Brophy on Leafs: Gustavsson shines for Carlyle
Posted March 4, 2012 11:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MONTREAL – Well, that was a little different.
The Toronto Maple Leafs welcomed their new bench boss, Randy Carlyle, with a much-needed victory to keep their slim playoff hopes alive, but it was more than a coaching change that helped them secure a victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
It was a solid performance from Jonas Gustavsson in net. The Monster seems to have finally won the starter’s job over James Reimer having played in back-to-back games.
It was a two-goal, three-point night for former Hab Mikhail Gravovski, who is said to be close to signing a contract extension with the Maple Leafs, but had gone goal-less in his past 14 games.
It was a night when the Grabovski-Matt Frattin-Clarke MacArthur line got as much ice time as the team’s top line of Phil Kessel-Joffrey-Lupul-Tyler Bozak.
Finally, it was a night when the Maple Leafs showed more moxy than they have in a while with the likes of Mike Komisarek, who has been a healthy scratch of late, and Luke Schenn, who dodged all those trade rumors, showing they will be valued physical players under Carlyle.
The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for the Leafs who, despite falling behind 1-0 in the first period, out-shot the Canadiens 42-22 and won it with three unanswered goals. Only the excellent goaltending of Carey Price kept it from being a blowout.
“It’s obviously a nice way to start,” said Carlyle, coaching his first game in three months since being fired by the Anaheim Ducks. “I thought our team put out a big effort and put it on the line for us. It’s impressive when you can go into the opposition’s building and hold them to under 25 shots and score two big goals in the third period to eek out a win on the road.”
Carlyle was introduced to his new team Friday night and spent an hour with the players before re-joining them at the pre-game skate Saturday morning. He has a reputation of being a demanding coach, but knows it will take a little time before he can implement his system.
“I asked them to skate…to be themselves and not worry about anything other than what our focus is and that is the hockey game tonight,” Carlyle said. “We had a decent start, but we made a couple of mistakes and they got a goal. That didn’t seem to alter what we were doing. We stuck to our game plan.”
As for The Monster, he wasn’t perfect, but he was aggressive and gave his team a chance to win. Early on he seemed a little nervous, especially when trying to relay pucks to his defencemen. Once he wandered behind the net to retrieve a puck that had been shot in around the boards by the Habs and fell down, much to the delight of the vociferous locals. He settled down, though, and midway through the first saved the day for defenceman Dion Phaneuf who got beat on the rush by Erik Cole. Gustavsson dove out of his net and knocked the puck away with a perfectly-timed poke-check. Somewhere Johnny Bower was smiling.
Gustavsson’s strong work continued in the third period when he made a solid save on Montreal’s top goal-scorer, Max Pacioretty, who drove hard to the net.
The win was Gustavsson’s 17th of the year setting a single-season high for the third-year stopper.
“It was a while since we had a win and the guys played well…working hard at both ends,” Gustavsson said. “It was nice to finally get that win and hopefully we can build on it. Getting the 17th win doesn’t mean much to me; it is more important that we got the two points. We’re closer to the team(s) above us. After the season you look back at your stats, but right now it’s all about moving on to the next game and trying to collect as many points as possible.”
Carlyle, for his part, was impressed with his goaltender.
“I think the goaltender gave us the goaltending required to win and that’s what we ask of our goalies,” Carlyle said. “Our goaltenders don’t have to win us hockey games; they just have to give us a chance and that’s what he did.”
Grabovski wishes the Leafs played in Montreal more often. He scored the overtime winner and had an assist when the Leafs played there Oct. 22.
“I enjoy playing here and I enjoy scoring,” Grabovski said.
He added that he thinks a little bit about his contract situation, but is focusing on the team.
“We still have a chance to make the playoffs,” he said.
Carlyle said he responded to Grabovski’s passionate play early in the game by rewarding his line with extra playing time. The strategy paid off.
“We knew he was small in stature, but he has a big heart and he displayed that throughout the hockey game.” Carlyle said. “He goes into those tough areas and it doesn’t matter the size or the will of the other individual, he’s going to compete nose-to-nose and he wins his share of battles. If he doesn’t win, he gets back up and keeps going.”
