Maple Leafs give Blue Jackets fits, but lose defenceman Jake McCabe to injury

See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source

The Maple Leafs wanted to take the pressure off of Kirill Marchenko in a rude homecoming. 

They provided him everything but a La-Z-Boy and slippers in Tuesday’s 6-2 win in Columbus, marred only by a facial injury to minute-munching defenceman Jake McCabe early in the match. 

Five different Leafs, including former Blue Jackets winger Marchenko, built a four-goal lead through 40 minutes in winning back-to-back, home-and-away contests, bumping their record to 5-4-2. 

Auston Matthews, marking his 700th NHL game, scored the winner and assisted on Marchenko’s to get within two of 800 career points. Easton Cowan had a career-best three points, including the short-handed goal that underlined 27 straight kills for Toronto’s NHL-leading unit. 

Knies pointless against former team

Enduring it all was Matthew Knies, traded for Marchenko but now pointless in his last six games in Ohio. Emil Andrae, the blue-liner who was part of the trade, assisted on a third-period Columbus goal by Charlie Coyle.      

The Leafs played the last two periods with five blue-liners after McCabe was badly cut when Kent Johnson’s stick blade jabbed accidentally under his visor. It was a while before it was announced he wouldn’t return, possibly indicating he wanted to play through the injury, but the big lead likely favoured the cautious approach by the medical staff. 

McCabe’s regular partner Chris Tanev is already out a few more games with an upper-body injury, though is practising on his own. Nick Blankenburg was replaced with Marshall Rifai on the back-to-back, but a farm call-up is imminent if McCabe is out longer. 

The verdict came back quickly regarding Columbus fans’ view of the Marchenko trade. After a brief welcome-back acknowledgment video, they booed the four-year Jacket every time he touched the puck, but had to grit their teeth when Matthews drove across Jet Greaves’ crease and banked it off the braking Marchenko’s skate. 

Adam Fantilli, one of Marchenko’s former linemates who had said in the morning it would’ve been a “nightmare” to have another unhappy camper in Columbus during the season, later caught Marchenko looking away on a hard first-period hit. 

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

Rough night for Jackets goalie

Marchenko erased a first-shot goal by Jake Christianson, who took advantage of a new Leafs defensive pairing of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Rifai to beat Anthony Stolarz. Teddy Blueger got in the way of Knies’s best chance with Stolarz beached. Toronto narrowly avoided a last-second goal against at the first buzzer when Columbus pulled Greaves for a 6-on-4 offensive zone draw and Johnson snapped it past Stolarz. 

But after mates killed the rest of his minor penalty in the middle period, Rielly jumped into a rush with William Nylander and provided the screen for the go-ahead goal. Cowan sent Jack Roslovic away for a cross-ice to Matthews, then had his first career short-handed marker on a 2-on-1 with Nylander. 

Rielly provided his second primary assist, going through the slot to hometown lad Roslovic from a tight angle. That was it for Greaves on 21 shots and it could’ve been worse if Toronto had clicked on the double minor Johnson was assessed for on the McCabe injury.  

Rifai completed the scoring with his first NHL goal. The wins were a good result for the Leafs’ goaltending strategy this week, in which they called up Artur Akhtyamov to back up Sergei Bobrovsky for the 3-1 win over San Jose, allowing Stolarz full rest for his start while Bobrovsky stayed home Tuesday in favour of Akhtyamov. 

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

X: @sunhornby

1. 

   MMA
2. 

   Celebrity
3. 

   Celebrity
4. 

   Toronto Maple Leafs
5. 

   Columnists