NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Hours before the Toronto Maple Leafs played the Nashville Predators on Saturday evening, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said his team would try some different looks on defence in the wake of Jake McCabe’s absence.
The Leafs, with Mike Van Ryn at the controls of the defence behind the bench, were doing just that for a period and a half. Most interesting was their deployment of John Klingberg. Beginning early in the first period, Klingberg was sent out for an offensive-zone draw with Morgan Rielly. And then another one, and another one after that.
All told, Klingberg hopped out for seven offensive-zone faceoffs with Rielly. It was a logical way to keep Klingberg involved while he shared minutes on the third pair with William Lagesson, who didn’t play in the NHL last season.
Then, with about 10 minutes left in the second period, the Leafs lost Timothy Liljegren to an upper-body injury and that plan went out the window. It was next man up after that, particularly for Rielly, who played almost 28 minutes, and TJ Brodie, who logged 25 1/2 minutes.
Liljegren was talking to a trainer and now he’s off to the dressing room
It’s unclear if Liljegren will miss time and if so, for how long. And though Keefe said the team got encouraging news on McCabe’s groin injury — “We’re not expecting him to miss any sort of significant time” — the Leafs might still be down their Nos. 3 and 4 defencemen for the time being.
They were already missing Conor Timmins, their No. 7 defender who suffered an injury (four-to-six-week timeline) late in training camp.
This means the Leafs are already digging into their depth with their apparent No. 8 in Lagesson and maybe No. 9 as soon as Tuesday night, when the Los Angeles Kings come to town.
It’s an early stress test for a defence that entered the season with legitimate question marks.
The good news is Rielly and Brodie are off to a terrific start in top-pair duty. The Leafs won almost 70 percent of the expected goals in their minutes together against the Predators. Rielly and Brodie have been on the ice for only two five-on-five goals together all season.
Expected goals are up over 56 percent.
This while owning the top-line challenge nightly and starting a whole whack of shifts in the defensive zone; Rielly and Brodie have an offensive-zone faceoff percentage of just 37 percent this season.
In short, they’re playing the heaviest, hardest minutes for the Leafs and succeeding. It’s been particularly impressive on the defensive side of things, where the Leafs are giving up just over two expected goals per 60 minutes with the two of them out there, one of the better marks league-wide.
The Leafs needed at least one pair they could count on, and they’ve found it in old faithful: Rielly and Brodie.
That will have to continue in the near term without McCabe and, potentially, Liljegren. Their minutes figure to rise even a little higher.
Mark Giordano will also need to hold up with heavier usage. He played a season-high 20 1/2 minutes in Nashville and was late to Ryan O’Reilly’s stick on the power-play goal that tied the score at two.
“That’s on me, that one,” Giordano said.
He also scored the Leafs’ second goal and had an otherwise solid game.
“This guy takes nothing for granted,” Keefe said. “He’s working every day. He loves the game. He wasn’t happy with how the playoffs went, and I think that pushed him to have a great summer and make some changes to how he prepared.”
With the Maple Leafs’ blue line thin, Mark Giordano will need to hold up with heavier usage. (Christopher Hanewinckel / USA Today)
Among those changes is to do a better job of resting throughout the season.
“You can do a good job resting in between games, really taking care of yourself,” Giordano said at training camp. “It goes a long way.”
Keeping fresh will get harder for the oldest skater in the league as the minutes tick up. Without McCabe, the Leafs are back to using Giordano on their second pair. It’s a role he had to take on frequently amid injuries last season and one he fared quite well in.
But this is 40 for Giordano, and he’s already playing on the No. 1 penalty-killing unit.
Can he crank it up again? Can he succeed in difficult second-pair terrain with Klingberg (who would move up in Liljegren’s absence) by his side?
The Leafs were playing Giordano and Klingberg together before McCabe’s injury. But that was in third-pairing territory, where the minutes and quality of competition are quite a bit lighter. If Liljegren remains out against the Kings, Giordano and Klingberg figure to see a fair bit of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kevin Fiala, Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe. A couple of nights after that, the Leafs will be in Boston, where the Bruins figure to work hard to find mismatches for David Pastrnak-led groups.
Tough stuff.
The Leafs have been working hard to limit Klingberg’s exposure in the defensive zone. Even in Nashville, he lined up for only three defensive-zone draws at five-on-five. Absent McCabe and Liljegren potentially for the foreseeable future, he’ll have to share more of that burden — and keep things square defensively.
Another noteworthy change in light of the injuries is that Rielly has reassumed a regular role on the penalty kill after starting the season ranked No. 5 on the depth chart. He might even be joined there next game by Lagesson. (The Leafs do not use Klingberg on the penalty kill and didn’t even after Liljegren went out in Nashville.)
It remains to be seen how the Leafs will navigate a call-up on the back end if one is needed and Liljegren’s injury is more of the day-to-day variety. Things are so tight against the cap that sending Pontus Holmberg down and playing a forward short might be necessary. (Fraser Minten had to go back to junior so Lagesson could be recalled.)
Then, there’s the question of which defenceman will get that call. Simon Benoit has the most NHL experience. Mikko Kokkonen impressed at camp.
These are suddenly interesting times for the Leafs defence.
— Stats and research courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Hockey-Reference.
(Top photo of Mark Giordano and referee Jean Hebert: Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
NEW YORK – Toronto Blue Jays reliever Chad Green and Canadian slugger Tyler O’Neill of the Boston Red Sox were named finalists for the Major League Baseball Players’ Association’s American League comeback player award on Monday.
Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet was the other nominee.
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. were named player of the year finalists.
The award winners, selected via player voting, will be named Saturday before Game 2 of the World Series.
Green, who missed most of the 2022 and ’23 seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was a high-leverage option for the Blue Jays this past season and filled in at closer over the second half of the campaign.
The right-hander converted his first 16 save opportunities and finished the year with a 4-6 record, 17 saves and a 3.21 earned-run average over 53 appearances.
O’Neill, a native of Burnaby, B.C., also endured back-to-back injury-plagued seasons in ’22 and ’23.
After being traded to the Red Sox in the off-season, O’Neill set an MLB record by hitting a homer in his fifth straight Opening Day. He finished with 31 homers on the year and had an OPS of .847.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.
Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.
Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.
Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.
He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.
Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.
The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.
The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.
As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.
Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.
The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.
“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.
“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.
“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.
With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.
The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.
But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.
Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.
Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.
