Once rotten luck turns around for Maple Leafs forward Kadri early this season

“When you’re on a drought, not scoring, it seems like the goalies are massive, three times the size they normally are, the net’s three times smaller,” Kadri explained.

“When you start to produce and score goals you just start to feel better about yourself and more comfortable. You don’t second-guess the reaction plays that you make on the ice they just naturally happen.”

Kadri’s dry spell lingered in the fall of 2015. He had one goal on his first 83 shots, with nights of five, six, and seven shots on goal leaving nothing but zeroes on the scoreboard. Grade-A chances seemed to be stopped with regularity, Kadri often gazing skyward for answers.

It became a mental test, as he recalled one year later, one of those tests of adversity that requires only persistence — and many more shots.

Eventually a few of those shots started to go in.

Kadri finished with 17 goals on a career-high 260 shots (3.4 per-game), the 11th most of any player in hockey. His 6.5 per cent shooting percentage, though, was a career-low in a full season.

“I was still playing the right way,” he said. “I was still able to make plays and have that confidence, but when the puck drops or a basket drops for you you just feel better about shooting the puck the next time or just not second-guessing yourself. If you’re scoring you’re going to shoot and if you’re not scoring you’re probably not going to look to shoot as much, but just to distribute and help out in that area.”

Leafs coach Mike Babcock publicly prodded Kadri to work on the quality of his shot last year, and Kadri said he tried to address both the mechanics and release of his attempts.

“It’s got to improve a lot more,” Babcock said Wednesday. “He scores from in tight, but why not expand on that?”

Kadri is trying to get the puck off quicker this year, a tactic he endeavoured to improve alongside teammate Leo Komarov following Wednesday’s practice. Komarov, from just above the left faceoff circle, demonstrated that Kadri need not take a full wind-up on one-time attempts. Instead, he could get the puck off just as effectively with only a short wind-up.

Kadri scored both his goals from in tight against the Oilers.

On the first, just 89 seconds into the game, Kadri veered to the net once he saw teammate Connor Brown free the puck from Edmonton’s defence. He found a soft spot just outside the crease, flipping a pass from Brown over Cam Talbot’s right pad.

On his second marker, and 3-2 overtime winner, Kadri fought with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for control of a Morgan Rielly breakout pass, and, after using his left arm to shield off McDavid, (a tactic that seemed to enrage the 19-year-old) Kadri broke free. He kicked the puck from skates to stick and then slid it backhand to forehand, eventually tucking a shot under Talbot’s right pad.

Kadri isn’t shooting the puck anywhere near as much thus far, more in line with earlier seasons. He’s averaging just over two shots per-game, on pace (albeit after only one month) for nearly 100 fewer shots from a season earlier. And yet, the goals have been falling frequently. He’s on 40-goal pace, though that’s unlikely to happen for a player with a career-high of 20.

“Hockey’s a funny sport,” Kadri said of his current luck. “Sometimes that happens.”

Jonas Siegel, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Once rotten luck turns around for Maple Leafs forward Kadri early this season

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