TORONTO – Matt Murray had never seen anything like it.
Sheldon Keefe may never attempt it in the regular season.
And Alexander Kerfoot — who prides himself on sliding all over the lineup chart — found himself in a position he’d never played before.
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention.
So, with the Toronto Maple Leafs parading another two defencemen off to the trainer’s table before Wednesday’s exhibition game against the Montreal Canadiens was a period old, the coach looked at his shortened bench and got creative.
Blueliners Jamie Benn (groin) and Carl Dahlstrom (shoulder) were felled early in the 3-0 win, joining Jake Muzzin (back), Timohty Liljegren (hernia) and Rasmus Sandin (contract dispute) on Toronto’s swelling list of unavailable D-men. (Benn and Dahlstrom require further examination but are expected to “miss some time,” per Keefe.)
“It sucks to see it happening as frequent as it’s been here. It seems like every day one or two guys are going down,” Keefe says. “Not a good thing.”
Keefe pulled his two most trusted utility men, Kerfoot and Calle Järnkrok, out of the dressing room during the first intermission and made a request.
The coach asked both forwards to play defence, explaining that he didn’t want to tax the remaining healthy bodies he had left back there.
Embrace offence when we have puck. Trust your defensive instincts when we don’t.
Kerfoot was just trying to avoid skating backwards.
“You can’t go two periods with four defencemen. That’s a lot to ask,” Keefe says. Kerfoot and Järnkrok didn’t balk at the unusual assignment. “They’re two selfless players… I thought they did an incredible job.”
The Leafs locked down a wild exhibition victory with this D corps:
Giordano – Mete
Rielly – Järnkrok
Kerfoot – Brodie
And they looked good doing it.
“I mean, the way they stepped in and were making reads and were making breakout passes,” Murray marveled. “They weren’t missing a beat. So, pretty impressive on their part.”
“They made it look a bit too easy,” Morgan Rielly quipped. “Made us look bad a little bit.”
“As a coach, I had a little fun tonight, to be honest,” Keefe smiled. “They may not admit it, but they probably had some fun (too).”
Murray, Samsonov yet to crack
Neither Matt Murray nor Ilya Samsonov are willing to feed your doubts.
Yes, it’s very early. Yes, the competition has been as light as the stakes. And yes, the sample size is smaller than Denis Malgin’s sport jacket.
Caveats aside, both ends of general manager Kyle Dubas’ double-down gamble in net have yet to hand the haters any space for criticism.
Not only did Murray mimic Samsonov’s preseason stat line — a perfect 16 saves on 16 shots through 40 minutes played — but he tacked on a secondary assist with Nick Robertson’s opening goal for good measure.
“They’ve answered all the questions that have come their way so far,” Keefe says.
Much like 1B Samsonov before him, 1A Murray wasn’t overly taxed in his exhibition debut against a non-playoff team scattered with AHLers, but he stood steady, did his job, and walked out of Scotiabank Arena with a clean sheet and an injection of confidence.
“I had a blast doing it,” Murray said. “Just a game that was really fun to be a part of.”
Keefe has been impressed by Murray’s structure in the crease, his ability to track the puck, and his focused work ethic since arriving in Toronto well before camp’s opening last week.
“He’s got presence,” Keefe says. “That’s what I’ve noticed from the day he walked into our facility — he’s got presence and confidence about him.”
Auston Matthews echoes the sentiment: “He’s got just a calm presence. He’s not a super-talkative guy, but he just seems very poised and in control. Really calm in the net.”
Whereas Jack Campbell was the happy-go-lucky puppy you want to see jump the fence, Murray is the Great Dane that casually walks around it.
Murray’s even-keel demeanour may not lend itself to juicy quotes, but his under-the-radar approach could translate well in this market. Provided he continues to stop the puck, of course.
To that end, the 28-year-old’s towering 6-foot-5, 203-pound frame will help.
“Big guy. I didn’t know how big he was until I saw him for the first time,” says William Nylander. “I don’t think you often get a chance to play with a goalie who’s won two Cups.”
Absolutely, Murray’s two Stanley Cup rings with Pittsburgh weigh heavy in terms of both reputation and expectation.
“Well, I learned a lot from those days, for sure. But I think what they taught me was the importance of taking things one day at a time and controlling what you can control and doing that to the best of your abilities and not worrying about the rest. So, that’s where my focus lies,” Murray says.
“The No. 1 thing you need as a goalie is short-term memory. Win or lose, good game or bad game, whatever it may be, start the next day fresh.”
Ken Dryden made a point to come down postgame and chat with Matt Murray. Meant a lot to the new Leaf.
• Until the injuries piled up, Giordano was temporarily reunited with his old Flame, T.J. Brodie. Has the mild-mannered Brodie changed since those days in Alberta?
“He’s got a sportscar now that I never expected him to have,” Giordano notes. “The city got to him, I guess.”
• Why didn’t Auston Matthews throw out Tuesday’s first pitch at the Blue Jays game from the rubber, as he had planned?
“The mascot didn’t let me,” he smiled.
(Mitch Marner — who did go up the mound in his first-pitch experience back in 2017 — explains that the real pitchers frown upon ceremonial tossers treading on their fresh dirt before the game.)
• David Kämpf rejoined the group after missing two days of camp for personal reasons: “Everything is good, and I’m here. I’m happy to be back here.”
If only Carolina’s Ondrej Kase was here too.
“He’s my very, very good friend,” Kämpf says. “I was a little bit sad that he left. But this is hockey, right? This is business. Hopefully some day we can play together again.”
• Keefe wondered if the NHL should permit healthy scratches to run down from the press box and sub in during preseason game in event of injury.
“We have a lot of players in suits tonight that would love an opportunity to compete in a game like this,” he said. “And they don’t have that chance.”
• Wonderful to see the 1972 Team Canada squad in attendance and honoured on the 50th anniversary of their Summit Series victory, an idea born by Leafs president Brendan Shanahan.
Would have loved to see the Leafs and Habs wear the throwback national sweaters for the entire game instead of just the national anthem.
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t bitter or upset as he watched friends live out their dreams.
The Calgary Flames defenceman just hopes to experience the same feeling one day. He also knows the road leading to that moment, if it does arrive, will likely be long and winding — much like his own path.
A seventh-round pick by the Florida Panthers at the 2013 NHL draft, Weegar climbed the ranks to become an important piece of a roster that captured the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season club in 2021-22.
Two months later following a second-round playoff exit, he was traded to the Flames along with Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk. And less than two years after that, the Panthers were hoisting the Stanley Cup.
“Happy for the city and for the team,” Weegar said of Florida’s June victory over the Edmonton Oilers. “There was no bad taste in my mouth.”
His sole focus, he insists, is squarely on eventually getting the Flames to the same spot. The landscape, however, has changed drastically since Weegar committed to Calgary on an eight-year, US$50-million contract extension in October 2022.
Weegar has watched a list that includes goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defencemen Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov and forwards Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane shipped out of town since the start of last season — largely for picks, prospects and young players as part of a rebuild.
Despite that exodus, he remains committed to the Calgary project steered by general manager Craig Conroy.
“It’s easy to get out of all whack when you see guys trying to leave or wanting new contracts,” the 30-year-old from Ottawa said at last week’s NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. “I just focus on where I am and where I want to be, and that’s Calgary.
“I believe in this team. The city has taken me in right away. I feel like I owe it to them to stick around and grind through these years and get a Stanley Cup.”
The hard-nosed blueliner certainly knows what it is to grind.
After winning the Memorial Cup alongside Nathan MacKinnon with the Halifax Mooseheads in 2013, Weegar toiled in the ECHL and American Hockey League for three seasons before making his NHL debut late in the 2016-17 campaign with the Panthers.
He would spend the next five years in South Florida as one of the players tasked with shifting an organizational culture that had experienced little success over the previous two decades.
“There’s always going to be a piece of my heart and loyalty to that team,” Weegar said. “But now I’m in a different situation … I compete against all 32 teams, not just Florida. There’s always a chip on my shoulder every single year.”
Weegar set career highs with 20 goals — eight was the most he had ever previously registered — and 52 points in 2023-24 as part of a breakout offensive performance.
“I think my buddies cared a lot more than I did,” he said with a smile. “All I hear is, ‘fantasy, fantasy, fantasy.'”
Weegar was actually more proud of his 200 blocked shots and 194 hits as he looks to help set a new Flames’ standard alongside Huberdeau, captain Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and Rasmus Andersson for a franchise expected to have its new arena in time for the 2027-28 season.
“You have to build that culture and that belief in the locker room,” said Weegar, who pointed to 22-year-old centre Connor Zary as a player set to pop. “Those young guys are going to have to come into their own and be consistent every night … they’re the next generation.”
Weegar, however, isn’t punting on 2024-25. He pointed to the NHL’s parity and the fact a couple of teams surprise every season.
It’s the same approach that took him from the ECHL a decade ago to hockey’s premier pre-season event inside a swanky hotel on Sin City’s famed strip, where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the game’s best.
“From the outside — media and even friends and family — the expectations are probably a bit lower,” Weegar said of Calgary’s outlook. “But there’s no reason to think that we can’t make playoffs and we can’t be a good team (with) that underdog mentality.
“You never know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 17, 2024.
Jose Maria Celestino da Costa was named vice-president and head of soccer operations while Marianne Brooks was appointed vice-president of partnerships, Kelly Shouldice as vice-president of brand and content and Joyce Sou as vice-president of finance and business operations.
The new six-team women’s pro league is set to kick off in April.
“Their unique expertise and leadership are crucial as we lay the foundation for not just a successful league in Canada, but one that stands among the top sports leagues in the world,” NSL president Christina Litz said in a statement. “By investing in top-tier talent and infrastructure, the Northern Super League is committed to creating a league that will elevate the game and set new standards for women’s professional soccer globally.”
Da Costa will oversee all on-field matters, including officiating. His resume includes stints with Estoril Praia, a men’s first-division team in Portugal, and the Portuguese Soccer Federation, where he helped develop the Portuguese women’s league.
Brooks spent a decade with Canucks Sports & Entertainment, working in “partnership sales and retention efforts” for the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Warriors, and Rogers Arena. Most recently, she served as senior director of account management at StellarAlgo, a software company that helps pro sports teams connect with their fans
Shouldice has worked for Corus Entertainment, the Canadian Football League, and most recently as vice-president of Content and Communications at True North Sports & Entertainment, where she managed original content as well as business and hockey communications.
Sou, who was involved in the league’s initial launch, will oversee financial planning, analysis and the league’s expansion strategy in her new role.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
