Wednesday night marked the beginning of the Calder Cup Playoffs for the Toronto Marlies as they waltzed to a 5-0 victory over the Rochester Americans, taking a must-needed first win in a best-of-three preliminary round series. Depending on how on how long you’ve followed the intricacies of the Maple Leafs organization, this game could’ve evoked two entirely different feelings.
For a younger or newer crowd, who became invested in the big club during the Auston Matthews era, what we’re seeing now feels completely unfamiliar. Typically at this stage of the year, there’s still some time to be hopeful and optimistic for the Maple Leafs as they embark on the start of their playoffs, leaving the Marlies as a clear second fiddle for your local men’s pro hockey fix. There’s a run-risk of players that could be useful for an AHL run sitting up top as a “stay ready squad”. Even in 2018, when the Marlies won their one and only Calder Cup Championship, they needed to get through the first few games of their playoffs without Andreas Johnsson, Travis Dermott, and Calle Rosen.
This year, on the other hand, they had their full squad available to them before the AHL regular season even finished.
“When the Leafs were in, they’re trading guys, and we’re depleting from our lineup”, said Head Coach John Gruden after Game 1. “That’s why we’re here, to develop hockey players, put them in a good culture, and make sure that we’re holding them accountable. All the years before we were depleted. This year we added, we’ve played together at times.”
This, to someone who remembers previous eras of the Maple Leafs and the early days of the Marlies, is a much more familiar feeling – one where the team’s depletions came in the late winter – early spring, but all found their way right back home for the postseason. The 2012 playoff roster that won the Western Conference had about a half-dozen players who primarily played for the Marlies, but got late-season looks with the Leafs. A younger generation will remember similar with the 2015/16 group, who had over a dozen players on their playoff roster play five or more games with the parent club, almost entirely taking over the team by March to give a bigger audience a taste of what was to come.
That experience can be valuable on an individual level, but damaging to team chemistry if too many move around for too long. One can argue that losing that consistency is a reason why the 2016 team – one of the greatest on-paper in modern AHL history – was only able two win two rounds before a swift loss to Hershey in the Eastern Conference Final. This year’s Marlies are hoping that they’ve got a little more of a balance in that respect, with only Jacob Quillan, Bo Groulx, and Michael Pezzetta spending significant time on the Leafs lineup down the stretch. Several others got their moments, but generally stayed tight to their farm team.
Having made two more trips down to the Coca-Cola Coliseum since my last post, that cohesion wasn’t quite on display in their penultimate regular season game against the Laval Rocket last Saturday. While Toronto won that game 4-3, the shot count sat at 38-14 in Laval’s favour, including a blistering 18-1 difference during their third-period push that almost brought them back from 4-0. I got a bit of a chuckle out of Gruden referring to the Rocket as “Corsi Kings” in postgame (we’ve come a long way), but as much as a lot of Laval’s shots were blue-line heaves, they kept Denis Hildeby busy in tight as well, eventually getting all three of their goals from inside the hashmarks.
The interesting part of that game, for me, was in the “adding” from Gruden’s quote. Specifically, Easton Cowan, who comes down to the Marlies for the playoff run following a predominantly Leaf-centric season. It’s not Cowan’s first AHL taste, having played a pair of games in November, but that game and the two since then have been his first without the distraction of potential movement. While his first period back was a little sloppy, the 20-year-old created several scoring chances in the second, eventually picking up his first AHL goal. While he hasn’t matched the jump of that middle frame, Cowan has looked effective and added assists in each of the two games he’s played since.
It’s been a while since the Marlies have added a high-end young player who has predominantly been the Leafs ahead of a playoff run. The best example would probably be Jake Gardiner in 2012, who played 75 games with the Leafs before coming down for the entire 17-game playoff run. Matt Frattin did similar, though his 23 regular season AHL games gave him a bit more familiarity.
Toronto had a more well-rounded showing on the possession front in their final regular season game the following day, setting themselves up for Wednesday against Rochester. Once again, this sets up a situation where your feelings about the opponent will likely come from the years you’ve paid attention for. If you’re newer to the organization, you remember Toronto getting swept in three games back in 2022/23. If you’re a mainstay, you’ve likely got nostalgia for back-to-back sweeps in their favour back in 2012 and 2013, and another in 2019.
Either way, it’s a little weird that these teams have played each other in the playoffs four times and never seen anything but a sweep. That made a strong first game all the more important, and Toronto exploded out of the gate, controlling the ice from the first shift and always feeling like they were building towards something. Just when you began to notice that the puck was always on their stick and in Rochester’s end, Pezzetta scored the series opener, followed by Groulx banging in his own rebound seven minutes. When you realized Vinny Letteri was creating a bunch of close-but-not-quite scoring chances, he introduced himself to the scoreboard in the final minute of the first period, and then twice more in the second period – including a gorgeous leaping grab followed by a slapshot on his second goal.
The Marlies’ control of the game was thorough, including a baffling 16-0 gap in 5-on-5 shot attempts in the first period. Rochester created some threats on their four powerplays, but Artur Akhtyamov was up to the task on the rare occasions when he needed to face rubber. Even up five, Toronto’s players showed the buy-in of a group that’s spent most of the year together, selling out for blocked shots like the game was on the line. Of the four games I’ve seen in person this year, their playoff debut was definitely the most cohesive.
All the same, Toronto should remain confident but not cocky going into tonight’s Game 2. Devon Levi is a high-upside goalie who has shown strength in the playoffs in the past, and is unlikely to let in five again. 2024 Buffalo first-round pick Konsta Helenius, who produced at a point per game rate during the regular season and took a team-leading four shots in about 21 minutes of ice time, is unlikely to be held off the score sheet once again, nor is his team on the whole. Rochester are underdogs in this series and running a five-game losing skid right now, but a team with their backs against the wall, with nothing to lose and home ice in front of them, can often be a scary thing.
Their first crack at advancing to the North Division Semifinals – and continuing the tradition of sweeps – comes tonight at 7:05 PM in Rochester.
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