TSN Toronto Reporter Mark Masters reports on the Maple Leafs, who held an optional practice at the Ford Performance Centre on Friday ahead of the 2022 Heritage Classic against the Buffalo Sabres at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton on Sunday.
It may have been an obvious decision, but it was not an easy one to make.
“We thought a lot about it,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We talked a lot about it.”
Ultimately, the Leafs tabbed embattled goalie Petr Mrazek to start on Sunday against the Buffalo Sabres in the Heritage Classic at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton.
“You want to give Petr an opportunity to get back in and respond,” Keefe explained. “There’s the fact it’s an outdoor game and Petr has experience playing outdoor games in the NHL. There’s a lot of stuff going on that makes it obvious to give Petr another chance to go back in.”
Mrazek started and won a Stadium Series game for the Detroit Red Wings against the Colorado Avalanche back on Feb. 27, 2016 at Coors Field in Denver.
With Jack Campbell sidelined with a rib injury, this should be Mrazek’s chance to establish himself in the Leafs net. But on Thursday night, he allowed four goals on 12 shots before being pulled in the second period against the Arizona Coyotes. Erik Kallgren, 25, made his National Hockey League debut in relief stopping 10 of 11 shots before taking the loss in overtime.
“With it being an outdoor game, I don’t want to put Kallgren in that spot,” Keefe said, “especially when you have a guy who has experience and a little something to prove.”
Mrazek has played 291 NHL games over 11 seasons. This isn’t his first taste of adversity at this level.
“Those things happen,” the 30-year-old Czech native said after Thursday’s game. “I’ve been in this situation before and I’m not worried about it … My mentality is pretty good with those things so just forget about that.”
Mrazek has posted an ugly .884 save percentage over 16 games during his first season in Toronto.
“He’s won 10 games for us,” Keefe pointed out. “He hasn’t played nearly to his ability, but he’s won games for us this season and we need to win a game on Sunday.”
Mrazek spent 45 minutes on the ice working with goalie coach Steve Briere on Friday.
“He just said he was committed to coming in and working,” Keefe said. “Petr came in today and had a good work day and the reports were all really good and positive and that was the last thing I was looking for towards making a decision.”
‘He’s got something to prove’: Mrazek gets the nod for the Heritage Classic
After a tough outing that saw him surrender four goals on only 12 shots, Petr Mrazek will get the nod in goal for the Maple Leafs when they take on the Buffalo Sabres in Hamilton on Sunday. Head coach Sheldon Keefe spoke about the decision to go back to his veteran netminder after a tough stretch of games.
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Keefe described the first goal Mrazek allowed on Thursday as “maybe as tough of a goal as we have given up all season.” Mrazek misplayed a harmless shot with the rebound landing in front for Alex Galchenyuk to tap in.
“It hit the inside of the blocker instead of outside,” Mrazek said. “It can’t happen. Those saves are easy.”
Mrazek was overly aggressive on the second Arizona goal, which came off the rush. He committed to Phil Kessel, who then passed it across the ice to Jakob Chychrun. The Coyotes defenceman fanned on the shot, but Mrazek was so far out of position that he couldn’t get back in time.
Keefe wanted to pull Mrazek at that point, but the coach was reluctant to put Kallgren in a tough position. Keefe felt he had no choice after the Coyotes extended their lead to 4-1.
“It was obvious we needed a change,” Keefe stated bluntly. “With the third and fourth goals, I don’t think there was a lot Petr could do on those. When you give up the first two like that, you can’t give up three and four. You have to find a way to make the saves for us in that case.”
Kallgren, who helped Vaxjo win a Swedish Hockey League title last season, appeared unfazed in his first taste of NHL action. What was he thinking?
“Not much, to be honest,” he said. “Tried to keep the head clear and go out there and embrace the moment. It was a big moment for me to play my first minutes in the NHL so, yeah, just try to have fun … I tried to prepare like I was playing. So, I was trying to mentally be in the game all the time.”
“Kallgren showed very well,” Keefe said, “showed us that he can go in if we need him to and we like a lot of what he did last night.”
Petr Mrazek and Erik Kallgren get back to work with goalie coach Steve Briere pic.twitter.com/jANfPNVZpi
John Tavares and William Nylander, who had been split up to start Thursday’s game, were reunited on a line with Alex Kerfoot in the third period and helped spark Toronto’s comeback bid.
“I thought both guys, when they were not together, had good legs early in the game,” Keefe said. “I liked the way they worked and competed. Once you get down in the game, I felt the need to shorten the bench and go with fewer guys to try to get a smaller group really going.”
Nylander and Kerfoot both scored in the third period.
“I did like it when they were back together, but I think that trust was earned by how they were playing apart from one another,” Keefe said. “It was good to see. Willy had his best legs in a while. I thought John really worked and competed. That line was good for us.”
Before the game, Keefe said his patience had run out with the Tavares-Nylander combination. Not only were they not producing at their regular rate, but that line was allowing a lot of goals. Why was the chemistry lacking?
“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly,” Tavares admitted. “There’s probably opportunities where we just haven’t capitalized. We got to do better consistently game in and game out and being better defensively, too.”
Tavares, who didn’t register a shot on goal against the Coyotes, was among the 10 players to hit the ice on Friday. Keefe was surprised to see the team’s 31-year-old captain out there.
“Rest is important at this time of year,” Keefe said. “We just finished playing three games in four nights. That is why we didn’t want the full practice today. Of all the players that I trust to know their bodies and know what they need, John is at the top of the list.”
Why is Tavares at the top of the list?
“Just through his experience, how he takes care of himself, how in tune he is with how he is feeling, and how closely he works with our medical and strength teams,” Keefe said. “He is dialed in and doesn’t miss a beat with regards to anything that relates to his own preparation … If he felt he needed that work today, we trust him.”
Keefe says he saw ‘encouraging signs’ from Nylander, Tavares against Coyotes
While they started the game apart against the Arizona Coyotes, ultimately head coach Sheldon Keefe reunited William Nylander and John Tavares as they game progressed. Keefe said he saw encouraging signs from both players when they were apart, and that they “earned the right” to be reunited in the end.
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Prior to Chychrun’s overtime winner, the Arizona defenceman appeared to hold Auston Matthews in the neutral zone. The Leafs superstar was furious that no penalty was called.
“I felt what I felt,” Matthews fumed afterwards. “There’s really nothing I can change now so there’s no sense really talking about it, I guess. No comment.”
Matthews, the league’s top goal scorer, has only elicited seven calls in 55 games.
“It is strange,” said Tavares. “Someone who is that difficult to defend and that good and has the puck and is threatening a lot and playing a majority of his game offensively, you would think there would be more.”
Keefe has a theory.
“He is, in a lot of ways, unstoppable,” the coach said of the 6-foot-3, 205-pound centre. “His feet keep moving. He plays through obstruction, traffic, sticks and holds. A lot of players can’t do that. They don’t have that ability. While you see a stat like that and you might focus on the officiating, it is also a lot more challenging to call penalties against Auston because he plows through it like there is nothing there. That is part of it.”
Referees Kendrick Nicholson and Brandon Blandina didn’t call any penalties on Thursday night.
“Auston has the puck a lot,” veteran forward Jason Spezza said. “Should he draw more penalties? Probably, but it’s not a topic that we really need to get into. We have to, game to game, assess how the game’s being called and adjust.”
The Leafs rank 31st in drawn penalties this season. Division rivals Florida (third), Tampa (sixth) and Boston (14th) are all in the top half of the league in this category.
“Each official has their own personality,” noted Keefe. “Ultimately, our message to the players is that we have to play through these things. You can’t impact the way the game is called. You can’t control that. You just have to play through it … I don’t spend very much time focused on penalties or non-penalties or whatever.”
‘It is strange’: Tavares, Leafs react to Matthews’ inability to draw penalties
Auston Matthews scored his league-leading 44th goal of the season against the Arizona Coyotes, but there is one stat where he hasn’t shown well: penalties drawn. Leafs’ captain John Tavares admitted it’s strange that Matthews has only drawn six or seven penalties on the year, while head coach Sheldon Keefe attributes it to Matthews’ ability to drive through obstruction.
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Spezza sat out the last two games as a healthy scratch.
“I take it as I got to play better,” the 38-year-old forward said. “I want to be in the lineup every night and if I was playing better I’d be in the lineup.”
Toronto’s fourth line has gone cold. Since the team’s COVID pause in mid-December, Wayne Simmonds is goalless in 27 games. Spezza has just two goals in five-on-five play over his last 26 games.
“I’m the leader of the line,” Spezza said, “and it’s important we’re able to be trusted by the coach to go out there and give positive shifts. We also have the capability to chip in with big goals here and there and that’s an area I want to focus on.”
Keefe confirmed that Spezza will be in the lineup on Sunday. Despite playing in the NHL for two decades, Sunday will only be his second outdoor game. Spezza also suited up for the Ottawa Senators at the 2014 Heritage Classic in Vancouver.
“I love playing outside,” he said. “I still get outside and skate quite a bit and I think it’s great. It will be a cool atmosphere.”
STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Few chess players enjoy Magnus Carlsen‘s celebrity status.
A grand master at 13, refusing to play an American dogged by allegations of cheating, and venturing into the world of online chess gaming all made Norway’s Carlsen a household name.
Few chess players have produced the magical commodity that separates Norway’s Magnus Carlsen from any of his peers: celebrity.
Only legends like Russia’s Garry Kasparov and American Bobby Fischer can match his name recognition and Carlsen is arguably an even more dominant player. Last month, he beat both men to be named the International Chess Federation’s greatest ever.
But his motivation to rack up professional titles is on the wane. Carlsen, 33, now wants to leverage his fame to help turn the game he loves into a spectator sport.
“I am in a different stage in my career,” he told The Associated Press. “I am not as ambitious when it comes to professional chess. I still want to play, but I don’t necessarily have that hunger. I play for the love of the game.”
Offering a new way to interact with the game, Carlsen on Friday launched his application, Take Take Take, which will follow live games and players, explaining matches in an accessible way that, Carlsen says, is sometimes missing from streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch. “It will be a chiller vibe,” he says.
Carlsen intends to use his experience to provide recaps and analysis on his new app, starting with November’s World Chess Championship tournament between China’s Ding Liren and India’s Gukesh Dommaraju. He won’t be competing himself because he voluntarily ceded the title in 2023.
Carlsen is no novice when it comes to chess apps. The Play Magnus game, which he started in 2014, gave online users the chance to play against a chess engine modeled against his own gameplay. The company ballooned into a suite of applications and was bought for around $80 million in 2022 by Chess.com, the world’s largest chess website.
Carlsen and Mats Andre Kristiansen, the chief executive of his company, Fantasy Chess, are betting that a chess game where users can follow individual players and pieces, filters for explaining different elements of each game, and light touch analysis will scoop up causal viewers put off by chess’s sometimes rarefied air. The free app was launched in a bid to build the user base ahead of trying to monetizing it. “That will come later, maybe with advertisements or deeper analysis,” says Kristiansen.
While Take Take Take offers a different prospect with its streaming services, it is still being launched into a crowded market with Chess.com, which has more than 100 million users, YouTube, Twitch, and the website of FIDE the International Chess Federation. World Chess was worth around $54 million when it got listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The accessibility of chess engines that can beat any human means cheating has never been easier. However, they can still be used to shortcut thousands of hours of book-bound research, and hone skills that would be impossible against human opponents.
“I think the games today are of higher quality because preparation is becoming deeper and deeper and artificial intelligence is helping us play. It is reshaping the way we evaluate the games,” especially for the new generation of players, says Carlsen.
At the same time, he admits that two decades after becoming a grand master, his mind doesn’t quite compute at the tornado speed it once did. “Most people have less energy when they get older. The brain gets slower. I have already felt that for a few years. The younger players’ processing power is just faster.”
Even so, he intends to be the world’s best for many years to come.
“My mind is a bit slower, and I maybe don’t have as much energy. But chess is about the coming together of energy, computing power and experience. I am still closer to my peak than decline,” he said.
Chess has been cresting a popularity wave begun by Carlsen himself.
He became the world’s top-ranked player in 2011. In 2013, he won the first of his five World Championships. In 2014, he achieved the highest-ever chess rating of 2882, and he has remained the undisputed world number one for the last 13 years.
Off the table, chess influencers, like the world No. 2, Hikaru Nakamura, are using social media to bring the game to a wider audience. The Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” burnished chess’ unlikely cerebral sex appeal when it became one of the streamer’s biggest hits in 2020.
And in 2022 Carlsen’s refusal to play against Hans Niemann, an American grand master, who admitted to using technology to cheat in online games in the past, created a rare edge in the usually sedate world of chess. There is no evidence Niemann ever cheated in live games but the feud between the pair propelled the game even further into public consciousness.
Whether chess can continue to grow without the full professional participation of its biggest celebrity remains to be seen.
Canadian pairs team Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps along with ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier headline a strong field at Skate Canada International. The Canadians say they’re excited to perform in front of a home crowd as the world’s best figure skaters arrive in Halifax. (Oct. 24, 2024)
INZAI CITY, Japan (AP) — Nico Echavarria shot a 6-under 64 on Friday — matching his 64 on Thursday — to lead by two shots over Taylor Moore and Justin Thomas after the second round of the Zozo Championship in Japan.
Thomas shot 64 and Moore carded 67 with three others just three shots off the lead including Seamus Power, who had the day’s low round of 62 at the Narashino Country Club.
Thomas has twice won the PGA Championship but is winless in two years on the PGA Tour.
Eric Cole (67) and C.T. Pan (66) were also three behind heading to Saturday.
Nick Taylor, of Abbotsford, B.C., is the top Canadian at 5-under and tied for 16th.
Ben Silverman, of Thornhill, Ont., is two shots back of Taylor and tied for 31st.
“I’ve never had a lead after 36 holes,” said Echavarria, a Colombian who played at the University of Arkansas. His lone PGA win was last year in Puerto Rico.
He had a two-round total of 12-under 128.
“I’ve had it after 54, but never after 36, so it’s good to be in this position. There’s got to be some pressure,” he added. “Hopefully a good round tomorrow can keep me in the lead or around the lead. And how I said yesterday — the goal is to be close with nine holes to go.”
Rickie Fowler, a crowd favorite in Japan because of his connections to the country, shot 64 to go with an opening 68 and was four shots back going into the weekend. Max Greyserman was also four behind after a 68.
“It would be amazing to win here,” said Fowler, whose mother has Japanese roots. “Came close a few years ago.”
Fowler tied for second in 2022
Fowler described his roots as “pretty far removed for Japan, but I’m sure I have relatives here, but I don’t know anyone. Japanese culture’s always been a fairly big part of life growing up. I always love being over here.”
Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama shot his second 71 and was 14 shots off the lead.
Defending champion Collin Morikawa shot 67 and pulled within eight shot of the lead, and Xander Schauffele — British Open and PGA winner this season — shot 65 and was 10 behind after a 73 on Thursday.
“I feel like I’ve got a good game plan out here,” Morikawa said, another player with Japanese connections. “I just have to execute shots a little better.”
“I am the defending champ, but that doesn’t mean I’m immediately going to play better just because I won here,” he added. “It’s a brand new week, it’s a year later. I feel like my golf game is still in a good spot. I just haven’t executed my shots. When that doesn’t happen it makes golf a little tougher.”
Schauffele turned 31 on Friday and said he was serenaded before his opening tee shot. He also has ties to Japan. His mother grew up in Japan and his grandparents live in the Tokyo area.
