The Toronto Maple Leafs will not have the services of winger Zach Hyman for the next two games, as the NHL Department of Player Safety announced a suspension on Sunday for his hit on Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy in the third period of the Leafs 6-3 loss to Boston on Saturday.
Hyman was given a major penalty for interference after hitting McAvoy behind the Bruins net after passing the puck. The hit was hard and a couple seconds after the blueliner had passed the puck.
The 20-year-old defenseman had just returned this week from a 20-game absence due to concussion issues and was checked out by Bruins team doctors after the hit, but returned to the Boston bench before the end of the game.
The hit was late, but it did not make contact with the head (just like recent hits that Tom Wilson and Ryan Reaves avoided suspension did). The league deemed it suspendable due to the "force of the hit and the predatory nature of the hit itself."
Ironically the hit was one of the few instances where Toronto showed any life against the rival Bruins.
After losing badly 5-1 at TD Garden last month, the Leafs were once again outworked and outhit by a short-handed Boston club playing without center Patrice Bergeron, defenseman Zdeno Chara and winger Jake Debrusk. Toronto fell behind 3-0 after two periods and the clubs exchanged six goals in a wild third period that also included the Bruins attempt at retribution for McAvoy, as Chris Wagner took a mid-ice run at Morgan Rielly.
“(Boston) started outworking us big time and we weren’t able to climb out of the hole that we dug ourselves.” Auston Matthews said after the game. “That’s our job to respond to that. (The Bruins) made a push back and we didn’t respond and when it’s 6-1, it’s a tough hole to climb out of in the third period. I thought the way we did battle back a little bit in the third, at that point it’s too late.”
Frederik Andersen had one of his worst performances of the season in a building that has not been kind to him over the last few seasons, allowing six goals on 28 shots before being pulled in favor of Garret Sparks.
“We can’t count on him every game,” Matthews said of Andersen. “He’s been the MVP of this team all year, so you’re going to have your off night every once in a while and for him it was tonight. We’ve got to do a better job for him. I’m sure there are a couple of goals he wants back, but we’re giving up 3-on-1s and 2-on-1s and they’re getting around our net and getting free whacks at him.”
In the losses Detroit and Boston, the opposition has resorted to playing more physically to throw the Leafs off their game and they have largely been successful. While their abundant skill will keep them winning games with regularity, teams will begin to follow that blueprint and playing a style that they think will give them the best chance at beating Toronto. The question is how will Toronto combat that in the second half, as the competition gets tougher and more closely resembles playoff hockey in the second half.
*******
On HNIC’s Saturday Headlines, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos brought forth a new name as an option to address the Leafs need for a top four defenseman, Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues. The Blues are near the bottom of the Western Conference and have already fired head coach Mike Yeo and there are rumors that GM Doug Armstrong is looking to shake up the core group of the struggling club.
Pietrangelo (currently on injured reserve with a hand injury) is 28 and one year away from unrestricted free agency and could be on the market prior to the trade deadline if the Blues do not think they can afford to extend him.
The Leafs would undoubtedly be a team interested in Pietrangelo, a top pairing right-handed defenseman who played for Team Canada under Mike Babcock in Sochi in 2014, but the price would likely be prohibitive.
Kypreos intimated that the Blues might have to take back a salary like Nikita Zaitsev in a deal and that the package the Leafs would have to offer might have to include young wingers like Kasperi Kapanen or Andreas Johnsson.
It is hard to imagine that the Blues would be willing to take on Zaitsev unless they believe that a $4.5 Million cap hit is fair value for the Leaf blueliner (who has been put into more of a defensive/penalty killing role in Toronto after scoring 36 points as a rookie two years ago) and while any deal would have to include a young inexpensive forward like Kapanen or Johnsson, it will probably also have to include the Leafs first round pick, since St. Louis traded their 2019 pick to Buffalo in the Ryan O’Reilly deal.
*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page.*******
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»