Sheldon Keefe on Denis Malgin making the team over Nick Robertson: "In Nick's case, [waiver exemption] works against him... That's the reality of the situation with the cap and a tight roster... He did all of the things we asked him to do" | Canada News Media
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Sheldon Keefe on Denis Malgin making the team over Nick Robertson: "In Nick’s case, [waiver exemption] works against him… That’s the reality of the situation with the cap and a tight roster… He did all of the things we asked him to do"

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Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach

After practice on Monday, head coach Sheldon Keefe discussed Denis Malgin making the team for opening night over Nick Robertson, the other final cuts, and John Tavares’ status for Wednesday night in Montreal.

Final Cuts & Practice Lines – October 10

What did Denis Malgin do to earn the spot next to Tavares and Nylander in practice today over someone like Nick Robertson? 

Keefe: In Malgin’s case, first of all, he is a guy who is coming in here at 25 years old. He already has 200 NHL games to his record. He has produced during that time. He has had some time away here, and from what I have seen, he has grown and developed his game.

That is really what I wanted to do in this camp and preseason — just watch and see where he is at mentally and let him use the opportunities he was getting to prove he can play in the NHL and help our team. I think he has done that.

He produced at a high rate — right near the top of the league in scoring — and also worked really hard away from the puck. He found ways to create no matter which game or what the competition was like. It seemed like he was still making his mark on each of the games. He was good and competitive in our practices.

To that end, we felt we would give him that opportunity. The fact that he is protected by requiring waivers works in his favour in this case.

In Nick Robertson’s case, it works against him. That is the reality of the situation we are in with the salary cap and carrying a really tight and short roster. We are going to have players you would otherwise have in the NHL that are going to have to start in the American league.

Everything I said about Malgin, Robertson did just the same. It was a tough decision. We saw tremendous growth in camp. We are very encouraged about where his game is at. We have all the confidence that he will be back here when needed.

How do you stress to a young player that it is a case of numbers not adding up in his favour and not letting it affect the progress he has made?

Keefe: I think the best we can do is just talk to him — be up front and honest. It is an unfortunate situation for a player who has worked very hard and is as competitive as he is. He did all of the things we asked him to do.

A player like him at his age is never a finished product. There is always benefit to playing in the AHL and helping a Marlies team that we want to see take steps and grow. That growth is only going to happen through the growth of the individuals. He can be a part of that.

At the same time, he will be playing lots and staying fresh and ready for when we need him as opposed to maybe being a scratch here. There are benefits there. But young players don’t want to hear that after they have gone out and done what they asked of them and shown that they can help the team and play.

It is just the reality of the situation. The flat cap creates a lot of these scenarios all around the league. We are trying to manage it as best we can.

How did John Tavares look today as he progresses toward a return?

Keefe: I thought he looked good. Most importantly, he got through the entire practice. Those are encouraging signs for tomorrow’s practice. He is encouraged. If all goes well for the rest of the day, he will come to tomorrow’s practice as though he is preparing to play. We will just continue to assess him.

Is it your understanding that if Tavares can’t play on Wednesday, you will play one player short in that game?

Keefe: That is my understanding. That is something we were prepared to do coming in through the offseason when we made the decision we did to add the players we did under the salary cap. We knew there could be predicaments like that like there have been in previous seasons. We have had several teams in the league playing short, and I am sure there will be again this season.

When we look at the big picture in the long run, we feel like adding a player like Jarnkork was something that we wanted to do. Thus, we run into these types of situations, but it doesn’t make it any easier for sure.

I believe our group is as deep as we have been since I have been here. We have really clear and defined roles throughout the group. We have lots of competition. Guys will be challenging to move up throughout the lineup. I think we are in a really good spot there.

It doesn’t say anything about how we feel about the players that won’t be on the roster. They are still very important players. They will be here in time naturally as we face the realities of an NHL schedule.

For a guy as meticulous as Tavares, are you always confident he is going to be doing everything in his power to get back as soon as possible?

Keefe: Yeah, for sure. He knows his body really well. He is really in tune with what is happening. He takes great care of himself. Our staff and our group as well as his team that he has that he trusts are doing everything they can to make sure he is healthy, feeling good, strong, fit, and all of those kinds of things. That is never in doubt.

Sometimes, the body takes a little longer than you would like. In his case, it seems to have been a little bit quicker. As I said, we will give him another day and monitor it. My sense of it — and the feedback that we have gotten — is that everything is progressing well. He will come tomorrow as if he is preparing to play, and then we’ll make a call from there.

There are a couple of good dressing-room guys in Kyle Clifford and Wayne Simmonds going down to the Marlies. Can you comment on that?

Keefe: Very similar. Again, it is the reality of where we are at with the cap and our roster. Frankly, ever since we made the decision to sign Calle Jarnkrork, I think we knew we were going to be tight a short, very tight roster. We believe that the addition of Jarnkork makes us a better, deeper team. As a result, you are going to have to make some decisions like this.

All of the guys we put on waivers  — or in Nick’s case, that we sent down, and Holmberg is just the same — we really believe in. Clifford and Simmer, in particular, are guys who mean a lot to our team and to our room. If you are carrying a bigger roster, those guys are here and a part of our team in terms of how we feel about them and what they can bring and provide to our group.

The system is what it is and our situation is what it is. We had to make some decisions. The 12 forwards that we have remaining, I believe, make us a deeper and stronger forward group than we were a year ago. There are going to be some guys sliding down that depth chart.

How are you going to split up the starts with the goalies on Wednesday and Thursday?

Keefe: Murray will go Wednesday, and Samsonov will go Thursday. We will start that way. We will make our decisions from there. We have a plan for how things will go, but the plan changes every day. The back-to-back one is pretty straightforward. We will go from there.

Did the opportunity for Samsonov to face his former team factor into the decision?

Keefe: No, it didn’t. We wanted Murray to get the first game and get rolling that way with the schedule being what it is. I thought both goalies in practice today were really, really strong right from their goalie session into the practice. I thought those guys made a statement in the practice today with how they competed and how they were solid in the net.

Murray is going to go in the first game. The schedule is what it is — maybe not absolutely ideal, but maybe it is. I haven’t talked to Sammy about that specifically. Curtis [Sanford] has been handling that. It will be our home opener and his former team coming in. There will be a lot of excitement around that.

 

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

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November 6, 2024

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

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November 5, 2024

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

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November 4, 2024

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EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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