Auston Matthews played his first game since knee surgery on Saturday night, and Jim Hiller left him out there for 25:45.
Luke Fox laid out the night. One assist and 6 shots on goal in a 4-1 home loss to Montreal.
Fox also counted 12 attempts toward the net and 63 percent on faceoffs. The engine was running.
Not everybody loved the deployment. Playing him 26 minutes in a meaningless preseason game is stupid, one account posted afterward.
That's a fair thing to be angry about. A star coming off knee surgery doesn't need 25 minutes of an exhibition game in September.
He finished the night at a -2. Six shots, nothing to show for any of them, and the scoreboard never got close.
The only Toronto goal came from the back end. That's a rough sentence to write about a lineup with this much money in it.
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Auston Matthews plays 25 minutes in first game after knee surgery, Leafs fans furious
Raddysh gave the other side of the argument. He's been flying ever since he got back from the summer, the defenceman said.
The same guy scored that only goal, and he got it with the man advantage. He also led everybody on the ice with 28:20.
Matthew Knies managed one shot and a -2 in 17:35, a day after telling the media he's back to 100 percent.
Gavin McKenna got 19:13, put 3 shots on net and took a minor in the middle of it.
John Tavares picked up an assist across 26:02. William Nylander took a slashing minor and put 3 on goal.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 4 of 5 in his first look in blue and white. Anthony Stolarz turned aside 15 of 17.
Phillip Danault scored twice for Montreal, and one of those came while his team was shorthanded.
Ottawa comes to town Wednesday. Toronto is still hunting a preseason win, not that anybody is counting those.
Hiller has three weeks to sort a lineup and a body he needs standing in April.
So why the heavy shift count in September? Ramping a player back from surgery works like breaking in new boots. You can do it fast, or you can do it once.
The knee held up for one night. Whether a bill arrives for those minutes is the kind of thing nobody finds out until February.
Was Jim Hiller wrong to play Auston Matthews 25 minutes in preseason?
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