Maple Leafs practice was over, but two players stayed out a bit longer.
It was Matias Maccelli in the corner, feeding Auston Matthews for one-timers in the slot.
鈥淵ou just want to build that chemistry and continue to take steps every single day, which I feel like we’ve been doing,鈥 Matthews said.
It鈥檚 impossible to know how this will play out. Before camp began, Max Domi was supposed to take Mitch Marner鈥檚 old spot on right wing with Matthews on the Leafs’ top line. But Domi was hurt, so it became Maccelli.
鈥淚t鈥檚 getting better,鈥 said Maccelli. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a true goal-scorer, but he鈥檚 really good at everything else, too. He鈥檚 really easy to play with.鈥
Said Matthews on Maccelli: 鈥楬e鈥檚 a pretty laid-back guy. Kind of quiet at the start, but once you get to know him, I really enjoy spending time with him and talking to him about hockey, about other stuff. I think he’s fit in really well extremely quickly, too.鈥
Domi started Sunday’s practice taking third-line reps with Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua, but Domi and Roy left the ice early, still nursing whatever ails them (lower body).
鈥淚 like the way he sees the ice, the pace that he plays with,鈥 Matthews said about Domi. 鈥淗e likes to play that give-and-go game, which I like. We’ve had success in the past, and it’s really good to see him out here on the ice today and participating.鈥
It鈥檚 unlikely that anyone will fit as well as Marner did, but not impossible. And whether it’s Maccelli now or Domi later, the top unit promises to be hard to contain with Matthew Knies on left wing.
鈥淏oth of us are big bodies and we can use each other down low and can play a heavy cycle game,鈥 Matthews said of the six-foot-three, 227-pound Knies. 鈥淗e’s obviously very good in front of the net. He’s a hard guy to move ... and just continues to get better.鈥
What amounted to a B-team played the Leafs’ first exhibition game against the Senators in Ottawa on Sunday, a lineup featuring depth forwards David K盲mpf, Calle J盲rnkrok and Nicholas Robertson as well as prospects Easton Cowan and Ben Danford.
Coach Craig Berube left his big guns at home at the Ford Performance Centre for a session with his assistants,聽including Marc Savard running the power play and Derek Lalonde focusing on the penalty kill.
Matthews is front and centre on both special teams, which are undergoing overhauls. Lalonde is a fresh voice, and newcomers Roy and Joshua will be part of the short-handed unit.
鈥淗e鈥檚 done a good job of communicating what he wants,鈥 Matthews said about Lalonde. 鈥淲e’re changing a couple little things around, adjustments here and there. For the most part, I feel pretty comfortable. Our guys on the back end do a great job of communicating throughout the penalty kill. That’s the biggest key.鈥
The biggest change on the power play is the return of Morgan Rielly, with Knies and John Tavares in front of the net and Matthews and William Nylander on the wings.
鈥(Rielly) has been back there before,鈥 Matthews said. 鈥淗e’s comfortable back there.鈥
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