Sports
Beyond Headlines: Maple Leafs have cap room to make trades at deadline – Sportsnet.ca
This was supposed to be the year the Toronto Maple Leafs were haunted by the salary cap.
When they made Mitchell Marner the NHL’s second-highest paid winger on the second day of training camp, it looked like they were bound to have a season so tight to the upper limit that it would include games they couldn’t even dress a full roster.
What’s that saying again?
“We plan, God laughs.”
Here the Leafs sit a week out from the Feb. 24 trade deadline and they are flush with the space needed to make short-term additions. With injuries mounting, Toronto could bring in as much as $10.6-million in cap commitments for the remainder of the year without even taking a player off its roster.
Now, there are a few caveats to throw in here.
This assumes that Morgan Rielly (broken foot) and Cody Ceci (high-ankle sprain) are both done for the regular season. Despite an encouraging update on Rielly’s recovery from head coach Sheldon Keefe on Friday, there’s been no indication from management that he’ll be back before the April 4 regular-season finale.
Until told otherwise, we have to assume the Leafs are willing to use his $5-million in long-term injury relief to make a deal. Rielly could then be activated during the playoffs when the salary cap disappears — along with Ceci and forwards Ilya Mikheyev and Andreas Johnsson, should the team play long enough for their health allow it.
Kyle Dubas is not a big believer in chasing rental players at the deadline and has been hoping to add a defenceman with term this year. That’s put the general manager’s focus on a player-for-player transaction, rather than the future asset-for-current asset swaps we typically see in February.
“We would want someone to move the needle for us in the long run, not in the short run,” Dubas told reporters earlier this month. “Unless it was a perfect deal, I think it would have to be something in the long run.”
The circumstances have changed.
With Ceci and Johnsson going down, it’s opened the door to new possibilities. The Leafs would no doubt still prefer to address long-range issues rather than simply today’s needs, but they also have the room to accommodate the salary of any pending unrestricted free agent on the market.
No one would have guessed they’d find themselves in this position five months ago, let alone five weeks ago.
Will they adjust their focus because of the cascading circumstances?
Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman talk to a lot of people around the hockey world, and then they tell listeners all about what they’ve heard and what they think about it.
KANE’S COMMENTS
Evander Kane has every right to express his opinion and George Parros, the head of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, understands that he signed up for scrutiny when he took this job.
However, what Saturday’s strongly-worded statement from Kane underlines is how difficult it is to mete out supplementary discipline in a sport where no two incidents are ever exactly the same.
Kane was frustrated after receiving a three-game suspension for an elbow that he believes is similar to those that have gone unpunished in the past. He also pointed to a cross-check from Zdeno Chara to Brendan Gallagher’s chin from earlier in the week — a play that resulted in a $5,000 fine, but no suspension to the Boston Bruins captain.
While each of us may quibble with the individual decisions rendered — I would have preferred to see Zack Kassian receive more than a seven-game suspension, for example, because of the incredibly dangerous nature of his kick to Erik Cernak’s chest — it’s hard to criticize the process used by the player safety department.
They are incredibly diligent in marking and reviewing questionable plays. They watch more games, more closely, than anyone in hockey. And they take a serious approach when it comes to meting out punishment.
Bringing in a third party without the institutional knowledge possessed by the DoPS carries no guarantee that the level of satisfaction with these decisions will improve.
Stream NHL games on Sportsnet NOW
Stream over 500 NHL games blackout-free, including the Flames, Oilers, Leafs and Canucks. Plus Hockey Night in Canada, Rogers Hometown Hockey, Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey and more.
COACHING CAROUSEL
Another week, another coaching change.
Eight teams have turned to a different voice behind the bench this season after the Minnesota Wild replaced Bruce Boudreau with Dean Evason on Friday.
There’s no reason to forecast a quiet off-season, either.
Not only are decisions pending on four interim head coaches — Evason, Rick Bowness (Dallas), Geoff Ward (Calgary) and Alain Nasreddine (New Jersey) — but there’s also the usual performance-related changes to anticipate.
Add in a crop of free-agent replacements that includes Boudreau, Peter Laviolette and Mike Babcock, and, well, here’s guessing there’s much more to come.
GOING OUTSIDE
By the end of next season, the NHL will have staged 32 outdoor games — enough for each team to have hosted one.
Of course, there are still plenty of clubs clamouring for their chance, which is what made Saturday’s announcement of a 2020-21 Stadium Series game at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C., stand out.
The Carolina Hurricanes were chosen as hosts for three main reasons: Tom Dundon has been persistent in his pursuit of one since becoming owner; the tremendous reaction to the team locally in the last year-plus, particularly during last spring’s playoff run; and the overriding belief that it’s time to reward different markets coming off the success of the Winter Classic at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
The door appears to be open to Nashville, Arizona, Vegas and Tampa, among others, to get in on the outdoor act in years to come.
And, as colleague Elliotte Friedman has previously reported, Edmonton remains on track to host another Heritage Classic outdoors during the 2021-22 season.
FANTASY POOL ALERT!
Play the Sportsnet Fantasy Hockey Pool presented by RAM for your chance to drive away with a 2020 RAM 1500 Sport or win cash prizes! It’s FREE and easy to play!
OF NOTE
• The NHL and NHL Players’ Association are scheduled to resume collective bargaining discussions this Wednesday and Thursday in New York. Last week’s talks were the first since September.
• Washington Capitals defenceman John Carlson is currently on pace for 98 points and could become the first blue-liner since Ray Bourque in 1993-94 to hit 90.
• With Erik Karlsson due to have season-ending surgery on a broken thumb, San Jose has more than $17-million in LTI space at its disposal (according to capfriendly.com). The Sharks could turn some of that into assets by taking on expiring deals from cap-challenged teams.
• Zach Bogosian is weighing his options after clearing waivers and being assigned to AHL Rochester by the Buffalo Sabres. He’s still owed more than $1.5-million in salary this season and needs to report to keep being paid.
• Jack Campbell already has three wins for the Maple Leafs since coming over in a trade from Los Angeles. If he wins three more games this season, the Kings get a 2021 second-round pick from Toronto rather than a third.
• Shane Wright, an underage forward for the Kingston Frontenacs who turned 16 in January, has amassed 59 points in 49 games, giving him a better points-per game mark (1.20) than Connor McDavid (1.05) had in the Ontario Hockey League at the same age.
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
* public_profileBlurb *
* public_name *
* public_gender *
* public_birthdate *
* public_emailAddress *
* public_address *
* public_phoneNumber *
-
Sports24 hours ago
Auston Matthews denied 70th goal as depleted Leafs lose last regular-season game – Toronto Sun
-
Media4 hours ago
DJT Stock Rises. Trump Media CEO Alleges Potential Market Manipulation. – Barron's
-
Business23 hours ago
BC short-term rental rules take effect May 1 – CityNews Vancouver
-
Media6 hours ago
Trump Media alerts Nasdaq to potential market manipulation from 'naked' short selling of DJT stock – CNBC
-
Art22 hours ago
Collection of First Nations art stolen from Gordon Head home – Times Colonist
-
Investment23 hours ago
Benjamin Bergen: Why would anyone invest in Canada now? – National Post
-
Tech24 hours ago
'Kingdom Come: Deliverance II' Revealed In Epic New Trailer And It Looks Incredible – Forbes
-
Media19 hours ago
DJT Stock Jumps. The Truth Social Owner Is Showing Stockholders How to Block Short Sellers. – Barron's