The Maple Leafs’ fourth line knows its role. It would be hard to play it any better - Toronto Star
Zack MacEwen, Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime have earned the trust of Leafs coach Jim Hiller.
Lefs forward Brandon Duhaime, right, and Zack MacEwen battle for the puck against the Vancouver Canucks.
When Zack MacEwen talks about last season, the word “frustrating” comes up a lot.
“Frustrating is definitely an understatement,” the Maple Leafs winger said after practice Wednesday. “Get traded to New Jersey, first game there I hurt my shoulder, out for four weeks. Second game back after that, tore my (anterior cruciate ligament). I only played three games. And I felt good going into last year.
“Yeah, frustrating. But, also, when stuff like that happens, you can use it. And that’s what I did. I used it to drive me.”
Signed by Toronto as a free agent, MacEwen came into this season notably faster, said Leafs coach Jim Hiller, who had coached the 30-year-old in Los Angeles.
“He’s skated as well as he’s ever skated,” Hiller said. “He had that injury, so you get a long time to be by yourself and rehab and train and focus on your power. He’s come out faster than he’s ever been.”
Hiller has jumbled his lines most of the season but he found something he liked when he put MacEwen with Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime.
The so-called “fourth line” often plays more frequently than the third line, largely because it can be trusted. The trio starts games or periods from time to time. They get thrown out there when Hiller is looking for some life.
“Our job is to get a good hard shift, a momentum shift,” Duhaime said. “Being in the right spot in the defensive zone, protecting our own net, or getting in on the forecheck.”
They do it well. They’ve played together for 66 minutes at five-on-five, the most of Hiller’s ever-changing combinations. (The top line of Easton Cowan, Auston Matthews and Jack Roslovic has only been together 59 minutes at even strength.)
They’re winning possession and have 18 high-danger chances for and just five against.
“Outside of Matthews’ line, they spend more time than anybody in the offensive zone,” Hiller said. “They forecheck hard, they stay on pucks. Not a lot of fancy plays but the puck usually ends up around the front of the net and they’re there to try to bang it in.
He must have bumped into Auston during warmups https://t.co/r9dnsI8Ibz
“They’ve been an excellent line for us.”
Scoring is not their forte. Blueger and MacEwen each have two goals, Duhaime one. The career highs for Duhaime and Blueger are nine. For MacEwen, it’s five.
“Playing hockey growing up, you want to score goals all the time,” MacEwen said. “It’s in our DNA. But you want to do the job the right way. When you do what you’re supposed to do and get rewarded for that, it’s a bonus.”
The three had never played with each other before. MacEwen is on his sixth NHL team. Blueger, 32, and Duhaime, 29, are on their fourth. That they found chemistry so quickly is a credit to them.
“I wouldn’t say it was like we got put together and we connected,” Blueger said. “We identified those core traits that we all want to have, and set that as our foundation. Then you build off that.”
Their jobs might be the hardest in the league, trying to stay game-ready and focused on nights when they’re playing limited minutes. And the job might be the hardest to keep, with the team sometimes using the fourth line to audition minor-leaguers or somebody new to the organization.
“I’ve dealt with that my whole career,” MacEwen said. “Coming to a new team, sometimes you’re trying to take someone’s job. Your job is not guaranteed. That’s something I’ve been through the last nine or 10 years. It’s on your mind, but it’s something you learn to deal with.”
