Sports
Maple Leafs report cards: Joseph Woll stuffs Lightning, William Nylander scores
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No Auston Matthews? No Mitch Marner? No 12th forward? No problem.
Although Tuesday’s game meant nothing in the standings, there was still a lot to play for despite the personnel sitting in the press box. The Lightning could’ve taken this opportunity to send a message before the playoffs, saying something like, “Sure, we haven’t looked our best this season, but we’re still the Tampa Bay Lightning.”
They pushed, grabbed and hit whenever they could, and instead of taking it, the Leafs pushed back. They were active in the scrums and contested with Tampa Bay when the intensity increased, playing steady enough to respond from tying goals and hold on to the eventual 4-3 lead when the Lightning tried to force overtime.
This game wasn’t a Picasso, and it might not be good enough to hang up in the Louvre. It was a slow dance with some moments of quick footwork, and the Leafs held on to the end. That and any doubt that Joseph Woll can be the backup in the playoffs should be destroyed immediately.
On to the reports.
First star
Joseph Woll
One more save and it would’ve been 50, but Woll stopped 46 of 49 shots on goal against the Lightning. Brayden Point, on the hunt for his 50th goal of the season, had eight of those shots, and Nikita Kucherov had 10. Tampa Bay’s top players threw everything at Woll, and he made save after save and gave the Leafs a whistle for a faceoff or change when the pressure was too much. He did a great job ensuring he got a piece of the pucks sent his way and fighting through traffic and gloving shots down. His best save came in that final push for a tying goal on Kucherov. Woll timed his push well and squeezed the puck against his body.
Woll comes across on Kucherov pic.twitter.com/LFvBF8seKj
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 12, 2023
Second star
William Nylander
Nylander took control of the game with two other members of the Core Four getting the night off. He was excellent on his zone entries with the puck and was the trigger point of a majority of his line’s offensive chances. His 39th goal of the season created the first crack in Andrei Vasilevskiy, as he took advantage of the over-preparedness for a shot and instead sent the puck through.
WILLIAM NYLANDER 🚨
POWER PLAY GOAL! 39TH OF THE SEASON! pic.twitter.com/iCFXI5HhDf
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 11, 2023
He added two more assists, one on the power play, and the other — the more impressive of the two — came from stealing the puck from Victor Hedman and passing it to Matthew Knies.
Third star
Calle Järnkrok
It was Järnkrok’s first game back with a weird lineup, but he made the most of it with his second-period goal. Järnkrok followed the puck and buried the rebound, hitting the 20-goal mark and converting on the team’s second five-on-three power play of the season (no hyperbole).
CALLE JARNKROK 🚨
FIRST 20-GOAL SEASON! pic.twitter.com/sl3wqvGMYz
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 12, 2023
Player reports
A+
Jake McCabe
McCabe was excellent — in the third period, especially — and came up with some clutch tie-ups and blocks. They weren’t your average “stand in the lane” blocks. McCabe got down and stretched his left leg, blocking high-danger wrist shots and one-timers from the right circle.
McCabe again!
Skate save pic.twitter.com/td13viXpar
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 12, 2023
A
Matthew Knies
Knies is looking more and more comfortable in the NHL. His game lends itself to those who like to skate with and hold on to the puck, and he does a good job working the puck back and setting up his linemates. He’s also good at intercepting the puck along the boards and stealing it on the backcheck.
another steal for Knies pic.twitter.com/YpjUpDqCtI
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 12, 2023
A few things need ironing out — including his no-look backhand passes — but they will likely be fixed with more game time and figuring out where the Leafs go to keep the puck moving. He has the tools to score in this league, and the assist on Ryan O’Reilly’s goal shows how impactful his shot can be. It squeaked through Vasilevskiy, and maybe with some extra velocity it would have crossed the line, but Knies will have to settle for the apple.
Ryan O’Reilly
He handled matchups against Tampa Bay’s top lines, starting with the faceoff dot. He won battles below the red line and supported his linemates, giving them space to work with the puck. Nylander benefited a lot from this. A give-and-go play on a zone entry gave Nylander the space to shoot and score on Vasilevskiy. Also, O’Reilly followed up with Knies’ shot to make sure it crossed the line for the game winner.
RYAN O’REILLY 🚨
1ST NHL POINT FOR MATTHEW KNIES pic.twitter.com/bVooYtz4bq
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 12, 2023
B+
Luke Schenn
The 2008 No. 5 pick scored his first goal as a Leaf since 2012. It was a bit of a knuckler but bamboozled Vasilevskiy high to put Toronto up 2-1.
LUKE SCHENN 🚨
HOMECOMING! pic.twitter.com/EjQ2R190Hr
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 11, 2023
Minutes later, he dropped Pat Maroon in a fight, throwing several lefts and sending the message that this isn’t a team the Lightning can walk all over.
Schenn vs. Maroon pic.twitter.com/O0kDE2uLQG
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 11, 2023
B
TJ Brodie
He saw a lot of Kucherov, getting a workout on a lot of those early penalty kills. Brodie got some good blocks and tie-ups in the Leafs’ end but also got beat a few times on zone entries. Additionally, his backhanded pass to the slot was the “primary assist” on Mikhail Sergachev’s goal.
Timothy Liljegren
The Lightning like to use the middle of the ice in the offensive zone a lot, so it was good to see Liljegren covering the slot and taking away those options.
Michael Bunting
Bunting gets an “A” in the extracurriculars department. He was public enemy No. 1 against the officiating, and that’s a whole other conversation, but he answered the bell when Corey Perry came knocking and stood up for John Tavares after Toronto’s captain got caught in a three-on-one mobbing in the second.
Bunting vs. Perry pic.twitter.com/r58FozbduK
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 12, 2023
Once the third period hit, Bunting started creating more offensively with his speed and digging for pucks along the boards.
Noel Acciari
Acciari got the lone assist on Schenn’s goal, fending off Darren Raddysh and Nick Paul. He was also part of the Leafs’ ongoing pushback front during the game. Another good addition at the deadline for that reason.
John Tavares
Tavares made himself a deflection option for Nylander on the power play, and when that didn’t work, he bumped the puck over to Järnkrok for a goal.
Alex Kerfoot
There were some quality skill plays from Kerfoot in the offensive zone. He had a solid toe drag around Hedman in the first and nearly converted on a David Kämpf pass in the second. The only downside is, similar to many of these types of chances this season, Kerfoot didn’t bury them.
David Kämpf
The Leafs leaned on Kämpf. The Lightning had eight power-play opportunities and failed to score on any of them. Kämpf led all Leafs forwards in short-handed time at 6:04, but he started with the puck only twice off the faceoff. When not with the puck, he made some good reads along the boards, getting there before a Tampa Bay player made the pass.
Justin Holl
It was a steady night, for the most part. Holl had a blunder in the second period, putting the puck on Woll, then failing to get it out of the defensive end.
Morgan Rielly
Rielly threw out a hipcheck on Ross Colton. The Tampa forward didn’t expect it, and I can understand why. The Leafs were a bit more reserved as far as their blue-line activations, but Rielly was caught one too many times on the pinch.
C+
Zach Aston-Reese
The TSN boost didn’t get Aston-Reese a goal, but he answered with three hits. He also struggled to clear the puck at times, but he was counted on in the final three minutes when holding on to the lead.
C
Conor Timmins
I was hoping the “Timmins at centre” experiment would work similarly to how it worked against the Leafs via Mark Pysyk. However, Timmins didn’t get many touches of the puck on the wing, and he looked awkward at times playing along the wall.
Game Score
Final grade: B+
The Leafs kept Tampa Bay’s best players at bay. They got their chances, but it took long shots and deflections for their depth players to produce at five-on-five. Tampa Bay’s three goals came from areas high in the zone, and its scoring chances didn’t get dangerous until it found itself on the power play. It was very playoff-like, which should give the Leafs a bit of a chip on their shoulder, considering they didn’t have their two best players. However, the team’s best players were able to produce while Tampa Bay’s couldn’t, and not for a lack of trying.
This was a huge night for Woll. The poise and confidence in net Tuesday, as well as in his other performances this season, should go a long way for the coaching staff. Although there are times when he is far out of the net, he gets back in due time and moves around in the crease to ensure his line of sight is as clear as possible. He didn’t have to make the flashy glove saves or stretch passes. His movements were sound, and he made his bigger saves look textbook.
What’s next?
The Leafs finish their regular season Thursday against the New York Rangers (7 p.m., TSN4).
(Photo: Kim Klement / USA Today)
Sports
Marchand says Maple Leafs are Bruins’ ‘biggest rival’ ahead of 1st-round series – NHL.com
BOSTON – Forget Boston Bruins-Montreal Canadiens.
For Brad Marchand, right now, it’s all about Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs.
“You see the excitement they have all throughout Canada when they’re in playoffs,” Marchand said Thursday. “Makes it a lot of fun to play them. And I think, just with the history we’ve had with them recently, they’re probably our biggest rival right now over the last decade.
“They’ve probably surpassed Montreal and any other team with kind of where our rivalry’s gone, just because we’ve both been so competitive with each other, and we’ve had a few playoff series. It definitely brings the emotion, the intensity, up in the games and the excitement for the fans.
“It’s a lot of fun to play them.”
The Bruins and Maple Leafs will renew their rivalry in their first round series, which starts Saturday at TD Garden (8 p.m. ET; TBS, truTV, MAX, SN, CBC, TVAS). They’ll be familiar opponents.
Over the past 11 seasons, the Bruins have faced the Maple Leafs four times in the postseason, starting with the epic 2013 matchup in the first round. That resulted in an all-time instant classic, the Game 7 in which the Bruins were down 4-1 in the third period and came roaring back for an overtime win that helped propel them to the Stanely Cup Final.
That would prove to be the model and, in the intervening years, the Bruins have beaten them in each of the three subsequent series, including going to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference First Round in 2018 and 2019.
Which could easily be where this series is going.
“Offensively they’re a gifted hockey club,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Thursday. “They present a lot of challenges down around the netfront area. We’re going to have to be really sharp there. We’re a pretty good team defensively when we stick to what our principles are. So I expect it to be a tight series overall.”
But if anyone knows the Maple Leafs — and what to expect — it’s Marchand. In his career, he’s played 146 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 11th most of any active player. Twenty-one of those games have come against the Maple Leafs, games in which Marchand has 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists).
“They’re always extremely competitive,” Marchand said. “You never know which way the series is going to go. But that’s what you want. That’s what you love about hockey is the competition aspect. They’re real competitors over there, especially the way they’re built right now. So it’s going to be a lot of fun, and that’s what playoffs is about. It’s about the best teams going head-to-head.”
But even though the history favors the Bruins — including having won each of the past six playoff matchups, dating back to the NHL’s expansion era in 1967-68 and each of the four regular-season games in 2023-24 — Marchand is throwing that out the window.
“That means nothing,” he said.
The Maple Leafs bring the No. 2 offense in the NHL into their series, having scored 3.63 goals per game. They were led by Auston Matthews and his 69 goals this season, a new record for him and for the franchise.
“You have to be hard on a guy like that and limit his time and space with the puck,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “He’s really good at getting in position to receive the puck and he’s got linemates who can put it right on his tape for him. You’ve just got to know where he is, especially in our D zone. He likes to loop away after cycling it and kind of find that sweet spot coming down Broadway there in the middle. It’s not just a one-person job.”
Nor is Matthews their only threat.
“They have a lot of great players, skill players, who play hard and can be very dangerous around the net and create scoring opportunities,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “You’ve just got to be aware of who’s out there and who you’re against, who you’re matched up against, and play hard. Also, too, we’ve got to focus on our game and what we do well and when we do that, we trust each other and have that belief in each other, we’re a pretty good hockey team.”
Especially against the Maple Leafs.
Marchand, who grew up in Halifax loving the Maple Leafs, still gets a thrill to see their alumni walking around Scotiabank Arena in the playoffs. And it’s even more special to be on the ice with them, to be competing against them — even more so when the Bruins keep winning.
But that certainly doesn’t mean this series will be easy.
“They’ll be a [heck] of a challenge,” Marchand said.
Sports
NHL sets Round 1 schedule for 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Daily Faceoff
The chase for Lord Stanley’s silver chalice will begin on Saturday.
After what could be described as the most exciting season in NHL history that saw heartbreaks and last-ditch efforts to clinch playoff spots, players and staff now get ready as 16 teams go to battle.
We saw the Vancouver Canucks have a massive year and finish first in the Pacific Division with captain Quinn Hughes leading all defensemen in points. The Winnipeg Jets set a franchise record for most points. The Nashville Predators went on a franchise-record winning streak in order to lock themselves into a Wild Card spot, and the Washington Capitals clinched the last Wild Card spot in the East after a wild finish that saw the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers see their playoff hopes crumble in front of them.
While Auston Matthews missed out on scoring 70 goals, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid and Tampa Bay Lightning standout Nikita Kucherov became the first players since 1990-91 to record 100 assists in a single season. They joined Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr as the only players to do so.
With the bracket set, it’s time to expect the unexpected.
Here is the schedule for Round 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs:
Eastern Conference
#A1 Florida Panthers vs. #WC1 Tampa Bay Lightning
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Tampa at Florida | 12:30 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Tampa at Florida | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Thursday, April 25 | 3. Florida at Tampa | 7 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Florida at Tampa | 5 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 29 | 5. Tampa at Florida | TBD |
Wednesday, May 1 | 6. Florida at Tampa | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Tampa at Florida | TBD |
#A2 Boston Bruins vs. #A3 Toronto Maple Leafs
Date | Game | Time |
Saturday, April 20 | 1. Toronto at Boston | 8 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 22 | 2. Toronto at Boston | 7 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 3. Boston at Toronto | 7 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Boston at Toronto | 8 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Toronto at Boston | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Boston at Toronto | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Toronto at Boston | TBD |
#M1 New York Rangers vs. #WC2 Washington Capitals
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Washington at New York | 3 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Washington at New York | 7 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 2. New York at Washington | 7 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 2. New York at Washington | 8 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, May 1 | 2. Washington at New York | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 2. New York at Washington | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 2. Washington at New York | TBD |
#M2 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #M3 New York Islanders
Date | Game | Time |
Saturday, April 20 | 1. New York at Carolina | 5 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 22 | 2. New York at Carolina | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Thursday, April 25 | 3. Carolina at New York | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Carolina at New York | 2 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. New York at Carolina | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Carolina at New York | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. New York at Carolina | TBD |
Western Conference
#C1 Dallas Stars vs. #WC2 Vegas Golden Knights
Date | Game | Time |
Monday, April 22 | 1. Vegas at Dallas | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 2. Vegas at Dallas | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 3. Dallas at Vegas | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 29 | 4. Dallas at Vegas | TBD |
Wednesday, May 1 | 5. Vegas at Dallas | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Dallas at Vegas | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Vegas at Dallas | TBD |
#C2 Winnipeg Jets vs. #C3 Colorado Avalanche
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Colorado at Winnipeg | 7 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Colorado at Winnipeg | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Winnipeg at Colorado | 10 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Winnipeg at Colorado | 2:30 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Colorado at Winnipeg | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Winnipeg at Colorado | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Colorado at Winnipeg | TBD |
#P1 Vancouver Canucks vs. #WC1 Nashville Predators
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Nashville at Vancouver | 10 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Nashville at Vancouver | 10 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Vancouver at Nashville | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Vancouver at Nashville | 5 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Nashville at Vancouver | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Vancouver at Nashville | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Nashville at Vancouver | TBD |
#P2 Edmonton Oilers vs. #P3 Los Angeles Kings
Date | Game | Time |
Monday, April 22 | 1. Los Angeles at Edmonton | 10 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 2. Los Angeles at Edmonton | 10 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Edmonton at Los Angeles | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Edmonton at Los Angeles | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, May 1 | 5. Los Angeles at Edmonton | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Edmonton at Los Angeles | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Los Angeles at Edmonton | TBD |
Sports
With matchup vs. Kings decided, Oilers should be confident facing familiar foe – Sportsnet.ca
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