Andersen was more emboldened than rattled by the indiscretion. He slammed the door and the Leafs won a tight, important 2-1 hockey game.
So, Sheldon Keefe, would you have preferred to see one of your players get in Killorn’s mug?
“Yes and no,” Keefe replied. “I mean, you want someone to acknowledge it and speak up that it’s not acceptable, but at the same time, I really believe strongly that you can’t overreact to situations like that.”
When Keefe played for the Tampa Bay Lightning at the turn of the century, he amassed thrice as many PIMs (78) as points (24). His NHL career has given him some perspective when weighing the merits of sparking a scrum.
“I just don’t buy into the fact that you make a big scene and you overreact, and then it’s like someone’s gonna say, ‘OK, I won’t do that anymore.’ That’s just not reality. I think that the players [bumping the goalie] know what they’re doing, and they’re pretty methodical about it. You have to trust that the referees are going to protect the players on the ice, and it’s our job to win the games on the power play,” Keefe explained.
“That said, we want it to be, you know, standing up for each other, we’re a family, all that kind of stuff, but it’s very important, especially this time of the year, that we’re being composed.”
An intimidation game gets waged within the game. The rules are blurry, though. And the final box score can colour the narrative of who won the psychological and physical contest.
With all due respect to Kyle Clifford (who was not on the ice at the time of the Killorn collision), the Maple Leafs’ power play is their true enforcer. That’s by design. And it has landed some expert combination blows in their two recent victories over Tampa.
“That suggests it’s a good time we didn’t do anything,” Andersen said. “It’d be undisciplined to go after him and then take a two-minute penalty for something that didn’t really matter. I think that that could hurt us even more, giving them the power play for something like that.”
Defenceman Travis Dermott agrees: “You don’t want to take any penalties. So, if someone’s taking a liberty to Fred, we’re gonna do something, but I think it’s all situational as well.
“They’re probably doing it to get in Freddy’s head or to get one of us to take a penalty.”
“The way I lead is by playing my heart out.” -Frederik Andersen
But hovering over these divisional battles is a strong likelihood that these same two clubs will be grinding it out against each other in Round 1 of the playoffs, where attrition and nastiness become more common than whistles. Like it or lump it, over seven games, each bruise is an investment.
The Lightning — skilled and speedy, like Toronto — have purposely balanced 2019’s Presidents’ Trophy–winning, post-season-flopping roster with some bite, adding players like Patrick Maroon, Zach Bogosian, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman in preparation for some blue-collar crease-clearing and, evidently, crashing.
Toronto’s identity is to intimidate through its sauce passes and wrist shots. The mandate is to not wilt during puck battles, but it’s difficult to envision these Leafs engaging in, say, the outburst of mayhem that enlivened last weekend’s Bruins-Lightning tilt.
Dermott and Keefe both said Tuesday that intimidation ain’t what it used to be.
“It’s a skilled, fast game now, right? So I think a lot of it’s kind of just being smart and picking your spots more,” Dermott said. “Penalties are way more common.”
Keefe isn’t even sure if intimidation is the right word to use anymore, with how the game is trending and the style of players that compose the majority of rosters.
Today’s NHLer must impose himself on his opponent, Keefe says, “through speed and physicality on the puck, limiting time you have with the puck and how quickly players close on you and put you in uncomfortable positions, rather than you know there’s gonna be any sort of violent repercussions or anything like that.”
From the top, the Maple Leafs’ plan is to assemble a team of players capable playing through uncomfortable circumstances.
The challenge will be sticking to that plan, and rising above the nasty fray, when push comes to shove.
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.
