The Toronto Maple Leafs are 1-2-0 in their first three games of the season, taking the season-opener at home against the Montreal Canadiens before losing two in a row to the Detroit Red Wings. It’s been far from an ideal trio of games, but the fact remains that it was just that, a trio of games.
Defenceman Brandon Carlo says the Maple Leafs are dominant when they’re controlling play in the opposing end, and the best way to kickstart that is by getting it up to the forwards as they gain speed. Overall, he had a positive attitude about Monday night’s effort, which was improved from Saturday despite the loss.
“I felt like we did a lot of things right,” Carlo told media. “There’s a lot of positives within each game that you can kind of build off of, but overall, I think when we’re, you know, playing behind them, getting the pucks north as defencemen, getting it into our forwards’ hands as fast as possible, and then kind of playing in their zone, you can see a lot of development going on and more control over the game.”
Getting the breakout going is important from the standpoint of creating offence, but he also stressed the importance of playing strong on both sides of the puck, which they did a much better job of last season compared to years’ past.
“We want to continue to build our game in all three zones, having good gaps on the defensive side of games definitely helps with that. And then moving pucks up to the forwards, I think as defencemen, those are the kinds of things I’ve been focused on.”
While the Leafs didn’t come out victorious, it wasn’t to Easton Cowan’s fault. The rookie looked comfortable in his debut and earned praise from teammates and coaches all across the board, Carlo included.
“Honestly, I think just his confidence in general with the puck, especially in his first game, that’s hard to do,” Carlo said when asked what stood out about Cowan’s debut. “I know it’s an interesting situation to be in, and a lot of emotions, you know, certain things like that. But, I love his game.”
The Maple Leafs will look to get back on track with a win against the Nashville Predators on home ice.
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