After the loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday night, the Maple Leafs executed a trade that had obviously been in the works for some time. The thing they didn’t do, then or the next day, is resolve their roster issues on defence. The trade was an attempt to address all the things wrong with the Leafs that aren’t defencemen.
Meanwhile, Cody Ceci, assumed by more than a few people to be all the things wrong with the Leafs that are defencemen, suffered what seems to be a high ankle sprain and left the game.
As Kyle Dubas acknowledged earlier today, Cody Ceci suffered an ankle injury. Sounds like the dreaded high ankle sprain which will be re-evaluated in a month.
On Thursday, Dubas simply said Ceci would be out for a while, and that he was going on IR. However Cap Friendly reports that the Leafs actually sent Kasimir Kaskisuo to the AHL to reduce the roster. The Leafs currently have three goalies, six healthy defenders and 13 forwards. Not the usual arrangement.
In net, the Marlies are currently making do with Joseph Woll plus the Growlers’ starter, and all three teams in the organization play games this evening, so some more reshuffling is expected today. The goalie situation will settle out like water seeking its level after a flood, and will likely start with the Growlers getting their man back. The rest will depend on Frederik Andersen’s health, but the defenceman issue is thornier.
The Defence Roster
Technically, for a home game, the Leafs don’t need to do anything. They have this set of defenders:
Sandin takes the second unit power play duties, and Barrie, of course, is on the first unit, and they play most of the minutes. Muzzin and Holl do the bulk of the penalty kill, but Dermott and Ceci were big additions. Ceci, in particular, is always on the ice with the goalie pulled late in games.
In the game vs the Rangers, Sandin played 6:25 of his 14:04 five-on-five minutes with Ceci, and 4:07 with Barrie, and the adjustment to jobshare that second pair LD spot between Sandin and Dermott has already been in place for a few games.
It’s simple enough to replace Ceci’s penalty kill time with Marincin, and to just keep the rest of the current structure the same. But that’s not necessarily the medium-term plan of choice.
You want Timothy Liljegren in the NHL, and so, in a way, do I. I can make the case against it as well.
Currently Liljegren is really cooking in the AHL. Last season was a bit of a learning experience for him; if you recall, Liljegren had a delayed development arc because he was ill in his draft year and barely played. He has always been exceptional for a player his age in the AHL, but in the 2018-2019 AHL season, Liljegren was tasked with working on his defending to the exclusion of most other concerns.
This season, and in particular now that he is the undisputed best prospect on the team, he is simply the horse they ride in all situations. He is, I feel compelled to remind everyone, including myself, not yet 21. And he’s the top pairing and a half defender on an AHL team, and that team is going to be in deep, deep trouble without him. Which shouldn’t actually be a concern here, but it’s a measure of his value.
If you like points, you’ll like his. He is one shy of doubling his total from last year where he had 15 in 43 games. He’s at five goals and 24 assists in 38 games, and that’s split into 0.27 even-strength, primary points per game played and 0.21 power-play, primary points per game played (Pick224). His Goals For % at even-strength is 53%, and while we don’t know how many minutes he plays, it’s most of them. Usually AHL defenders don’t play every game, but he and Teemu Kivihalme come close with 38 and 40 out of 44 respectively.
The case for leaving Liljegern in the AHL is simple: that’s a development environment where he gets to be the backbone of the team. He’s not getting that in the NHL.
The case for bringing him up, and actually playing him this time is that he’d be in the NHL. And the Leafs would clearly know what they have in him more fully.
Other Choices
Teemu Kivihalme
After Liljegren, Kivihalme the most relied on defender, and if he shot right, I think he’d be on the Leafs by warmups tonight. His strength is skating, puck-carrying and speed, and that’s not different enough from Liljegren to make him the more likely extra player if the Leafs are really looking for a player to get in games and not sit in the pressbox.
If they do want a pressbox/practice extra, Kivihalme is busy developing his game along with Liljegren, and all the reasons not to call up the youngest prospect left on the Marlies apply to Kivihalme.
As the Marlies season has worn on, they’ve lost a lot of games, and no one has been called up to actually take a roster spot, some of the early shine has worn off this summer’s signings. Schmaltz, who has a handful of NHL games spread over three years looked like a tweener in training camp. Now, even though he shoots right, he looks like someone who isn’t getting the call.
He’s got some offensive power, and a few points to prove it, but he can’t come close to knocking Liljegren off the top pair in the AHL, and he hasn’t got a defensive game to make him a good depth/PK option.
Gravel was called up for one Leafs practice and then sent back to the Marlies where he didn’t play. He’s a left-shooter, has played only 11 games this season and might not be actually healthy enough. If he is healthy enough, he’d be an ideal pressbox/practice player.
Trade?
This is more a medium-term question than one about what the Leafs should do today, while they’re facing a back-to-back with several roster changes to make. But you never know, a deal could be in the works still.
At Thursday’s press conference, Kyle Dubas revealed that Morgan Rielly will have a medical evaluation in about 10 days, and they’ll have a better idea of his likely return date then. That’s conveniently before the trade deadline, so the Leafs will have time to act if Rielly (and his cap hit) will be off the books through to the start of the playoffs.
In the interim, Cody Ceci (and his cap hit) are on IR, which indicates a shorter-term stay off the roster than Rielly’s. That can always change, of course, and Dreger is reporting he’ll be out at least a month. But the conspiracy theories about teams lying about injuries and players going along with it fail to take into account the history of grievances filed over injury disputes in the past. Jared Cowen, Dustin Byfuglien, and perhaps Brent Seabrook did not all go away quietly. Although, I do notice, they all eventually went away.
In other words, Ceci will be on IR or LTIR while he’s actually hurt, and I don’t think this is a plot, plan or scheme to get him off the roster. Particularly not when the list of choices to replace him isn’t very grandiose.
But, if Rielly is going to miss enough time — and I believe the Leafs likely have a good idea about this now — then they may well make a deal. As Dubas has said repeatedly, and reiterated on Thursday, he wants a defender with some term. He’s not making a short-term deal. He’s not even necessarily making a medium-term deal. He wants another bona fide, top-four defender for the next x number of years where x is greater than one. And making that deal might not rely solely on how the Leafs are sitting in the standings.
The Lears are right in the fight for a playoff spot. Would it have been nice to have beaten the Panthers or the Rangers or even both? Yes! But is wasn’t the death knell on the season that they lost those games. The Leafs are not fooling themselves in thinking that they have a chance. They have a legitimately good chance. It’s just not a sure thing. And if that reinforces Dubas’s already solid tendency to not be a short-term thinker, then that’s good.
We’ll find out later today what their choices are for tonight’s game against the Ducks. I am not betting that Josh Manson crosses over to our dressing room, though.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
