NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Hours before the Toronto Maple Leafs played the Nashville Predators on Saturday evening, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said his team would try some different looks on defence in the wake of Jake McCabe’s absence.
The Leafs, with Mike Van Ryn at the controls of the defence behind the bench, were doing just that for a period and a half. Most interesting was their deployment of John Klingberg. Beginning early in the first period, Klingberg was sent out for an offensive-zone draw with Morgan Rielly. And then another one, and another one after that.
All told, Klingberg hopped out for seven offensive-zone faceoffs with Rielly. It was a logical way to keep Klingberg involved while he shared minutes on the third pair with William Lagesson, who didn’t play in the NHL last season.
Then, with about 10 minutes left in the second period, the Leafs lost Timothy Liljegren to an upper-body injury and that plan went out the window. It was next man up after that, particularly for Rielly, who played almost 28 minutes, and TJ Brodie, who logged 25 1/2 minutes.
Liljegren was talking to a trainer and now he’s off to the dressing room
It’s unclear if Liljegren will miss time and if so, for how long. And though Keefe said the team got encouraging news on McCabe’s groin injury — “We’re not expecting him to miss any sort of significant time” — the Leafs might still be down their Nos. 3 and 4 defencemen for the time being.
They were already missing Conor Timmins, their No. 7 defender who suffered an injury (four-to-six-week timeline) late in training camp.
This means the Leafs are already digging into their depth with their apparent No. 8 in Lagesson and maybe No. 9 as soon as Tuesday night, when the Los Angeles Kings come to town.
It’s an early stress test for a defence that entered the season with legitimate question marks.
The good news is Rielly and Brodie are off to a terrific start in top-pair duty. The Leafs won almost 70 percent of the expected goals in their minutes together against the Predators. Rielly and Brodie have been on the ice for only two five-on-five goals together all season.
Expected goals are up over 56 percent.
This while owning the top-line challenge nightly and starting a whole whack of shifts in the defensive zone; Rielly and Brodie have an offensive-zone faceoff percentage of just 37 percent this season.
In short, they’re playing the heaviest, hardest minutes for the Leafs and succeeding. It’s been particularly impressive on the defensive side of things, where the Leafs are giving up just over two expected goals per 60 minutes with the two of them out there, one of the better marks league-wide.
The Leafs needed at least one pair they could count on, and they’ve found it in old faithful: Rielly and Brodie.
That will have to continue in the near term without McCabe and, potentially, Liljegren. Their minutes figure to rise even a little higher.
Mark Giordano will also need to hold up with heavier usage. He played a season-high 20 1/2 minutes in Nashville and was late to Ryan O’Reilly’s stick on the power-play goal that tied the score at two.
“That’s on me, that one,” Giordano said.
He also scored the Leafs’ second goal and had an otherwise solid game.
“This guy takes nothing for granted,” Keefe said. “He’s working every day. He loves the game. He wasn’t happy with how the playoffs went, and I think that pushed him to have a great summer and make some changes to how he prepared.”
With the Maple Leafs’ blue line thin, Mark Giordano will need to hold up with heavier usage. (Christopher Hanewinckel / USA Today)
Among those changes is to do a better job of resting throughout the season.
“You can do a good job resting in between games, really taking care of yourself,” Giordano said at training camp. “It goes a long way.”
Keeping fresh will get harder for the oldest skater in the league as the minutes tick up. Without McCabe, the Leafs are back to using Giordano on their second pair. It’s a role he had to take on frequently amid injuries last season and one he fared quite well in.
But this is 40 for Giordano, and he’s already playing on the No. 1 penalty-killing unit.
Can he crank it up again? Can he succeed in difficult second-pair terrain with Klingberg (who would move up in Liljegren’s absence) by his side?
The Leafs were playing Giordano and Klingberg together before McCabe’s injury. But that was in third-pairing territory, where the minutes and quality of competition are quite a bit lighter. If Liljegren remains out against the Kings, Giordano and Klingberg figure to see a fair bit of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kevin Fiala, Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe. A couple of nights after that, the Leafs will be in Boston, where the Bruins figure to work hard to find mismatches for David Pastrnak-led groups.
Tough stuff.
The Leafs have been working hard to limit Klingberg’s exposure in the defensive zone. Even in Nashville, he lined up for only three defensive-zone draws at five-on-five. Absent McCabe and Liljegren potentially for the foreseeable future, he’ll have to share more of that burden — and keep things square defensively.
Another noteworthy change in light of the injuries is that Rielly has reassumed a regular role on the penalty kill after starting the season ranked No. 5 on the depth chart. He might even be joined there next game by Lagesson. (The Leafs do not use Klingberg on the penalty kill and didn’t even after Liljegren went out in Nashville.)
It remains to be seen how the Leafs will navigate a call-up on the back end if one is needed and Liljegren’s injury is more of the day-to-day variety. Things are so tight against the cap that sending Pontus Holmberg down and playing a forward short might be necessary. (Fraser Minten had to go back to junior so Lagesson could be recalled.)
Then, there’s the question of which defenceman will get that call. Simon Benoit has the most NHL experience. Mikko Kokkonen impressed at camp.
These are suddenly interesting times for the Leafs defence.
— Stats and research courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Hockey-Reference.
(Top photo of Mark Giordano and referee Jean Hebert: Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Miami Dolphins will bring in another quarterback while starter Tua Tagovailoa deals with his latest concussion, coach Mike McDaniel said Friday.
For now, Skylar Thompson will be considered the Dolphins’ starter while Tagovailoa is sidelined. Tagovailoa left Thursday night’s 31-10 loss to Buffalo in the third quarter with the third known concussion of his NFL career, all of them coming in the last 24 months.
“The team and the organization are very confident in Skylar,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel said the team has not made any decision about whether to place Tagovailoa on injured reserve. Tagovailoa was expected at the team facility on Friday to start the process of being evaluated in earnest.
“We just have to operate in the unknown and be prepared for every situation,” McDaniel said, noting that the only opinions that will matter to the team will be the ones from Tagovailoa and the medical staff.
McDaniel added that he doesn’t see Tagovailoa playing in Miami’s next game at Seattle on Sept. 22.
“I have no idea and I’m not going to all of a sudden start making decisions that I don’t even see myself involved in the most important parts of,” McDaniel added. “All I’m telling Tua is everyone is counting on you to be a dad and be a dad this weekend. And then we’ll move from there. There won’t be any talk about where we’re going in that regard … none of that will happen without doctors’ expertise and the actual player.”
Tagovailoa was 17 for 25 passing for 145 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions — one of which was returned for a Buffalo score — when he got hurt. Thompson completed eight of 14 passes for 80 yards.
Thompson said he feels “fully equipped” to run the Dolphins’ offense.
“What’s going to lie ahead, who knows, but man, I’m confident, though,” Thompson said after Thursday’s game. “I feel like I’m ready for whatever’s to come. I’m going to prepare and work hard and do everything I can to lead this team and do my job.”
