Matt Murray no doubt wanted to be challenged in his first pre-season game for the Maple Leafs, but playing behind just four defencemen wasn’t what he had in mind.
With three forwards forced into blueline roles when Jordie Benn and Carl Dahlstrom were removed with undetermined injuries, Murray made it through his scheduled 40 minutes and two Montreal power plays in an eventual 3-0 win at Scotiabank Arena.
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With an evening-long theme celebrating the 50th anniversary of one-time Leaf Paul Henderson’s Game 8 winner in the Summit Series, Toronto improved to 2-1 in NHL exhibitions before 17,519.
Veteran Benn, who was pumped to play one of his old teams, lasted just three shifts totalling 2:19. Dahlstrom, a big man who played briefly at the end of last season, didn’t come back after the first intermission, also for “precautionary” reasons.
It certainly upset Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe’s plan to try Benn with Morgan Rielly and reunite ex-Calgary Flames TJ Brodie and Mark Giordano. Alex Kerfoot and Calle Jarnkrok, who were supposed to see some extra time at centre the next few weeks with John Tavares injured, filled in, along with rookie Alex Steeves.
Giordano didn’t mind the extra work, just missing with a hard point drive in the first period, gathering the long ricochet back in his end and spotting a breaking Nick Robertson. Needing a breakout camp, Robertson beat Samuel Montembeault short side. Giordano also came close as the second power-play unit quarterback.
Murray, who picked up an assist on the Robertson goal, made some nice saves of re-directs, but the projected No. 1 goalie needed Pontus Holmberg to pull one puck that was dribbling over the goal line in the middle period. Erik Kallgren finished the game, surviving 11 shots and a power play, with Murray and Ilya Samsonov expected to get the most work in the four remaining games before opening night in Montreal.
With no Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Tavares, Wednesday’s power-play groups dominated on two early chances but didn’t score until the second period. Quick relays from Steeves to Kerfoot and out to Denis Malgin increased the Leafs lead. Nick Abruzzese tapped in another with the extra man late in the game from William Nylander and Malgin.
Neither team dressed an ‘A’ lineup, though Montreal used No. 1 overall draft pick, right winger Juraj Slafkovsky, who played Monday in its 2-1 loss to New Jersey.
Wednesday also kicked off an unplanned audition phase for opening night second line centre in the wake of captain Tavares’ three-week absence with a strained oblique (pelvic) muscle.
Kerfoot, who’s started at left wing, and the scratched David Kampf are the in-house favourites to see some time in the middle, but one line Keefe has kept together is built around newcomer Pontus Holmberg with Tavares’s regular right winger Nylander and water bug Malgin. Holmberg also won seven of his first nine draws. Jarnkrok will also get a shot, either now or should injuries down the middle occur during the year while he’s playing either wing.
Steeves had a good two-way game, Robertson was a bit reckless and it was a big night for winger Bobby McMann, barely two years removed from two of the ECHL’s most remote destinations, Newfoundland and Wichita.
The second-highest goal scorer on the AHL Marlies last year, with 24 to Joey Anderson’s 26, he was under the bright lights of Scotiabank for a nationally televised game between the league’s two oldest rivals.
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Keefe has been talking up the 6-foot-1 winger through camp and started him on a prospects’ line with Abruzzese and Steeves.
“I like the journey I’ve come on, this organization likes you to earn your spot,” McMann said in the morning.
McMann signed a two-year AHL contract.
“I buried my head and went to work, built some relationships with the coaches. Sheldon’s pointed me in the right direction and we’ve had a few conversations about what he expects from me.”
To compensate for the earlier injuries to defencemen Timothy Liljegren, Jake Muzzin and the absence of Rasmus Sandin, Keefe will have to keep moving the defence around in camp. Former Canadien Victor Mete started Wednesday with Dahlstrom.
lhornby@postmedia.com