Wednesday night's season opener was a sloppy, back-and-forth game. The Leafs managed to thoroughly outshoot and outplay the Habs, but nobody in Toronto, player or coach, left Scotiabank Arena satisfied by anything but the end result. There was, however, one extremely important moment in the game that seems to be getting overlooked.
Midway through the second period, Bertuzzi and Matthews came oh so close to burying on a nifty give and go play. Bertuzzi took an extra poke at the puck under Jake Allen and was immediately jumped by two Habs. Here's the important part. As soon as they saw their teammate involved in a scrum, both Matthews and Marner immediately joined in with enthusiasm. While Marner was first to intervene, he was quickly put in a headlock and pulled away from the altercation, but Matthews sped into the huddle and grabbed a body immediately afterward. This is something that neither have done with any regularity in the past.
For the second straight season, Mark Giordano, the oldest player in the league, literally leapt at an opposing player during a scrum. The fact is, though, seeing Matthews and Marner so ready to defend their teammate is extremely refreshing. It may also indicate that the repeated lessons in the form of playoff beat downs have taught them that this kind of thing matters in hockey - even if you never intend to drop the gloves. It will never show up on a chart, there's no analytical metric that can measure its effect, but the impact of sticking up for your teammates, from a morale standpoint, is absolutely real.
This is something I've been looking for out of these Leafs for a long time, and something I will certainly be watching for over the course of the season. Hopefully the additions of Bertuzzi, Domi and Reaves have finally ended the "soft" Leafs narrative.
