TORONTO — Auston Matthews exploded for his third hat trick of this young season, has now ripped 11 goals in 11 games, and got one lady so excited, she tossed her brassiere on the ice like she was at Drake concert!
William Nylander kept his incredible season-starting point streak rolling, breaking his own franchise record again, and the home team’s power-play was buzzing like an army barber!
OK, sweet. The Leafs totally got the two points, right?
Mitch Marner piled up a season-high four points, extended his point streak to six games and swished every shot he launched at the net!
Whew, must’ve been a victory for the boys in Blue and White. Losing skid over?
Uh, not so fast.
Toronto’s superstars flashed their brilliance and drummed up with four goals Saturday at Scotiabank Arena, but in terms of team success, it amounted to nothing more than cookie-gobbling and stats-padding.
Because the bottom fell out of this top-heavy hockey team in a 6-4 home loss to the tired Buffalo Sabres, one of a handful of teams mushed with the Maple Leafs (5-4-2) in the stuffy middle of the Atlantic Division standings.
An eighth of the 2023-24 season is complete, and while the Maple Leafs’ well-compensated core of star performers has delivered on the scoreboard, hockey stubbornly remains a team sport.
So, while Matthews is on pace for 82 goals, and Marner could get his 100 points, and John Tavares could hit 80 points for a sixth time, and Nylander could make his targeted $10 million, this whole operation is at risk of being slew-footed by its supporting cast.
Matthews and Marner have scored all six of the Leafs’ past six goals.
Of the 32 goals scored Leafs forwards this season, the “Core Four” has scored 26 of them (81.25 per cent).
It’s been two weeks and counting since a bottom-six Leafs forward has lit the lamp.
Max Domi is still searching for his first goal. Tyler Bertuzzi is searching for his first at even-strength.
If you add offensive defenceman John Klingberg and fourth-liner Ryan Reaves into the accounting, new GM Brad Treliving allotted a total of $14 million in cap space during free agency to four players who have yielded zero even-strength goals.
Yikes.
But they aren’t the only ones not chipping in offence.
“Yeah, I’m concerned, for sure,” said coach Sheldon Keefe, after watching his group lose its fourth straight.
“[Matthew] Knies is new to the league, hasn’t found his stride offensively. [David Kämpf] is a guy that’s gonna give you everything he has, but that’s not his primary thing. Domi’s a guy, obviously, we expect more out of, his contribution offensively.
“Yeah, it’s a lot of heavy lifting for our top guys right now, for sure.”
Marner knows better than to point fingers. He needs to save his energy for carrying the weight.
“Everyone wants to execute out here on the ice, and everyone wants to produce,” Marner said. “You just want to stay patient and make sure everyone knows that.
“Stay positive and obviously you’re gonna get your looks eventually. Just make sure when you do get them, bear down. And everyone wants to put them in, so that’s what they’re trying to do. It just hasn’t happened.”
OK.
So, what’s going on here?
Because it’s not crummy puck luck.
Did the GM bring in the wrong personnel? Is the head coach not arranging the pieces correctly? Do the mercenary players-for-hire simply need more time to find their niche?
So far, the sum is worse than the parts. And the parts are getting frustrated or demoted or misused or all the above.
The Leafs have lost more games than they’ve won and hold minus-1 goal differential.
“It’s got to start with hard work and defence. I mean, it’s a cliché, but we scored enough goals to win tonight, obviously,” Mark Giordano said. “When things aren’t going offensively, you got to contribute in other ways. So, it’s on all of us.
“Everyone in our division is playing well. It’s gonna be a battle this year to get points every night in our division. So, these ones sting. These are big games. Doesn’t matter what time of year it is.”
Prior to puck drop, Keefe tried to use the injuries to defencemen Timothy Liljegren (LTIR) and Jake McCabe (likely to practise Sunday) as a rallying call.
Yet callup Max Lajoie skated all of 4:54 before catching a minus and getting stapled to the bench, essentially leaving the Leafs to lose another game with five blueliners.
Keefe has no trust right now in the depths of the forwards or the defence, and the ice times speak louder than the quotes.
“The third period was the most exhausted I’ve seen a core defensively in my time in this league,” Keefe said. “It was just too much for our D-men.”
And the Sabres were too big a task for even some on-fire superstars to overcome.
Or, as Keefe puts it: “We got a bunch of guys that we need to get playing better.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• After temporarily benching and demoting Bertuzzi in Boston Thursday, Keefe tried the carrot instead of the stick Saturday, bumping him back up to John Tavares’s line and pumping the winger up to the media.
“He happened to make the wrong mistake at the wrong time,” Keefe softened, after a day’s rest. “Bert’s a very important player for us, and will be a very important player for us, and will come through. The harder this thing gets, the better Bert’s gonna be.”
Bertuzzi owned his subpar play when he met the cameras: “Just wasn’t good enough. Need to be better. Personally, I gotta be better. No excuses.”
What about shaking his head and laughing from the bench at Brad Marchand after the Timothy Liljegren injury, though?
“People can perceive that however they want,” Bertuzzi replied. “I’m not going to explain myself.”
• The Maple Leafs ravaged tired opponents last season, going a league-best 11-1-0 when catching teams on the second half of a back-to-back.
They caught a very tired Sabres group, playing its second game in two nights and third in three cities over four nights — and still failed to take advantage at home.
• Nylander’s season-starting point streak just keeps truckin’. He’s now found a way onto the scoresheet for 11 games and counting, extending his Maple Leafs record and tying Jesper Bratt (2022-23) for the third-best season-starting point streak by any Swedish player.
Mats Sundin holds that record. The big Swede had a point in each of his first 30(!) games for the Quebec Nordiques in 1992-93.
• Tage Thompson has joined the short list of “Guys I’d Totally Pay to Watch Play Hockey Live.”
The centre’s unassisted shorthanded goal was a beautiful mix of skill and force, to be sure. But it’s incredible to see how he’s learned to use his massive frame to his advantage with and without the puck. And, boy, can he fire the thing. Game-high seven shots and 12 attempts on Saturday.
Go see him.
• Sabres rookie Ryan Johnson registered a point in his NHL debut, an assist on Jeff Skinner’s slapshot goal. Johnson’s dad, Craig, played 10 games for the Leafs back in 2003-04.
Like father, like son: Both wore No. 33 in this building.
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.
The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.
Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.
He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.
Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.
Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.
Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.
Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.
Veterans Tyson Beukeboom and Karen Paquin will lead Canada at the WXV 1 women’s rugby tournament starting later this month in the Vancouver area.
WXV 1 includes the top three teams from the Women’s Six Nations (England, France and Ireland) and the top three teams from the Pacific Four Series (Canada, New Zealand, and the United States).
Third-ranked Canada faces No. 4 France, No. 7 Ireland and No. 1 England in the elite division of the three-tiered WXV tournament that runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 12 in Vancouver and Langley, B.C. No. 2 New Zealand and the eighth-ranked U.S. make up the six-team WVX 1 field.
“Our preparation time was short but efficient. This will be a strong team,” Canada coach Kevin Rouet said in a statement. “All the players have worked very hard for the last couple of weeks to prepare for WXV and we are excited for these next three matches and for the chance to play on home soil here in Vancouver against the best rugby teams in the world.
“France, Ireland and England will each challenge us in different ways but it’s another opportunity to test ourselves and another step in our journey to the Rugby World Cup next year.”
Beukeboom serves as captain in the injury absence of Sophie de Goede. The 33-year-old from Uxbridge, Ont., earned her Canadian-record 68th international cap in Canada’s first-ever victory over New Zealand in May at the Pacific Four Series.
Twenty three of the 30 Canadian players selected for WXV 1 were part of that Pacific Four Series squad.
Rouet’s roster includes the uncapped Asia Hogan-Rochester, Caroline Crossley and Rori Wood.
Hogan-Rochester and Crossley were part of the Canadian team that won rugby sevens silver at the Paris Olympics, along with WXV teammates Fancy Bermudez, Olivia Apps, Alysha Corrigan and Taylor Perry. Wood is a veteran of five seasons at UBC.
The 37-year-old Paquin, who has 38 caps for Canada including the 2014 Rugby World Cup, returns to the team for the first time since the 2021 World Cup.
Canada opens the tournament Sept. 29 against France at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver before facing Ireland on Oct. 5 at Willoughby Stadium at Langley Events Centre, and England on Oct. 12 at B.C. Place.
The second-tier WXV 2 and third-tier WXV 3 are slated to run Sept. 27 to Oct. 12, in South Africa and Dubai, respectively.
WXV 2 features Australia, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales while WXV 3 is made up of Fiji, Hong Kong, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Samoa and Spain.
The tournament has 2025 World Cup qualification implications, although Canada, New Zealand and France, like host England, had already qualified by reaching the semifinals of the last tournament.
Ireland, South Africa, the U.S., Japan, Fiji and Brazil have also booked their ticket, with the final six berths going to the highest-finishing WXV teams who have not yet qualified through regional tournaments.
Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team WXV 1 Squad
Forwards
Alexandria Ellis, Ottawa, Stade Français Paris (France); Brittany Kassil, Guelph, Ont., Guelph Goats; Caroline Crossley, Victoria, Castaway Wanderers; Courtney Holtkamp, Rimbey, Alta., Red Deer Titans Rugby; DaLeaka Menin, Vulcan, Alta., Exeter Chiefs (England); Emily Tuttosi, Souris, Man., Exeter Chiefs (England); Fabiola Forteza, Quebec City, Stade Bordelais (France); Gabrielle Senft, Regina, Saracens (England); Gillian Boag, Calgary, Gloucester-Hartpury (England); Julia Omokhuale, Calgary, Leicester Tigers (England); Karen Paquin, Quebec City, Club de rugby de Quebec; Laetitia Royer, Loretteville, Que., ASM Romagnat (France); McKinley Hunt, King City, Ont., Saracens (England); Pamphinette Buisa, Gatineau, Que., Ottawa Irish; Rori Wood, Sooke, B.C., College Rifles RFC; Sara Cline, Edmonton, Leprechaun Tigers; Tyson Beukeboom, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England);
Backs
Alexandra Tessier, Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Que., Exeter Chiefs (England); Alysha Corrigan, Charlottetown, P.E.I., CRFC; Asia Hogan-Rochester, Toronto, Toronto Nomads; Claire Gallagher, Caledon, Ont., Leicester Tigers (England); Fancy Bermudez, Edmonton, Saracens (England); Julia Schell, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England); Justine Pelletier, Rivière-du-Loup, Que, Stade Bordelais (France); Mahalia Robinson, Fulford, Que., Town of Mount Royal RFC; Olivia Apps, Lindsay, Ont., Lindsay RFC; Paige Farries, Red Deer, Alta., Saracens (England); Sara Kaljuvee, Ajax, Ont., Westshore RFC; Shoshanah Seumanutafa, White Rock, B.C., Counties Manukau (New Zealand); Taylor Perry, Oakville, Ont., Exeter Chiefs (England).
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
