From roster construction to on-ice execution, one would be hard-pressed to sketch a better first-half blueprint for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2021.
Their best players are their best players: The $40-million Core Four represent the Leafs’ top four scorers. Mitch Marner ranks fourth overall in points (37) and second overall in even-strength goals (11). A banged-up Auston Matthews has more goals (21) and game-winners (six) than anyone. And William Nylander and John Tavares are trending upwards.
GM Kyle Dubas has reaped rewards from his newfound goaltending depth (six wins from backups), his cap-friendly veteran leadership (is Jason Spezza the best bargain in hockey?), and his efforts to balance the blue line (Calgary sure could use a T.J. Brodie).
Toronto’s bad nights have been few and far between. The Leafs avoided consecutive regulation losses until March and seldom look overwhelmed. They lock down leads better than ever, their explosive power-play keeps opponents in check, and their depth contributions have been accelerated due to an infusion of internal accountability and competition.
“The team is really gelling. We enjoy spending time together,” Joe Thornton says. “We compete hard every night. We’re a deep, four-line team, deep six D, and we got some great goaltending, so it’s just a very complete team. You feel like, when you hit the ice, you have a chance to win every night. And when you have that feeling it’s pretty nice.”
First-half Stats
Record: 19-7-2, (1st in North Division)
Goals per game: 3.46 (2nd)
Goals against average: 2.50 (6th)
Power play: 31.3% (2nd)
Penalty kill: 77.2% (20th)
Best surprise: The Maple Leafs can defend
Connor McDavid’s frustrated expression. Leon Draisaitl’s slamming of the Gatorade bottle and sarcastic response to a reporter during a post-game Zoom. And their coach, Dave Tippett, feeling compelled to throw his two Hart Trophy winners on the same line because they were having trouble solving the Maple Leafs’ blue line on their own – despite having three full games to do so.
Toronto’s 13-1 shutdown of arguably the two most dangerous forwards in the sport, on their home ice no less, from Feb. 27 through March 3 sums up 2021’s most pleasant surprise in Leafland.
When the Maple Leafs lost another elimination series, their fourth in a row, last summer, we screamed uncle. Fun and fast sells sweaters, but if Dubas was serious about winning in crunch time, he’d need to bring in experienced defenders, players who care more about preventing points than accumulating them.
Well, the GM did just that, bolstering his defence corps with play-buster T.J. Brodie — a smart stick, a steady breakout, and the most consistent partner Morgan Rielly has ever had — and Zach Bogosian, a million-dollar steal.
Given a better foundation to work with, Keefe then drilled home a defensive mandate to all his players, and there has been buy-in up and down the lineup.
“We’ve cleaned up a lot of stuff defensively,” Matthews said.
While the penalty kill remains a soft spot, a once-porous Toronto club has significantly reduced its goals and shots against. The Leafs give up fewer slot chances and odd-man rushes, they backcheck with purpose, and get hemmed in their own zone less frequently than ever before with this core.
“We’re getting to the point here now where we’re proving that we’re a team that can defend well,” said Keefe.
Toronto’s position atop Canada is all the more impressive when you consider the number of man-games lost to injury: 72.
According to the number-crunchers at ManGamesLost.com, no team has had its win-loss record affected more by injuries than Toronto, believe it or not.
Key veterans Wayne Simmonds (wrist) and Joe Thornton (rib) sat weeks with broken bones. Core leaders Jake Muzzin (face), Zach Hyman (foot) and Auston Matthews (wrist) have missed days, while others, like William Nylander (undisclosed), have been pushing through pain at various points during this truncated schedule.
Further down the depth chart, the organization’s most prized prospects — Nick Robertson (knee, oblique) and Rasmus Sandin (foot) — have been dealt difficult setbacks in their development, appearing in just one NHL game apiece this season.
Most concerning is Toronto’s struggle to get its top two netminders operating at full health at the same time. Certainly, the plan was not to have Michael Hutchinson — signed as a fourth-string depth piece in the off-season — make five starts in the first half, although the journeyman has comported himself well (3-2, .934).
Jack Campbell (3-0-0) has played but once since going down with a leg injury in January, and Frederik Andersen (13-5-2) is still dealing with an undisclosed lower-body ailment.
Adversity is welcome, but this group needs healthy goaltending and full movement in Matthews’ wrist by the time the second half wraps.
Biggest question for second half: Will complacency become the enemy?
Leaf fans have seen it in the past. The team they root for gets comfortable in a standings position (usually third in the Atlantic, not first in the North) and becomes susceptible to wild bouts of inconsistency. They’ll go toe-to-toe with a power like the Lightning one night and phone one in against a Buffalo the next.
Now that the Leafs have a decent cushion, and they’ve fended off “measuring stick” challenges from Montreal and Edmonton and Winnipeg, can they keep their foot slammed on the gas without a test from Vegas or Tampa or Carolina around the corner?
Can they enter the postseason — the only true referendum on their excellence — with their A-game and hunger intact?
“We’ve seen with teams we’ve played [lately] that they’ve been hard on us generating offence,” Keefe observed.
“The more that teams are settling into the season and their systems and getting to know all the opponents that much better, it’s going to continue to get harder. So, we’ve got to continue with [improving] ourselves.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
