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Horror-filled finish to road trip puts pressure on mistake-prone Maple Leafs heading home – Toronto Sun

Published

2 years ago

October 31, 2022

Harry Miller

Publishing date:

Oct 31, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 4 minute read • 58 Comments

Maple Leafs’ William Nylander (88) and Nicholas Robertson (89) collide in front of Anaheim Ducks’ Max Comtois (44) during the first period at Honda Center on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022. Photo by JASON PARKHURST /USA TODAY SPORTS

ANAHEIM – Those boos ringing in the ears of the Maple Leafs have nothing to do with Halloween.

But all the bats in their belfry during this continuous sluggish start could haunt coach Sheldon Keefe and general manager Kyle Dubas as the team limps home on a four-game losing streak.

It was capped in monstrous fashion on Sunday, a 4-3 overtime defeat to the Anaheim Ducks, who‘d not won in seven straight, a match Toronto led all night, including 3-1 at one stage with a penalty-shot chance to extend it.

Add that collapse to earlier defeats against lesser lights Arizona, Montreal and, on this trip, San Jose and Los Angeles and there is further doubt cast on this new-look roster that Dubas constructed and Keefe is trying to tame.

Dubas was requested for interviews after the game by various Toronto media outlets, but declined.

After 10 days away, the Leafs will have time off, a Tuesday practice and an improved Philadelphia Flyers club visiting Wednesday.

Outside Scotiabank Arena, expect little support or sympathy for the GM and coach, who needed a good start this month to cleanse memories of another spring playoff defeat.

“We’re used to dealing with noises,” Keefe said with a shrug of the rough reception that awaits.

On his own fate if the losses mount, he added: “I just want to focus on what I can do here. I have a job to do with the group and the group has responded in the past.”

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But the Leafs appear to be pinning too much on simply repeating what occurred a year ago when they won just two of their first seven, then took off to 115 points. Sunday’s setback dropped them to 4-4-2 and this is a new crew that might — or might not — consolidate.

“I still think (confidence) is very high,” alternate captain Mitch Marner said, while taking the blame for a couple of puck decisions that the Ducks capitalized on. “We started off a lot worse last year and everyone tried to put shambles in our brains. It’s outside noise, it’s big in Toronto. It’s not going to happen with us.”

Trevor Zegras’ second goal of the game beat Erik Kallgren at 2:15 of the extra period after Marner was stopped just short while left alone on John Gibson’s doorstep and tried to deke the Ducks netminder.

What would’ve been Anaheim’s go-ahead goal in the final minutes of regulation was waved off for goaltender interference, but the Leafs had plenty of chances to clinch in regulation, as well as Marner and Auston Matthews in OT.

Standards for Toronto have certainly slipped when playing a 1-6-1 team can be labelled ‘must-win’, but the result failed to take heat off Keefe and Dubas.

The Leafs are still having trouble generating goals and integrating new cast members, though two of those, Denis Malgin and Calle Jarnkrok, scored Sunday.

The Leafs just couldn’t let good, sustained effort elapse without some kind of self-inflicted wound. One was committed by Filip Kral, in his second NHL game and looking good until he tried to put a pass through Derek Grant at centre just as the middle period ended. It required Kallgren to make a breakaway save and Matthews to take a slashing call.

Toronto did turn that into its first short-handed strike of the year, a TJ Brodie stretch pass that Alex Kerfoot and Jarnkrok converted early in the third period.

Shortly thereafter, Kerfoot had a breakaway hampered enough to warrant a penalty shot, but found no room on Gibson as he came in too tight and shot wide.

Moments later, Zegras capitalized on a Marner turnover at the Anaheim blue line after being sent in for a breakaway backhand deke against Kallgren. The Leafs went with their No. 2 goalie, who, like Ilya Samsonov in Los Angeles the afternoon before, endured errors by his mates at key junctures.

Anaheim tied it 3-3 when defenceman Dmitry Kulikov poked the puck past John Tavares, circled the net and beat Kallgren on the wraparound.

The Leafs have tallied just nine goals in the past four losses.

“All losses suck,” Keefe said of the manner they frittered away Sunday’s lead. “In the second period, we looked a lot more like we can be. We’ve struggled in our own end, then you have a lot of tired people on the ice who can’t get off and it snowballs. A huge shorthanded goal to start the third, then you give them life back.”

William Nylander and Marner set up Matthews for a quick flick at 4:23, giving him two goals on the trip.

The revamped second line of Kerfoot, Tavares and Jarnkrok thought it had scored soon after, Kerfoot half-raising his stick, but the puck skittered wide of an empty net. As Kerfoot looked skyward, Jakob Silfverberg cashed in at the other end.

Toronto regained the lead before the period ended, thanks to another ad hoc line, Nick Robertson and Nylander setting up Malgin, who moved across to the right side with Nylander shifted to centre.

“We didn’t get off to a great start last year, it’s not what we’re looking for this year,” Tavares said between the L.A. and Anaheim matches. “Every game we’ve had a chance to win. Have we played to our capabilities yet? I don’t believe so.”

lhornby@postmedia.com

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Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team ends Paralympic team sport podium drought

Published

2 days ago

September 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

PARIS – Canada won its first Paralympic medal in women’s sitting volleyball and ended the country’s team sport podium drought Saturday.

The women’s volleyball team swept Brazil 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-18) to take the bronze medal at North Paris Arena.

The women were the first Canadian side to claim a Paralympic medal in a team sport since the men’s wheelchair basketball team won gold in London in 2012.

“Oh my gosh, literally disbelief, but also, we did it,” said veteran Heidi Peters of Neerlandia, Alta. “It’s indescribable.”

Canada finished seventh in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and fourth in Tokyo three years ago.

Seven players of the dozen Canadians were Rio veterans and nine returned from the team in Tokyo.

Eleven were members of the squad that earned a silver medal at the 2022 world championship.

“I know how hard every athlete and every staff member and all of our family back home have worked for this moment,” captain Danielle Ellis said.

“It’s been years and years and years in the making, our third Paralympic Games, and we knew we wanted to be there.”

The women earned a measure of revenge on the Brazilians, who beat Canada for bronze in Tokyo and also in a pool game in Paris.

“There’s a lot of history with us and Brazil,” Peters acknowledged. “Today we just knew that we could do it. We were like, ‘This is our time and if we just show up and play our style of volleyball, serving tough and hitting the ball hard, the game will probably going our way.’ And it did.”

Calgary’s Jennifer Oakes led Canada with 10 attack points. Ellis of White Rock, B.C., and Peters each contributed nine.

Canada registered 15 digs as a team to Brazil’s 10.

“Losing to Brazil in the second game was tough,” Ellis said. “It just lit the fire beneath us.”

Canada’s men’s wheelchair basketball team fell 75-62 to Germany in the bronze-medal game in Paris.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.

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Canada’s Danielle Dorris defends Paralympic gold in Paris pool

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2 days ago

September 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

PARIS – Canada’s Danielle Dorris defended her title at the Paralympic Games on Saturday.

The 21-year-old swimmer from Fredericton won gold in the women’s S7 50-metre final with a time of 33.62 seconds.

Mallory Weggemann of the United States took silver, while Italy’s Guilia Terzi was third.

Tess Routliffe of Caledon, Ont., was fourth after picking up a silver and a bronze earlier in the Games.

Dorris captured gold in Tokyo three years ago, and was the youngest member of Canada’s team at age 13 at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

She was born with underdeveloped arms, a condition known as bilateral radial dysplasia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.

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Canadian para paddler Brianna Hennessy earns Paralympic silver medal

Published

2 days ago

September 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

PARIS – Canadian para canoeist Brianna Hennessy raced to her first Paralympic medal with a reminder of her mother on her paddle.

The 39-year-old from Ottawa took silver in the women’s 200-metre sprint Saturday in Paris.

The design on Hennessy’s paddle includes a cardinal in remembrance of her late mother Norma, the letter “W’ for Wonder Woman and a cat.

“My mother passed away last year, so I said I’d be racing down the course with her,” Hennessy said Saturday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

“In our family, a cardinal represents what our love means. My mum was my Wonder Woman, and this is a cardinal rising up. This is our family pet that passed away two months after my mum, of cancer, because I think their love was together.

“All this represents so much to me, so it’s my passion piece for Paris.”

Hennessy finished just over a second behind gold medallist Emma Wiggs of Britain in the women’s VL2 Va’a, which is a canoe that has a support float and is propelled with a single-blade paddle.

Hennessy’s neck was broken when she was struck by a speeding taxi driver in Toronto in 2014 when she was 30. She has tetraplegia, which is paralysis in her arms and legs.

“This year’s the 10-year anniversary of my accident,” Hennessy said. “I should have been dead. I’ve been fighting back ever since.

“This is the pinnacle of it all for me and everything I’ve been fighting for. It made it all worth it.”

After placing fifth in her Paralympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, Hennessy was a silver medallist in the last three straight world championships in the event.

She will race the women’s kayak single Sunday. Hennessy and Wiggs have a tradition of hugging after races.

“I always talk about the incredible athletes here, and how the Paralympics means so much more because everyone here has a million reasons to give up, and we’ve all chosen to just go on,” the Canadian said. “It’s more about the camaraderie.”

Hennessy boxed and played hockey and rugby before she was hit by the taxi.

She was introduced to wheelchair rugby by the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre.

She eventually turned to paddling at the Ottawa River Canoe Club, which led her to the Paralympic podium in Paris.

“It has a good ring to it,” Hennessy said. “I’m so happy. I feel like we’ve had to overcome so much to get here, especially in the last year and a half. I’m just so proud.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.

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