Blake Murphy Sports Writing

Title: 18/82 of What We’ll Know: Shifting the November Focus, and a Live Kadri Scouting Report
Date: November 16, 2009
Original Source: The On Deck Circle
Synopsis: Keeping with the 1/82 theme, I reviewed my up-close look at Leafs’ prospect Nazem Kadri, who I took a trip down the street to the Kitchener Auditorium to see in action with his London Knights.

Since I last wrote, the Leafs have railed off three straight losses. I’m not sure why I’m surprised; perhaps, my concluding paragraphs last Tuesday were too optimistic, too hope-inspiring, effectively turning on the Blue-blinders that we as Leaf fans all too often adorn.

Upon closer reflection, it was the month as a whole that I was optimistic about, beginning with a “momentum” game against the Wild. The Leafs faltered badly, and followed up with a “measuring stick” type of loss to the Blackhawks and a “shoot me now” type of loss to the Flames. That is, the Leafs hung in there with a better Chicago team, but followed it up with a loss to Calgary despite severely outplaying them. This type of stomach-punch loss has been commonplace for Toronto this season, though this particular 40-22 shot advantage in a 5-2 loss was excruciating.

With last week’s intense face-slap now behind us, the Leafs sit at 3-10-5 and four points out of 28th in the league. While November could still be a promising month (Carolina is a must-win on Thursday, though), it might be time to shift our collective focus just a little bit, and appreciate a few smaller points to get over last week’s disaster.

The first place to look is at defenseman Carl Gunnarsson. Called up before Saturday’s game to fill in for the injured Mike Komisarek, Gunnarsson logged 21:18 of ice time, more than any other D-man not named Kaberle. While he only had two points in 12 AHL games with the Marlies so far, the Leafs are apparently very high on the former 7th round draft pick. Gunnarsson had just 29 points in 150 professional games in Sweden, too, but the scouting reports insist he could be a power play quarterback. I haven’t seen enough to judge for myself yet, but everything I’ve read says that the strong performance Saturday night was probably not an aberration; Gunnarsson indeed has top-pair potential on the blueline. It sure sounds as if he’s up to stay, as well, probably at the expense of Exelby and Finger, and his pairing with Luke Schenn could be an interesting wrinkle to follow over the next few weeks.

One has to wonder if the success of this move will beget another. Jay Rosehill, Jamal Mayers, Colton Orr, and Wayne Primeau have combined for just three points in 43 games, while Christian Hanson (5-8-13 in 14 games), Mike Zigomanis (0-13-13 in seven games), Viktor Stalberg (3-4-7 in six games), and others (like Tyler Bozak, Ryan Hamilton, even Andre Deveaux) have performed admirably with the Marlies.

In addition to Gunnarsson and the potential at the AHL level, Leafs Nation has the continued progression of Jonas Gustavsson to follow. He was yanked for the first time in his NHL career on Saturday after allowing three quick goals to Calgary, but it was his first real setback since returning from injury on October 26. His .903 SV% is a better indicator than his 3.06 GAA right now, and it sure seems he has performed even better than that SV% would suggest (though this could be blind homerism rearing its head).

And finally, the Leafs still have numerb one pick Nazem Kadri to watch. In fact, I braved a terrible case of the sniffles and a raspy cough to see Kadri in action against the Kitchener Rangers Friday night. I came away pretty impressed with his performance, though a one-game sample is admittedly very small. The Rangers are a good team, and Kadri can hardly be blamed for the 6-4 loss (Kadri even managed a plus-1 rating). The Knights spent most of the game shorthanded (nine times) or on the power play (five times), which actually gave me an even longer look at Kadri, as the Knights used him in a variety of ways.

At even strength, Kadri is deployed as your typical centerman, and does a good job getting involved in the play at both ends. On the penalty kill, he sees a fair amount of time at center and did not look out of place, though the Knight penalty kill did surrender three goals. The power play is where I was most impressed, as Kadri took on a dual role and never left the ice. Seriously, he played every second of every power play. At times, he would take the faceoff and then drop into the pivot point position at the boards-side top of the faceoff circle, being used as an intermediary only between the lone defenseman and a winger in the corner. Kadri’s passing was crisp, and he tallied an assist out of this position, but I had two concerns: first, Kadri has a tendency to turn his back to the penalty killers; and second, he seems too skilled a playmaker to be used strictly as a go-between setting up point shots. This was evident when he played a more typical center role on the powerplay, at which point he would buzz around most of the offensive zone trying to create plays. For the Leafs, Kadri will probably be asked to play a more typical role, setting up the point-men and Phil Kessel, probably near the corner. Still, it was encouraging to see Kadri used effectively in so many different ways.

In terms of NHL-potential, I think the scouting report on him now would read the same as in the preseason – his skills are NHL-ready (11-8-19 in 19 games), and he needs just a bit more size and seasoning before he’s Leaf-ready. Oh, and he also took a penalty for leaving his feet on a hit late in the game…probably a frustration penalty down 5-2 at the time.

So while the Leafs may not be much on the ice as of late, or at all so far this season…or anytime in the neat future…there are bright spots. Youngsters like Gunnarsson and Gustavsson continue to be interesting, Phil Kessel continues to impress, Nazem Kadri is worth following, and I just found out the Leafs have upwards of $20M in cap space this summer! So…y’kno…try to stay positive…?