CHICAGO When Ryan O’Reilly completes his triple Axel rotation — from St. Louis to Toronto to Chicago to Buffalo — he has traveled approximately 1,100 miles in 36 hours while the commercial shuttle flies, with a clean landing on a rear outer edge.
Of course, he could have zipped from The Lou to The Loop in 35 minutes and waited there for his new buddies.
Maybe hang out with the guy from the Maple Leafs not Submit a handful of draft picks for late Friday night. The guy who hasn’t yet been picked from the cabbage patch was piqued that the Rangers were going one way (Vladimir Tarasenko) and the Leafs the other (O’Reilly) while he withered on the Deadline vine.
The guy Patrick Kane, who scored a hat-trick for a last-place team against the playoff Maple Leafs on Sunday, handed his own hat quite easily at 5-3.
There was a poignant skate-around for Kane while Big Brother was in New York to determine if No. 3 was actually a valid goal when it bounced off the back of Ilya Samsonov. Indeed it was – Kane’s ninth career hat-trick. It wasn’t as much acclaimed fun as the tit-for-tat (hand behind ear, can’t hear you) cellies between Kane and Auston Matthews here four years ago – three goals in the last minute of a 13-goal game decided in overtime .
Toronto could have pursued Kane as a playoff addition, although his $10.5 million (US) cap hit clearly deters stalkers.
In any case, Whirlwind was a good introduction for O’Reilly to life as the Leaf, the face of one franchise that’s making a U-turn for another as GM Kyle Dubas continues to collect captains for both the short and long haul.
Although, as far as faces go, none is more spectacular than that of co-acquired Noel Acciari, with a crooked schnozz that makes an abrupt left turn and a toothless gap in his grin.
The leaves are mostly too pretty for such hard-won disfigurement.
They also suddenly don’t look quite like their naturally intentional selves. For the past five seasons, Dubas has both tinkered with and bludgeoned around the edges of the deadline clock. While he can’t touch the smooth core to which he’s tied his career, there must certainly be an inherent admission of bungling as the general manager has pumped the bellows repeatedly to infuse the lineup with stubborn presence and sandpaper as a corrective is missing.
O’Reilly was the first Leaf to arrive at the United Center Sunday afternoon and head straight to the coaching table. Thirty-two isn’t old, even in hockey years, but he’s ridden it hard.
So, voila, the leaves are all fixed, yes? Playoff-ready like never before in consecutive half-dozen one-round-and-out post-seasons. Trusted by O’Reilly, an enthusiastic dressing room and a dizzying coach.
And yet they could not eliminate an opponent from the bottom division, despite being on the relegated side in two consecutive weekend games. “I just thought we were clearly a very tired group from the start,” said Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe. “Tired mistakes made.”
Saturday through Sunday kept O’Reilly intact, centering the second line with John Tavares and Mitch Marner, although Keefe has admitted he will mix and match the rest of the regular season, with centers now coming out wazoo. “There’s such an abundance of depth in the centre,” he marveled, as if transported to the manager’s la la land.
That line was on the ice when Chicago engineered the icebreaker in the late matinee on the sixth shot against Ilya Samsonov, who returned to the net after a bout of stomach flu. In the scoring sequence, O’Reilly showed plenty of forecheck hustle, but Tavares threw the puck on an erratic pass to no one that Kane instinctively recognized and controlled a give-and-go that he finished with a wrist twist of the shoulder by Samsonov.
Tavares, playing on the wing, did the slot hump work when the Leafs equalized later in the first period, only slightly altering the trajectory of a shot from the top of Morgan Rielly’s circle for his 25th goal of the season – and his career point No. 400 for Rielly, nine seconds in a power play. (Rielly, O’Reilly; this is gonna drive me crazy.)
The Blackhawks, with one of the worst power plays in the league, went 0 forever – zero shots at their second-man advantage – before Kane restored Chicago’s lead with shooter trick: Sensitivity: hold-hold-hold on the puck, double-fake Samsonov, then Chipping the Puck Five Hole. The Kane Show continued with the aforementioned 3-1 goal.
Then it was the Blues’ other new signing, Acciari, who doggedly fought to maintain inside position ahead of the kink, jamming the puck behind rookie goalie Jaxson Stauber after David Kkampf deftly knocked him down in the air and shoved it over the paint had .
“It felt great to get it out of the way early,” Acciari said of his Toronto debut. “Footsie, good posture, bring it in.” Footsie? Ah, Alex Kerfoot. “And Kamper, I don’t know how he … gloved, glued, for me – it was great. And I was able to put it in.”
The Kane spectacle didn’t surprise Acciari, who had seen many Hawks in the Central Division.
“He can take over a game.”
Acciari’s goal looked like it could turn the tide for Toronto. Mitch Marner leveled it at 3-3 with his 20th on a smooth rebound off the end boards and Rielly stretched the puck off his own blue line in clearly set play.
“I had a bit of speed and I saw the D-Man trying to hold his blue line. I was at eye level with him. Just tried to say ‘front wall’ (to Rielly). He heard me.”
Raw rookie Cole Guttman – making his NHL debut in Toronto last Wednesday – scored his first NHL goal in a two-on-one against Conor Timmins. Max Domi ended it with a goal into the empty net, set up by Kane, who could easily have made the poorer shot himself.
“Obviously playing from behind isn’t ideal,” noted Rielly, who has worked with Justin Holl on other blue-line adjustments as Rasmus Sandin wasn’t in the line-up and has a couple of serious bumps and bruises from Saturday’s win against Toronto felt the effects of Montreal.
“I found that big Noah goal at the end of the second half when we went into the third and we were able to equalize was good. Then obviously giving up that some weird man going the other way to give them the lead – only mistakes like that.
“Just losing sight of the ball against a good team. You pay.”
Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based sports and current affairs columnist for the star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimannoSHARE:
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