Sports

Leafs fall to Patrick Kane and Chicago, leave more points on the table

Published

1 month ago

February 20, 2023

Harry Miller

Patrick Kane #88 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates his hat trick goal during the second period against the Toronto Maple Leafs at United Center on February 19, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Unofficial ‘guaranteed win week’ for the Maple Leafs didn’t turn out as hoped.

Wrapping up five consecutive games versus teams at or near the bottom of their divisions, Toronto would’ve liked at least another win, but finished with a record of 3-2 with a 5-3 loss at the United Center in Chicago.

“Taking your eye off the ball, a good team can make you pay,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said.

Patrick Kane, in a complete reversal from a near invisible night in Toronto, had three goals and assisted on Max Domi’s empty netter, the son of ex-Leaf Tie assisting on all of Kane’s troika.

Kane was able to unload a lot of frustration following the New York Rangers choosing Vladimir Tarasenko as their major trade deadline pick-up and two days after Toronto went with Ryan O’Reilly of the Blues in the same move. That’s five goals in Kane’s past two games, showing clubs still shopping up until March 3 — such as Dallas, Edmonton and Vegas — that he has motivation but no lingering hip issues at age 34.

“He created a lot of stuff (but) we gave them a lot,” said Leafs winger Mitch Marner. “He saw the ice really well. You know they’ll bring their best against us.”

Toronto split a back-to-back with Columbus, losing on home ice, then knocked off Chicago and Montreal before getting to the Windy City for a somewhat disorienting late afternoon game in the Central time zone. The Leafs are trying to fend off the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division and now face a string of playoff teams or those on the bubble, starting with the Sabres in Buffalo on Tuesday, the Minnesota Wild Friday and then five cross-continent road games.

Coach Sheldon Keefe said his team didn’t fare well in this case of consecutive starts, with the flight and an odd 5 p.m. Central time zone puck drop.

“We were clearly a very tired group from the start and made tired mistakes,” he said. “They didn’t have a lot of chances or shots (on Ilya Samsonov,) but they had clean looks and we didn’t do enough to support him.”

Samsonov felt well enough to start despite frequent trips to the bathroom the past few days to get past the flu. He did tip his mask to 444-goal career scorer Kane.

“This guy, if he has the time, he’s going to score, not like an AHL guy or fourth line guy. He’s a superstar.”

Chicago Blackhawks forward Cole Guttman (70) attempts to skate the puck in on Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov (35) in the first period at United Center Feb 19, 2023. Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports

The Leafs killed a Mark Giordano penalty early in the third period then completed a two-goal rally, Rielly with a smart play to shoot wide as he ended his shift and let Marner catch up to it for his 20^th goal.

But after Marner hit the post in quest of the go-ahead marker, Cole Guttman went high on a 2-on-1 chance less than a week after making his NHL debut in Toronto for his first in the NHL.

Kane’s ninth career hat trick and second against the Leafs in seven years included two in a 2:52 span in the second period. His first of the night, after being a non-factor in Toronto when trade buzz around him and the Leafs was at its loudest, was a snap past Samsonov where he let Timothy Liljegren get in his goalie’s path before releasing.

After taking a Domi pass when Auston Matthews and Justin Holl mucked up a breakout, the third was truly crafty, following a rebound behind the net and banking it off Samsonov’s back. There was initial hesitation to count it until video determined Holl had not swept the puck away before it completely crossed the red line. That allowed the shower of chapeaus to proceed.

The other new Leaf, Noel Acciari, picked up his first in Toronto colours to close the gap, thanks to ex-Hawk David Kampf catching a puck and getting it to his stick for the fast pass. With 24 seconds to play, O’Rielly had his second brush with his first Leaf goal, hitting the post in close on Jaxson Stauber.

O’Reilly and Acciari will play their third game Tuesday – without benefit of a practice as the Leafs take Monday off.

Noel Acciari #52 of the Toronto Maple Leafs work for a loose puck against Seth Jones #4 of the Chicago Blackhawks during the third period at United Center on February 19, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Toronto evened it quickly after Kane’s first goal, Matthews drawing a penalty then stopping a clearing attempt that ended up contributing to John Tavares’s 11^th power play goal, one more than the captain had last season. Rielly’s assist on the play was his 400^th NHL point, the 22^nd Leaf and fifth defenceman to hit that milestone with Borje Salming, Tomas Kaberle, Tim Horton and Ian Turnbull.

But the Leafs ran into penalty trouble to slow momentum.

Keefe kept his forward lines together from Saturday, but had to make a change on defence with Rasmus Sandin not 100%. Conor Timmins came back in after sitting versus the Habs.

Before the game, Chicago captain Jonathan Toews released a statement on his recent unexplained absence from the lineup, saying he is still dealing with symptoms of ‘Long’ COVID and Chronic Immune Response Syndrome. He will not play through the deadline.

“It has been really challenging to play through these symptoms,” Toews said in the statement. “In the last few weeks it has reached the point where I had to step back and concentrate on getting healthy.

“I am thankful for the patience and support of my teammates, the coaching staff and the entire Blackhawks organization.”

Chicago general manager Kyle Davidson met the media before the game and said Kane’s countless contributions gave him every right to take a decision on leaving to the wire on March 3.

lhornby@postmedia.com

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Bruins F Greer suspended one game for cross-checking Habs F Hoffman – TSN

Published

2 hours ago

March 25, 2023

Harry Miller

Boston Bruins forward AJ Greer has been suspended one game by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for cross-checking Montreal Canadiens winger Mike Hoffman on Thursday night.

Boston’s A.J. Greer has been suspended for one game for Cross-checking Montreal’s Mike Hoffman. https://t.co/SZkcAlo8qk

— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) March 24, 2023

The incident occurred in the first period of Thursday’s 4-2 Bruins win over the Canadiens when the two players were battling prior to a faceoff, which resulted in Greer cross-checking Hoffman in the face.

Greer received a five-minute major for cross-checking and a game misconduct, while Hoffman briefly left the game with an injury but returned in the second period.

Greer, 26, has five goals and 11 points in 52 games this season.

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Play-off field complete at LGT World Women's Championship – worldcurling.org

Published

3 hours ago

March 25, 2023

Harry Miller

The play-off field is set at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2023, taking place from 18–26 March in the Göransson Arena.

Switzerland women completed their round-robin campaign unbeaten (12-0), secured first place in the rankings and a spot in Saturday’s semi-finals.

Norway finished second in the rankings with an 8-4 win-loss record, and they also secured a direct place in the semi-finals.

Canada are ranked third (7-5) and will play sixth-ranked Japan (7-5) in one qualification game. Fourth-ranked Italy (7-5) and fifth-placed hosts Sweden (7-5) will play in the other qualification game.

Both qualification games will take place on Saturday 25 March at 10:00 and the winners of these games earn a place in the semi-finals.

Switzerland will play the winner of the Italy vs Sweden game in one semi-final, while Norway will meet the winner of the Canada vs Japan game in the other semi-final.

Both semi-finals will take place on Saturday at 16:00.

The winners of the semi-finals will play for gold medals and the world title on Sunday 26 March at 15:00. The losers of the semi-finals will play for bronze medals earlier that day, at 10:00.

All times are CET (Central European Time) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +1 hour, except for 26 March, when times are CEST (Central European Summer Time) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +2 hours.

Engage with the World Curling Federation during the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2023 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and be searching the hashtags #WWCC2023 #curling

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Canada narrowly qualifies for playoffs at women's curling worlds despite late loss – CBC.ca

Published

11 hours ago

March 24, 2023

Harry Miller

Canada’s Kerri Einarson closed her round-robin schedule with an 11-5 loss to Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont on Friday but still managed to secure a playoff berth at the women’s world curling championship in Sandviken, Sweden.

Her Manitoba-based rink of Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Briane Harris, which defeated Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz 10-4 earlier in the day, finished in third place at 7-5 and will face sixth-place Japan (7-5) on Saturday in a qualification match at the Goransson Arena.

The top six teams advanced to the playoffs, with three-time defending champion Switzerland (12-0) and Norway (8-4) getting byes to the semifinals as the top two teams.

Canada fell to Japan 6-5 in round-robin play on Thursday.

Sweden (7-5) and Italy (7-5) meet in the other qualification game.

Canada earned the third seed through having the best head-to-head record (2-1) among the 7-5 teams.

After conceding to Denmark after eight ends, Canada locked up a spot in a qualification game a short time later when American Tabitha Peterson dropped a 10-6 decision to South Korea’s Seungyoun Ha.

“We were going to have some anxious moments here waiting, but we knew there were a lot of scenarios here where we still make it through,” Birchard said.

The Americans missed the cut at 6-6.

Qualification games and semifinals were scheduled for Saturday and medal games were on tap Sunday.

Einarson won bronze at last year’s world playdowns in Prince George, B.C. Canada hasn’t won gold at this competition since 2018 when Jennifer Jones was victorious in North Bay, Ont.

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