from Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun,
The winner of the Connor McDavid-Auston Matthews titanic top pick battle Tuesday was ... Nazem Kadri?
Yes, in a game in which the Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers put their No. 1 overall draft picks head-to-head for the first time — in McDavid’s backyard — a much older Toronto first-rounder made himself the story.
Kadri, whose career has not taken a straight path since 2009, capped his own line-match battle against McDavid on the overtime faceoff, taking a Morgan Rielly pass, battling the bigger McDavid down the ice and beating Cam Talbot for his second of the game, a 3-2 overtime winner. It took just 12 seconds.
“You don’t want him to walk all over you,” Kadri said, going back to a five-point game McDavid enjoyed against the Leafs in Edmonton in his only other test against his childhood team. “He can embarrass you when he has time and space and I just wanted to limit that.”
Kadri scored both goals with Matthews on the ice, the first at 1:29 after Roman Polak pinched and linemate Connor Brown fed him in the slot. McDavid, who was double-shifted and utilized on a few lines by coach Todd McLellan to escape Mike Babcock’s home-ice checking plan, found Kadri, Brown and Leo Komarov constantly hounding him.
Below, a few videos including Mike Babcok post-game on McDavid's ice time...
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