Sports
Are the Leafs trading for a defender or looking within? – Pension Plan Puppets
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.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) February 6, 2020
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:
Jake Muzzin – Justin Holl
Travis Dermott – Tyson Barrie
Rasmus Sandin – Martin Marincin
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.
Timothy Liljegren
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.
Jordan Schmaltz
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.
Ben Harpur
Harpur can PK in the AHL because he is tall and he has a long stick. That’s really it, and no one is pretending otherwise these days.
Kevin Gravel
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.
Sports
Marchand says Maple Leafs are Bruins’ ‘biggest rival’ ahead of 1st-round series – NHL.com
BOSTON – Forget Boston Bruins-Montreal Canadiens.
For Brad Marchand, right now, it’s all about Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs.
“You see the excitement they have all throughout Canada when they’re in playoffs,” Marchand said Thursday. “Makes it a lot of fun to play them. And I think, just with the history we’ve had with them recently, they’re probably our biggest rival right now over the last decade.
“They’ve probably surpassed Montreal and any other team with kind of where our rivalry’s gone, just because we’ve both been so competitive with each other, and we’ve had a few playoff series. It definitely brings the emotion, the intensity, up in the games and the excitement for the fans.
“It’s a lot of fun to play them.”
The Bruins and Maple Leafs will renew their rivalry in their first round series, which starts Saturday at TD Garden (8 p.m. ET; TBS, truTV, MAX, SN, CBC, TVAS). They’ll be familiar opponents.
Over the past 11 seasons, the Bruins have faced the Maple Leafs four times in the postseason, starting with the epic 2013 matchup in the first round. That resulted in an all-time instant classic, the Game 7 in which the Bruins were down 4-1 in the third period and came roaring back for an overtime win that helped propel them to the Stanely Cup Final.
That would prove to be the model and, in the intervening years, the Bruins have beaten them in each of the three subsequent series, including going to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference First Round in 2018 and 2019.
Which could easily be where this series is going.
“Offensively they’re a gifted hockey club,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Thursday. “They present a lot of challenges down around the netfront area. We’re going to have to be really sharp there. We’re a pretty good team defensively when we stick to what our principles are. So I expect it to be a tight series overall.”
But if anyone knows the Maple Leafs — and what to expect — it’s Marchand. In his career, he’s played 146 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 11th most of any active player. Twenty-one of those games have come against the Maple Leafs, games in which Marchand has 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists).
“They’re always extremely competitive,” Marchand said. “You never know which way the series is going to go. But that’s what you want. That’s what you love about hockey is the competition aspect. They’re real competitors over there, especially the way they’re built right now. So it’s going to be a lot of fun, and that’s what playoffs is about. It’s about the best teams going head-to-head.”
But even though the history favors the Bruins — including having won each of the past six playoff matchups, dating back to the NHL’s expansion era in 1967-68 and each of the four regular-season games in 2023-24 — Marchand is throwing that out the window.
“That means nothing,” he said.
The Maple Leafs bring the No. 2 offense in the NHL into their series, having scored 3.63 goals per game. They were led by Auston Matthews and his 69 goals this season, a new record for him and for the franchise.
“You have to be hard on a guy like that and limit his time and space with the puck,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “He’s really good at getting in position to receive the puck and he’s got linemates who can put it right on his tape for him. You’ve just got to know where he is, especially in our D zone. He likes to loop away after cycling it and kind of find that sweet spot coming down Broadway there in the middle. It’s not just a one-person job.”
Nor is Matthews their only threat.
“They have a lot of great players, skill players, who play hard and can be very dangerous around the net and create scoring opportunities,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “You’ve just got to be aware of who’s out there and who you’re against, who you’re matched up against, and play hard. Also, too, we’ve got to focus on our game and what we do well and when we do that, we trust each other and have that belief in each other, we’re a pretty good hockey team.”
Especially against the Maple Leafs.
Marchand, who grew up in Halifax loving the Maple Leafs, still gets a thrill to see their alumni walking around Scotiabank Arena in the playoffs. And it’s even more special to be on the ice with them, to be competing against them — even more so when the Bruins keep winning.
But that certainly doesn’t mean this series will be easy.
“They’ll be a [heck] of a challenge,” Marchand said.
Sports
NHL sets Round 1 schedule for 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Daily Faceoff
The chase for Lord Stanley’s silver chalice will begin on Saturday.
After what could be described as the most exciting season in NHL history that saw heartbreaks and last-ditch efforts to clinch playoff spots, players and staff now get ready as 16 teams go to battle.
We saw the Vancouver Canucks have a massive year and finish first in the Pacific Division with captain Quinn Hughes leading all defensemen in points. The Winnipeg Jets set a franchise record for most points. The Nashville Predators went on a franchise-record winning streak in order to lock themselves into a Wild Card spot, and the Washington Capitals clinched the last Wild Card spot in the East after a wild finish that saw the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers see their playoff hopes crumble in front of them.
While Auston Matthews missed out on scoring 70 goals, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid and Tampa Bay Lightning standout Nikita Kucherov became the first players since 1990-91 to record 100 assists in a single season. They joined Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr as the only players to do so.
With the bracket set, it’s time to expect the unexpected.
Here is the schedule for Round 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs:
Eastern Conference
#A1 Florida Panthers vs. #WC1 Tampa Bay Lightning
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Tampa at Florida | 12:30 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Tampa at Florida | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Thursday, April 25 | 3. Florida at Tampa | 7 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Florida at Tampa | 5 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 29 | 5. Tampa at Florida | TBD |
Wednesday, May 1 | 6. Florida at Tampa | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Tampa at Florida | TBD |
#A2 Boston Bruins vs. #A3 Toronto Maple Leafs
Date | Game | Time |
Saturday, April 20 | 1. Toronto at Boston | 8 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 22 | 2. Toronto at Boston | 7 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 3. Boston at Toronto | 7 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Boston at Toronto | 8 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Toronto at Boston | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Boston at Toronto | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Toronto at Boston | TBD |
#M1 New York Rangers vs. #WC2 Washington Capitals
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Washington at New York | 3 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Washington at New York | 7 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 2. New York at Washington | 7 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 2. New York at Washington | 8 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, May 1 | 2. Washington at New York | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 2. New York at Washington | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 2. Washington at New York | TBD |
#M2 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #M3 New York Islanders
Date | Game | Time |
Saturday, April 20 | 1. New York at Carolina | 5 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 22 | 2. New York at Carolina | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Thursday, April 25 | 3. Carolina at New York | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Carolina at New York | 2 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. New York at Carolina | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Carolina at New York | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. New York at Carolina | TBD |
Western Conference
#C1 Dallas Stars vs. #WC2 Vegas Golden Knights
Date | Game | Time |
Monday, April 22 | 1. Vegas at Dallas | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 2. Vegas at Dallas | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 3. Dallas at Vegas | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 29 | 4. Dallas at Vegas | TBD |
Wednesday, May 1 | 5. Vegas at Dallas | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Dallas at Vegas | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Vegas at Dallas | TBD |
#C2 Winnipeg Jets vs. #C3 Colorado Avalanche
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Colorado at Winnipeg | 7 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Colorado at Winnipeg | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Winnipeg at Colorado | 10 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Winnipeg at Colorado | 2:30 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Colorado at Winnipeg | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Winnipeg at Colorado | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Colorado at Winnipeg | TBD |
#P1 Vancouver Canucks vs. #WC1 Nashville Predators
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Nashville at Vancouver | 10 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Nashville at Vancouver | 10 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Vancouver at Nashville | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Vancouver at Nashville | 5 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Nashville at Vancouver | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Vancouver at Nashville | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Nashville at Vancouver | TBD |
#P2 Edmonton Oilers vs. #P3 Los Angeles Kings
Date | Game | Time |
Monday, April 22 | 1. Los Angeles at Edmonton | 10 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 2. Los Angeles at Edmonton | 10 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Edmonton at Los Angeles | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Edmonton at Los Angeles | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, May 1 | 5. Los Angeles at Edmonton | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Edmonton at Los Angeles | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Los Angeles at Edmonton | TBD |
Sports
With matchup vs. Kings decided, Oilers should be confident facing familiar foe – Sportsnet.ca
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