Toronto played with 17 skaters and had only five healthy defensemen because of roster limitations under the salary cap. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, a defenseman, did not play and is day-to-day because of an undisclosed injury sustained in a 4-3 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.
“We talked about just playing real good defense, tight and I thought our team did that,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “Helped our defense out. We didn’t spend much time in our defensive zone, nothing off the rush and the forwards did real good job of getting above people tonight and our defense were really good I thought.”
“We talked about it from the morning on and how we need to play this game tonight and protect our defense and not have extended zone time. We had a couple shifts but that just tires our defense out when we only have five of them. They did a good job. There was definitely an awareness tonight to be above people and check.”
Jakub Dobes made 34 saves for the Canadiens (39-31-10), who are 6-1-1 in their past eight, losing their past two after a six-game winning streak.
“I wouldn’t say we didn’t try to force it,” St. Louis said. “We were really disciplined in playing the game that was in front of us. They defend extremely well, and I wish some of our shots got through and found a way to the net. … Compared to some of the volume we sent towards the net, it was an above average night I feel. I think it was like 57 [shot attempts]. As a coach when the group plays the game in front of them and does whatever is asked in terms of what’s next, we did that tonight.”
The Maple Leafs outshot the Canadiens 21-7 after two periods and 34-15 after regulation. The 15 shots against were a season-low for the Maple Leafs, surpassing the previous low of 18 given up against the Vancouver Canucks in a 3-0 loss on Jan. 11.
“At the end of the day it’s something you have to adapt to, it’s something as a goalie it happens,” Stolarz said. “Some nights through two periods you might have 30 [shots], you might have seven. It’s on you to stay focused and ready and that’s why I’m always engaged and talking to the defensemen and trying to play the puck as much as I can just so I can stay engaged in the game.”
“Just our commitment to a 200-foot game, obviously with five [defensemen], guys are going out there pretty frequently so I think they did a really good job of managing our shifts and a lot of credit to our forwards who made the defensemen’s jobs a lot easier. Very rarely did they hem us in our zone.”
Dobes kept it 0-0 at 4:30 of the third period with a stretching right toe save on Nicholas Robertson at the side of the net.
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