TORONTO — With the stands at Scotiabank Arena full of plastic masks, outlandish wigs, blue-and-white jerseys stuffed under all manner of comical costumes, the home crowd rang in Halloween 2023 by raining boos down upon their Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night.
The barrage came 40 minutes into an evening that saw the home side come out lifeless against the quicker, steadier Los Angeles Kings, and ultimately find themselves unable to rise again before the tilt was through.
Toronto crowd boos Maple Leafs off ice at the end of the second period vs. Kings
“We were flat from the start,” a perturbed Sheldon Keefe said of his club after the eventual 4-1 loss was in the books. “We had a couple surges through the game at different times but nothing sustained. You know, you’re climbing out of a hole against a very good, structured team, it’s tough sledding.”
The misery started early for his Maple Leafs in this one. From the opening minutes, Toronto looked a mess in their own zone, the puck skittering around netminder Joseph Woll’s general vicinity just a bit too much. On the other end of the sheet, they didn’t fare much better, the Maple Leafs’ attack seeming to lack any sense of fluidity or cohesion.
“Obviously we had a tough time getting through the neutral zone, creating zone entries with possession,” a quiet Morgan Rielly said from the locker room post-game. “They did a good job — they play a specific structure, and we had a tough time getting through it.”
“They were quick, they used their speed,” his captain, John Tavares, added. “We’ve got to do a better job of recognizing that we’re a little flat and that our game maybe isn’t where we want it to be, and how we get that going and grab momentum back. Obviously it took us too long to get that going [tonight].”
‘We have to be better’: Tavares on Maple Leafs losing to a ‘structured’ Kings team
The visiting Kings had stacked three goals on the board by the time Toronto managed to finally break through and avoid the shutout with a power-play marker midway through the final period. Woll was given little help by the group in front of him on all three of the plays that had wound up in the back of his net to that point. The lone Leafs goal didn’t alter that trend, the Kings answering with a fourth tally a few minutes later as the blue-and-white’s sloppiness in their own zone burned them for the third time on the night.
Even before it got to that point, Toronto had its chances to find some life, some rhythm, before things got out of hand, the club granted three man-advantage opportunities through those abysmal 40 minutes. But much like the rest of the night, the chances slipped through their fingers.
“It was like a lot of the rest of our game — our execution just wasn’t as sharp,” said Tavares, who managed the Leafs’ only goal, of the power-play stumbles. “At times we have to be a little bit more direct and let the work rate allow momentum to build, and the game to come to you. Just being a little bit quicker in a lot of areas, and not trying to do too much.”
The club’s lead playmaker similarly mulled a change in approach after a night that saw his team stymied at every turn offensively, until it was too late.
“I think I need to be more of a threat as a shooter,” Mitch Marner said post-game, thinking through the ongoing stretch of disconnected play between himself and linemate Auston Matthews. “Be a little more selfish in those areas so that it opens up Auston a little more. We’ve just got to have trust in our game. When we’re going well, we’re getting in on the forecheck, we’re stripping pucks.
“We’ve had moments of that throughout the season, just not enough. We know we’ve got to be better. And we will be better.”
Still, his coach made clear the issue on this night went far beyond the power play, or the top line, or his big guns misfiring.
“We need everybody. Even when our top guys are going, we need everybody,” Keefe said. “Nobody had it tonight. New guys, old guys, guys who’ve been here, guys who haven’t been here — nobody had it tonight.”
You could argue William Nylander did, the club’s leading scorer seeming the only bright spot all night as he tried to paper over the holes in Toronto’s game with effortless rushes up ice, glimpses of all-world skill as he weaved through traffic and tried to spark something. In the end, even that wasn’t enough.
It’s early, of course. The power play will round into form. Nos. 34 and 16 will go back to stacking points like they long have. But the veterans on the roster are well aware of the deeper issues a night like this one exposes.
“These are the games that you want to learn from,” said Rielly in the wake of the loss. “You want to learn how to win against teams that play this way. I think it’s a good chance for us to watch some video, talk about what we need to do better, and next time we come up against a team that plays as tight as they do, we’ve got to be better prepared as players.
“There comes a time where you’ve just got to find more, you’ve just got to be more competitive. You’ve got to work harder.”
Added Tavares: “With where we want to go, that’s the type of hockey we’re going to be playing against. We have to get comfortable with, and understand, the way we need to play to have success.”
The latest loss comes amid a hectic stretch for the Maple Leafs, who are fresh off a five-game road trip that saw them go 3-1-1, saw them play some good hockey against some dangerous teams, and who now head back out for an away game in Boston on Thursday.
But for Keefe, the potential fatigue factor, the emotional rollercoaster of seeing a three-game win streak snapped in an overtime heartbreaker against a former teammate’s new squad — it all matters little in terms of the larger lesson his team is still trying to learn.
“It’s the NHL. Every team’s going to go through stuff like this,” the coach said Tuesday night. “You’ve got to push through it and you’ve got to find a way. There are no excuses tonight — you’ve got to find a way. There are things that we could’ve done better. Sometimes you really have your A-game, everything’s clicking; sometimes you’ve got lots of energy but you’re not sharp with the puck and you’ve got to adapt and adjust your game; sometimes you don’t have energy so you need to be better in different ways, your special teams need to carry you.
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.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps have loaned midfielder Jay Herdman to Cavalry FC of the Canadian Premier League and rewarded two Whitecaps FC 2 players with MLS contracts.
Midfielder Jeevan Badwal signed as a homegrown player through 2027, with options for 2028 and 2029, while forward Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau signed an MLS contract through 2025, with club options for 2026 and 2027.
Both have been playing for the Whitecaps’ MLS Next Pro team along with the 20-year-old Herdman, the son of Toronto FC coach John Herdman.
The moves were made before Friday’s MLS and CPL roster freeze.
Born in New Zealand while his father was working for the New Zealand Football Federation, Jay Herdman was also part of the New Zealand soccer team at the Paris Olympics with three appearances including two starts. Herdman’s loan deal runs through the end of the CPL season.
“Jay is an important signing for us, who will provide another attacking option for the run-in,” Cavalry coach and GM Tommy Wheeldon Jr. said in a statement. “He’s a player that we’ve been tracking since we played against Whitecaps in pre-season and he has very good quality, with terrific energy and the ability to contribute to goals.
“With the recent injury to Mael Henry, Jay’s positional profile and age helps us with on-field options and minutes that count towards the league’s required 2,000 U-21 domestic minutes during the regular season.”
Badwal, an 18-year-old from suburban Surrey, is the 26th academy player to sign an MLS contract with the Whitecaps.
“Having joined our academy in 2019, Jeevan continues to progress through our club and takes every challenge in stride,” Whitecaps FC sporting director Axel Schuster said in a statement. “He is comfortable on the ball, positionally sound, and does the simple things very well. We are excited for Jeevan to make the next step in his young career.”
Badwal has made 19 appearances with Whitecaps 2 this season, scoring two goals and adding three assists. A Canadian youth international, he started all three matches for Canada at the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup
Badwal made his first-team debut off the bench in the first leg of the Canadian Championship semifinal against Pacific FC.
Chateau was originally selected 74th overall by the Whitecaps in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft after spending two years at St. John’s University.
The 22-year-old from Ottawa signed an MLS NEXT Pro contract with Whitecaps FC 2 in March. He leads Whitecaps FC 2 in goal-scoring this season with eight goals across 21 appearances (including eight starts).
“Nicolas leads MLS NEXT Pro in shots on target, has a very strong work rate and willpower. We are looking forward to seeing his growth as he builds on his young professional career,” said Schuster.
Chateau made his first-team debut as a second-half substitute at CF Montreal on July 6.
Herdman, who joined the Whitecaps academy as a 13-year-old, has made 19 appearances for Whitecaps FC 2 in 2024, scoring six goals and adding three assists. He made his MLS debut in April as a second-half substitute in a 2-0 victory at the Seattle Sounders.
Internationally, Herdman has represented New Zealand 29 times across the U-19, U-20, and U-23 sides. He was part of New Zealand’s squad at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup, starting three matches at the tournament and scoring against Uzbekistan.
The Whitecaps host San Jose on Saturday while Cavalry entertains Atletico Ottawa on Sunday.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024
