1. The Toronto Maple Leafs desperately needed to start this game with some urgency. They did just that. All four lines competed well, and while they didn’t generate too many high-danger chances, they looked like an entirely different team compared to Tuesday night. Denis Malgin was flying out there with Tavares and Nylander, and the reunited Engvall-Kerfoot-Kapanen line looked just as quick.
This period looked like two good teams facing off, and while the Leafs didn’t come out of the opening 20 minutes with a lead, it was tough to be disappointed with their play. Scoring the first goal of this game seemed awfully important. The Leafs faced their first test of adversity when Malgin was called for a foot-on-foot tripping penalty with just over two minutes to play.
The Penguins power play looked incredibly dangerous but, thankfully, Frederik Andersen was up for the challenge. Patric Hornqvist wreaked havoc in-front while both Crosby and Malkin were putting on a show. Kasperi Kapanen may have saved a goal by tying up Crosby’s stick in the slot, and Andersen needed to make some big stops, but the Leafs managed to find a way to keep the game scoreless going into the intermission. After the blowout on Tuesday, killing Malgin’s penalty sure felt like a big moment in this game.
2. Once again, the Leafs started the period with plenty of urgency. Toronto was clearly outplaying Pittsburgh heading into the first commercial break and the team was finally generating more medium-to-high danger scoring chances. Tavares, Matthews, and Marner all had fairly decent chances while Crosby was playing entire shifts in his own zone. While the game was still scoreless, Toronto’s strong play had Mike Sullivan changing up his forward lines.
Toronto’s hard work finally paid off when play resumed, as Tavares won an offensive-zone face and Muzzin blasted a point shot in the back of the net just a few seconds later. They didn’t let their foot off of the gas pedal, either, as more offensive zone time led a Marcus Pettersson holding penalty on Tyson Barrie just over a minute later. The power play had a big chance to expand Toronto’s momentum, and just seven seconds in, Brandon Tanev shot the puck over the glass to give the Leafs an extended 5-on-3 opportunity. 2-0 Leafs.
Three minutes after the 2-0 goal, Kerfoot sprung Kapanen on a breakaway with a gorgeous stretch pass and the Finnish speedster took full advantage. As an encore, Kapanen soon stood up for Sandin against Hornqvist, then dropped the gloves when Jared McCann challenged him to a fight. While the fight won’t get many hits on YouTube, it spoke to the intensity that the Leafs were playing with. Up 3-0 after two, it was a nearly perfect 40 minutes for the team in blue.
3. Two weeks ago, the Leafs played outstanding in the opening 40 minutes against Florida, only to look like an entirely different team in the third. The Leafs needed to show that they could keep their attention to detail for an entire game. Zach Hyman helped to take the pressure off by extending the lead to four just four minutes into the frame. After Matthews won an offensive-zone faceoff, Hyman went to his office in front of the net and outworked Justin Schultz, leading to his 19th goal of the season.
Three of Toronto’s four goals tonight immediately followed an offensive-zone face-off win. By holding the Penguins to just two shots in the third, the Leafs proved that they could keep their focus and determination for an entire 60 minutes.
4. I hated Sheldon Keefe’s forward lines on Tuesday night. John Tavares was busy with one of the league’s toughest matchups, and the Leafs couldn’t have possibly expected much of any secondary scoring with Frederik Gauthier on one line and Clifford and Timashov on another. Playing two fourth lines is never a great idea, and other than when the Matthews line was on the ice, it felt like the Leafs were bound to be outplayed.
Keefe changed up the lineup tonight, going back to the Engvall-Kerfoot-Kapanen line that I’ve been calling for. Kerfoot looked much more comfortable back at center, which is where I prefer him, as he doesn’t quite have the speed to be overly dangerous on the rush or forecheck and he’s far more of a playmaker than a shooter. Engvall’s speed and long reach generated an early takeaway. This line looked like a defensively-responsible unit that would be a pain in the ass to play against.
The fourth line won plenty of battles, and Malgin had the jump in his step that you’d expect from a player who went from playing eight minutes per night to playing on a line with Tavares and Nylander. Malgin’s screen in-front contributed to Toronto’s first goal, and I didn’t notice a huge drop-off on that line with him on the right-side instead of Kerfoot. The Leafs desperately needed more out of their bottom-six and boy did this lineup look much better tonight.
5. Sheldon Keefe went back to Frederik Andersen after a 5-2 loss, even though half of the fan base was calling for Jack Campbell. I thought this was a no-brainer, and Andersen’s play tonight sure backed that up. Andersen was hung out to dry on Tuesday — partly due to poor defense, and partly due to Sidney Crosby being Sidney Crosby. Yes, the last goal was on him, but the game was pretty much over at that point.
I love Jack Campbell and I’m thrilled that he’s started off his Leafs career with a few wins. However, let’s not forget that he had a .900 save percentage prior to the trade to the Leafs, while Frederik Andersen has been the backbone of this team for the previous three seasons. Everyone and their grandmother knows what Andersen is capable of, and if I’m betting on a goalie, I’m betting on him.
I’m tired of the painfully stupid goaltending analysis that I see on Twitter after the Leafs allow their fair share of goals. You can’t look at a one-game sample of save percentage and get a perfectly accurate picture of how a goalie played. The Leafs could have given up three penalty shots against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, and if Andersen let in just one of them, people would complain about his resulting .667 save percentage. Yes, he’s had some struggles this year, but that doesn’t mean you have to resort to the, “I don’t care if there were seven 5-on-0 chances and six tap-ins, I just want saves!” argument over a single game. While we also shouldn’t pretend that every goal against had a 0% chance of being saved, we need to be comfortable with assessing the quality of the scoring chances against rather than just pointing to a one-game sample of save percentage and complaining.
There’s a lot of people who owe Freddy an apology right about now. He certainly wasn’t the only reason they won tonight, but he made key saves on Pittsburgh’s late power-play opportunity in the first, where a goal really would have changed the momentum heading into the intermission.
6. Nearly two years ago, I wrote an article suggesting that the Leafs should buy-low on Jared McCann. The talented forward made the NHL at 19, had already been traded once, and he wasn’t getting much of an opportunity in Florida. He was just about to turn 22, but it didn’t feel like he was all that young, as he had already been around the league for a few years.
I thought it was fitting that Denis Malgin made his Leafs debut against McCann, as he also made the NHL as a teenager, only to end up playing limited minutes in Florida. While he’s in the middle of his fourth NHL season, he’s a year younger than Pierre Engvall and Adam Brooks. While I’m not quite as high on Malgin as I was on McCann (mainly due to McCann’s ability to go to the net and win puck battles), I like the idea of taking advantage of “prospect fatigue”. Malgin wasn’t a superstar tonight, but he may have helped to convince Keefe to put Kerfoot back on the third line. I’d put him back there on Saturday night.
7. There isn’t an “A” on Jake Muzzin‘s jersey, but there should be. After the veteran defenseman was vocal about Toronto’s compete level following Tuesday’s loss, he certainly led by example tonight. His opening goal got the Leafs started on the right foot and he made a quick outlet pass prior to Kapanen’s goal. He picked up another secondary assist on Hyman’s third-period goal and was effective in a challenging shutdown role all night.
Another player who stood out tonight was Rasmus Sandin, who looked like a seasoned veteran against one of the NHL’s best teams. His first pass consistently gets the Leafs moving in the right direction and he did not shy away in numerous physical battles with a heavy power forward in Hornqvist. His partner, Tyson Barrie, was sharp tonight as well.
8. Special teams were a big focus heading into this game, as the Penguins scored three powerplay goals on four attempts on Tuesday night. Keefe mentioned that it was time to fill in special teams on the “bingo card” for the team’s struggles of late, so I was interested to see how the team would respond.
They responded by only taking one penalty, and it was the new addition who was the guilty party. It wasn’t even a stick infraction. It’s not like the refs were missing calls left, right, and center. While the Penguins power play did look terrifying on their one chance, Toronto’s best penalty killer was their goalie, and the Leafs also took full advantage of their 5-on-3 chance to keep their momentum going.
9. Bob McKenzie mentioned on the broadcast tonight that the Leafs have been receiving calls about Tyson Barrie, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after the season. McKenzie stated that the Leafs aren’t selling but would consider trading Barrie if they could get another good defenseman in return. He also mentioned that they might be able to get a package of picks or prospects for Barrie, then flip those pieces as part of a deal for a player with term.
This type of deal is easier said than done, but it doesn’t look like the Leafs have the cap room to re-sign Barrie and it would tough to see him walk out the door for nothing. If they can get someone like Damon Severson — who could play next to Rielly or Sandin for years to come — I’m certainly interested. Barrie needs to be given sheltered minutes and with two rookies in the picture right now, I think Keefe wanted a more defensive-defenceman in the lineup in Marincin to help matchup against Malkin. At the very least, I’m glad that the Leafs are looking into being creative while focusing on players with term.
10. This was the signature win of the Leafs season. Before the game, I identified the seven teams in the league that I consider to be the easiest matchups: Detroit, Ottawa, New Jersey, Anaheim, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Minnesota. I looked up the Leafs record against those teams and found that they were 13-0.
It goes without saying that every team has a worse record against contenders, but it feels like the Leafs had taken this to an extreme this year. I also identified the seven teams in the league that I consider to be the toughest matchups: Tampa Bay, Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington, St.Louis, Dallas, and Colorado. The Leafs were 4-9-1 against these teams heading into tonight — and many of the wins they didn’t deserve. They were outshot 37-27 in their win against Colorado and the Avalanche didn’t have Landeskog and Rantanen that night. They beat Boston in overtime after being outshot 46-29 and won against St.Louis when Binnington had an off night.
You can certainly nitpick this exercise — and maybe I was too kind to Chicago (who they are 0-2 against) — but you’ll still be in tough to find many signature wins from the Leafs schedule. The 8-7 win against Carolina comes to mind, but they were horrible for half of that game and blew a huge lead. After having their competitiveness, maturity, and intensity questioned on Tuesday night, the Leafs responded by dominating an elite hockey team and playing a full 60 minutes. That’s a signature win in my books.
MONTREAL – On a night when New York’s top line was missing in action, the bit players grabbed the spotlight and led the Rangers to a commanding 7-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
“That’s the kind of team we have,” said Filip Chytil, who led the Rangers with a pair of power-play goals Tuesday. “The guys on the top line had chances but when they don’t score we have three other lines to pick up the slack.”
The Rangers’ dominance was reflected in the amount of time they spent in the Canadiens zone and their 45-23 edge in shots.
“If you’ve watched us practice, you know that’s something we work on all the time,” said Chytil. “When we get the puck, we want to hold on to it.”
The Rangers grabbed a 2-0 lead on goals by Mika Zibanejad at the 56-second mark and Jonny Brodzinski at 2:05, but it was Montreal which pressed the play in the first minute.
“I thought we had a good start but they turned it around on us,” said Montreal coach Martin St. Louis.
Lane Hutson controlled the puck off the opening faceoff and had two early shots, both of which were blocked by New York’s Jacob Trouba.
“That was huge for us,” said Rangers coach Peter Laviolette. “We know (Trouba) can generate offence but he can come up with those big defensive plays.”
Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault exited at 11:05 of the first period after giving up four goals on 10 shots. Zibanejad, Brodzinski, Chytil and Reilly Smith all scored on the Habs’ starter.
His replacement, Cayden Primeau, stopped 33 of 35 shots, giving up goals to Braden Schneider, Kaapo Kakko and Chytil.
Nick Suzuki scored both of the Montreal goals, his first strikes of the season
“It didn’t really feel like a 7-2 game until the end there when you look up at the scoreboard,” Suzuki said. “But we obviously keep digging ourselves these holes, and against a good team like that, our details early on have to be really sharp. And we were definitely a little sleepy coming out and they jumped on us.”
Hutson led the Canadiens in ice time with 24:10 but this wasn’t one of his better games. Smith scored on a breakaway after taking the puck off Hutson’s stick and the rookie was minus-4 for the night.
After Tuesday’s morning practice, the Canadiens announced forward Juraj Slafkovsky will miss at least a week with an upper-body injury. Defenceman Kaiden Guhle missed a second consecutive game with an upper-body injury but the team said it isn’t a long-term ailment.
The injury situation didn’t get any better after Trouba flattened Justin Barron at 7:11 of the third period. Barron didn’t return to the ice but there was no immediate word on his condition.
The Rangers welcomed back defenceman Ryan Lindgren, who made his season debut after missing five games with a jaw injury.
Before the game, 14 players from the Canadiens’ team that won four consecutive Stanley Cups between 1976 and 1979 were introduced at the Bell Centre. Among them were Hockey Hall of Fame members Yvan Cournoyer, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Bob Gainey and Ken Dryden.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.
Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball has sold at auction for nearly $4.4 million, a record high price not just for a baseball, but for any ball in any sport, the auctioneer said Wednesday.
“We received bids from around the world, a testament to the significance of this iconic collectible and Ohtani’s impact on sports, and I’m thrilled for the winning bidder,” Ken Goldin, the founder and CEO of auctioneer Goldin Auctions said in a statement.
The auction opened on Sept. 27 with a starting bid of $500,000 and closed just after midnight on Wednesday. The auctioneer said it could not disclose any information about the winning bidder.
The auction has been overshadowed by the litigation over ownership of the ball. Christian Zacek walked out of Miami’s LoanDepot Park with the ball after gaining possession in the left-field stands. Max Matus and Joseph Davidov each claim in separate lawsuits that they grabbed the ball first.
All the parties involved in the litigation agreed that the auction should continue.
Matus’ lawsuit claims that the Florida resident — who was celebrating his 18th birthday — gained possession of the Ohtani ball before Zacek took it away. Davidov claims in his suit that he was able to “firmly and completely grab the ball in his left hand while it was on the ground, successfully obtaining possession of the 50/50 ball.”
Ohtani and the Dodgers are preparing for Game 1 of the World Series scheduled for Friday night.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James gave his 20-year-old son a pep talk before they rose from the Lakers bench. Amid rising cheers, they walked together to the scorer’s table — and then they stepped straight into basketball history.
LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play in the NBA together Tuesday night during the Los Angeles Lakers ‘ season opener, fulfilling a dream set out a few years ago by LeBron, the top scorer in league history.
“That moment, us being at the scorer’s table together and checking in together, it’s a moment I’m never going to forget,” LeBron said. “No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade as I get older or whatever, I will never forget that moment.”
Father and son checked into the game against Minnesota simultaneously with four minutes left in the second quarter, prompting a big ovation from a home crowd aware of the enormity of the milestone. The 39-year-old LeBron had already started the game and played 13 minutes before he teamed up with his 20-year-old son for about 2 1/2 minutes of action.
LeBron James is one of the greatest players in NBA history, a four-time champion and 20-time All-Star, while LeBron James Jr. was a second-round pick by the Lakers last summer. They are the first father and son to play in the world’s top basketball league at the same time, let alone on the same team.
“Y’all ready? You see the intensity, right? Just play carefree, though,” father told son on the bench before they checked in, an exchange captured by the TNT cameras and microphones. “Don’t worry about mistakes. Just go out and play hard.”
Their time on court together was fast and furious, just as LeBron promised.
LeBron, who finished the night with 16 points, missed two perimeter shots before making a dunk. Bronny had an early offensive rebound and missed a tip-in, and his first NBA jump shot moments later was a 3-pointer that came up just short. He checked out one possession later with 1:19 left in the second quarter, getting another ovation.
“(I) tried not to focus on everything that’s going on around me, and tried to focus on going in as a rookie and not trying to mess up,” Bronny said. “But yeah, I totally did feel the energy, and I appreciate Laker Nation for showing the support for me and my dad.”
After the final whistle on the Lakers’ first opening-night victory in LeBron’s seven seasons with the team, father and son also headed to the locker room together — but not before stopping in the tunnel to hug Savannah James, LeBron’s wife and Bronny’s mother. The entire family was in attendance to watch history — on little sister Zhuri’s 10th birthday, no less.
Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. also were courtside at the Lakers’ downtown arena to witness the same history they made in Major League Baseball. The two sluggers played 51 games together for the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991 as baseball’s first father-son duo.
LeBron first spoke about his dream to play alongside Bronny a few years ago, while his oldest son was still in high school. The dream became real after Bronny entered the draft as a teenager following one collegiate season, and the Lakers grabbed him with the 55th overall pick.
“I talked about it years and years ago, and for this moment to come, it’s pretty cool,” LeBron said. “I don’t know if it’s going to actually hit the both of us for a little minute, but when we really get to sit back and take it in, it’s pretty crazy. … But in the moment, we still had a job to do when we checked in. We wasn’t trying to make it a circus. We wasn’t trying to make it about us. We wanted to make it about the team.”
LeBron and Bronny joined a small club of father-son professional athletes who played together. The Griffeys made history 34 years ago, and they even homered in the same game on Sept. 14, 1990.
Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines and his namesake son also accomplished the feat with the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.
In hockey, Gordie Howe played alongside his two sons, Mark and Marty, with the WHA’s Houston Aeros and Team Canada before one NHL season together on the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80, when Gordie was 51.
While the other family pairings on this list happened late in the fathers’ careers, LeBron shows no signs of slowing down or regressing as he begins his NBA record-tying 22nd season.
LeBron averaged more than 25 points per game last year for his 20th consecutive season, and he remains the most important player on the Lakers alongside Anthony Davis as they attempt to recapture the form that won a championship in 2020 and got them to the Western Conference finals in 2023.
Bronny survived cardiac arrest and open heart surgery in the summer of 2023, and he went on to play a truncated freshman season at the University of Southern California. He declared for the draft anyway, and the Lakers eagerly used the fourth-to-last pick in the draft on the 6-foot-2 guard.
LeBron spent the summer in Europe with the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the Paris Olympics, while Bronny played for the Lakers in summer league. They started practicing together with the Lakers before training camp.
The duo first played together in the preseason, logging four minutes during a game against Phoenix just outside Palm Springs earlier this month.
“It’s been a treat,” LeBron said at Tuesday’s morning shootaround. “In preseason, the practices, just every day … bringing him up to speed of what this professional life is all about, and how to prepare every day as a professional.”
The Lakers were fully aware of the history they would make with this pairing, and coach JJ Redick spoke with the Jameses recently about a plan to make it happen early in the regular season.
The presence of the Griffeys likely made it an inevitability for opening night, even though Redick said the Lakers still wanted it “to happen naturally, in the flow of the game.”
The Lakers have declined to speculate on how long Bronny will stay on their NBA roster. Los Angeles already has three other small guards on its roster, and Bronny likely needs regular playing time to raise his game to a consistent NBA standard.
Those factors add up to indicate Bronny is likely to join the affiliate South Bay Lakers of the G League at some point soon. LeBron and Redick have both spoken positively about the South Bay team, saying that player development is a key part of the Lakers organization.
Miami forward Kevin Love, who knew all the James children — Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri — from his time as LeBron’s teammate in Cleveland, said it was “an unbelievable moment” to see father and son playing together.
“I grew up a Mariners fan, so I got to see Griffey and then Griffey Sr. But this is different, because LeBron is still a top-five player in the league,” Love said. “This game, man. It’s why we have that ($76 billion) TV deal. The storylines and the things that happen like this, it’s an unbelievable story. This is really cool to see.”
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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed.
