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Leafs’ Nylander, Marner red-hot since Keefe’s line-change risk – Sportsnet.ca

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Considering how things went last season for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top line with John Tavares, Mitchell Marner and Zach Hyman, you could be forgiven for being confused by new head coach Sheldon Keefe breaking them up in late-December.

The start of the season without Hyman on the line seemed to throw them all for a loop, and Tavares’ struggle in getting to the net earlier on, along with Marner’s early even strength struggles, really killed all the momentum they built up last season. Even after both Marner and Tavares got their feet under them, and Hyman returned, the magic of last season wasn’t quite re-appearing.

Meanwhile, the combination of William Nylander and Auston Matthews had been the offensive dynamo that had kept the Leafs going before the coaching change, and they didn’t slow down when Keefe came in. But in the interests of getting both his top scoring lines going, Keefe took a bit of a risk.

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Flipping centres and putting Matthews between Hyman and Marner, while Tavares got Nylander and Alex Kerfoot. Considering the talent of all the players involved it may not seem like a big risk, but upsetting the apple cart when you’re winning is always a tough thing for a coach to do.

The result? Well Nylander was putting up great underlying numbers with Matthews, but the actual production was just good, nothing astonishing. Since the change, Nylander and Marner are both red-hot offensively, scoring at over a point per game, and the Leafs are rolling.

Points can be deceiving though, how are the two wingers playing since the change compared to what they were doing earlier?

On-Ice Differentials at 5-vs-5.

Nylander has been crushing it all season, with the Leafs seeing massive advantages while he’s on the ice relative to when he’s not. While the change-up at centre has hit him in the shots and shot attempts a little bit, he’s still well into the positives there while the control of quality plays that drive goals has massively improved.

That’s a huge deal considering that Tavares’ numbers in those areas had not been good before this switch was made; the Leafs were controlling just 41 per cent of the inner slot shots while he was on the ice.

Like Tavares, Marner before the switch had been struggling to control play from the inner slot, while posting respectable numbers in shots, shot attempts and slot passes. Since being united with Matthews, Marner’s on-ice differentials look almost identical to Nylander’s, with extreme control of slot passes, especially shots from the inner slot, and taking a slight hit in shots and shot attempts.

Essentially by switching things up, Keefe has sacrificed a bit of quantity in favour of loads of quality, going from one mostly functioning line and a very good top line, to two ridiculously dominant top lines, at least as far as differentials are concerned.

The next question is whether the Leafs’ top wingers are actually getting the individual offensive boosts that their differentials and point production would have us assume?

Individual Offensive Impact at 5-vs-5.

This season has been a bit of a change for Nylander’s on-ice behaviour or style of play in the offensive zone. He’s leaned on shooting more than ever before, closer to the net than ever before, and you would expect that moving into Mitch Marner’s spot would cut into that a little bit, with more focus on playmaking… but you’d be wrong.

Nylander is making more passes to the slot, going from about league average to first-line quality since the swap, but his shooting has gone up more as well. Surprisingly, Nylander still leads all Leafs in inner slot shots on net per 20 minutes this season, and outpacing Matthews in that category is extremely tough to do.

He has seen a drop in both his completed and attempted passes off the rush, but his scoring chances off the rush are up, so it’s more likely that he’s being the one asked to shoot on those plays more often now instead of deferring to Matthews at times. The confidence is at an all-time high, and it shows through in the numbers.

Marner before the centre switch was having a brutal shooting year, barely doing anything from the inner slot and way below average at getting shots on net from the slot entirely. He wasn’t getting cycle changes and wasn’t attacking off the rush much either compared to what you’d expect from him, but he was leading the Leafs in completed passes to the slot by a wide margin.

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Marner isn’t the kind of player you really want in the net front, but getting almost zero chances from that area is still concerning, and his shot numbers have drastically improved since he paired up with Matthews. He’s getting more chances off the rush, completing more passes off the rush and has massively increased his cycle chances as well.

The best news of all for Marner is that this uptick in shooting from better areas hasn’t negatively impacted his playmaking, and in fact he’s been among the league leaders in completed slot passes over the last couple weeks.

With how well this has worked out in the short term, you have to wonder why it wasn’t tested out earlier, but remember that Nylander missed a huge chunk of last season and when he returned to the lineup, the Tavares-Marner combination was among the best in the NHL. Still, it sure looks like Keefe has stumbled on something special here.

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Canucks place goalie Thatcher Demko on long-term injured list – CBC.ca

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The Vancouver Canucks have placed all-star goalie Thatcher Demko on the long-term injured reserve list retroactively.

“It’s just cap related,” coach Rick Tocchet said after practice Wednesday. “We get some cap relief, that’s all it is.” 

The 28-year-old netminder has been considered week to week since being sidelined with a lower-body injury midway through Vancouver’s 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on March 9.

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That injury designation hasn’t changed, Tocchet said.

Demko boasts a 34-18-2 record this season, with a .917 save percentage, a 2.47 goals-against average and five shutouts.

Casey DeSmith has taken over the starting job for Vancouver, going 3-2-1 since Demko’s injury. He has a .899 save percentage on the season with a 2.73 goals-against average and one shutout. 

The earliest Demko could be back in the Canucks’ lineup is April 6 against the Kings in Los Angeles.

He’s expected to be a key piece as Vancouver (45-19-8) prepares for its first playoff appearance since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign. 

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin also announced Wednesday that the club has called up forward Arshdeep Bains from the Abbotsford Canucks of the American Hockey League. 

“I’d like to see where [Bains is] at,” Tocchet said, noting he isn’t sure whether the 23-year-old winger will slot into the lineup when the Canucks host the Dallas Stars on Thursday. 

WATCH | Bains makes NHL debut

Surrey, B.C.’s Arshdeep Bains makes Canucks debut

1 month ago

Duration 2:20

Arshdeep Bains from Surrey, B.C., has made his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. As CBC’s Joel Ballard reports, it’s been a hard-fought journey for the hometown kid to the big leagues.

Bains played five games for the NHL team in February before being sent back to Abbotsford. 

“He went down, he’s done a couple of things that we like, and he’s got some speed,” Tocchet said. 

Vancouver may get another forward back in the lineup Thursday. 

Dakota Joshua practised in a full-contact jersey on Wednesday for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury in Vancouver’s 4-2 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Feb. 13. 

The physical winger, who’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, has a career-high 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) this season.

Sitting out injured “hasn’t been fun,” Joshua said.

“It feels like forever,” he said. “But at this point, that’s behind me and I’m moving forward.”

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Senators score 5 in 1st, cruise past Sabres – NHL.com

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“I thought that we were ready to go,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “We got some pucks at the net, we got people at the net. Took advantage of our opportunities and, I think, built a nice lead. And then I thought, in the third period, we continued again. Our goaltending was good. Made some key saves. But I thought we shut them down in the third period good.”

Shane Pinto had a goal and three assists, and Brady Tkachuk, Boris Katchouk, Jakob Chychrun and Drake Batherson each had a goal and an assist for the Senators (31-36-4), who have won three in a row. Korpisalo made 34 saves.

“If you want to win, you need balance,” Pinto said. “And we had that tonight and it’s going to be big for the back-to-back tomorrow (against the Chicago Blackhawks) to have that same thing. So, going to need all the guys on board.”

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JJ Peterka and Connor Clifton scored for the Sabres (34-34-5), who have lost four of six. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed four goals on nine shots before he was replaced by Devon Levi, who made 31 saves in relief.

“We wanted, I guess, to play as individuals,” Clifton said. “I’m disappointed we let ‘Upie’ down, he’s the heart and soul of this team. He’s kept us in so many games, and just to not show up and play that careless style, give them freebies all over the place. … Yeah, obviously, the first 20 really dictated the rest of the game.”

Artem Zub gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 2:37 of the first period. He stuffed in a loose puck on the goal line after Katchouk’s shot was redirected by Mark Kastelic between Luukkonen’s pads.

Katchouk made it 2-0 at 4:56, tipping Parker Kelly’s shot from the top of the right face-off circle past Luukkonen.

“It’s keeping the consistency with good effort, right habits,” Katchouk said. “The small things matter so much in this game. And obviously, it worked out tonight with the tip. But kudos to my linemates. ‘Kels’ and ‘Kassy,’ they worked hard to get the puck as well. Those two battle hard every night as well. We feed off each other, and it’s good to play with them.”

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Vasilevskiy stops 23 as surging Lightning beat Bruins – Sportsnet.ca

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