they are, they don’t need much,” Tavares said.
While it was another silent night for the trio of Auston Matthews — who had just 14:34 of total ice time — William Nylander and Kasperi Kapanen (one point in the last two games of the trip), who needed them when Alex Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev and Pierre Engvall were flying and gave the Leafs a 2-0 lead after two periods? The insurance goal, after Alex Chiasson cut the lead in half at 6:08 of the third, was manufactured by two players who’d been healthy scratches on the trip, Frederik Gauthier, who converted a slick feed from Dmytro Timashov.
Mikheyev had not scored since Oct. 25, while Kerfoot had the Leafs’ first and the line could’ve had a couple more.
“Pierre and Mik have a lot of speed, they can fly,” Kerfoot said. “They get on the opposition quickly and force plays. For the most part we stayed above their top guys.”Despite Toronto’s two-goal lead, there was likely lots of chatter between periods before the third. They were in the lead at Calgary two nights, a game that went south in less than three minutes.
After Chiasson’s power play goal, Andersen turned away 13 more shots in the final frame to preserve the win.

Matthews battles McJesus

Muzzin made sure to collect the 200-win puck as a souvenir for Andersen.
“I’ve been on really good teams,” Andersen said of his start with Anaheim and the past 219 games as a Leaf. “You can’t do that by yourself. You just have to do your part and hope the other guys do theirs.”
After Nic Petan was demoted on Friday, Keefe pulled unproductive Pontus Aberg after three games and rebuilt the fourth line with Gauthier coming out of the press box with Timashov to join Jason Spezza.
“We want (Gauthier and Timashov) to get back to playing the way they were,” Keefe said of his pre-game expectations. “Those guys were doing fine when they were in, but I’ve said a number of times, we just want to give ourselves a different look, see different people. We gave Petan and Engvall a chance.”
The Leafs are back to facing Ilya Mikheyev is still not comfortable in huge media scrums with his limited English.

But when called into one, it means the Russian rookie has done something good. That was the case Saturday, his first goal in 22 games, on a great relay with centre Alex Kerfoot. Though he had Edmonton goalie Mikko Koskinen beaten, the Russian slammed the puck in so hard, it broke the net camera the league uses for reviews and caused a few minutes delay.

“I am sorry,” Mikheyev said when informed of the damage afterwards, getting a roar out of reporters.
“A long time since I scored, I’m a little nervous. The important thing is we win and it’s a good trip.”
He has 18 points in 34 games.