The results are nearly identical, but the paths to get there couldn’t be more different.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets — seeds eight and nine, respectively, in the Eastern Conference bracket — finished the truncated 2019-20 campaign with an identical 81 points and .579 points percentage. They also split their head-to-head series, all the way back in October, when a virus was mostly something you worried about your computer getting.
Yet these play-in round foes’ paths and identities couldn’t be more distinct.
One has been cutting lottery-sized cheques to attract and keep happy some of the greatest offensive talent in the land. The other watched three of its best players, including a 2020 Hart Trophy finalist and a two-time Vezina champ, leave in free agency last summer and tried to fill that gaping hole with… Gustav Nyquist.
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One pummels its opposition with high-danger offence off the rush and wields its $43 million power-play unit as an enforcer. The other ekes out low-scoring W’s by cycling and shot-blocking and forechecking its enemies to death.
One will ride or die with a bona fide NHL No. 1 goaltender who has gone 0-for-3 in playoff series since he moved to Toronto. The other runs out the tournament’s least-experienced goalie tandem and may need to put its starter on a shorter leash than a pit bull in a dog park swarming with chihuahuas.
One fired its head coach midstream and got faster and freer under a rookie bench boss who lightens his players’ spirits by cranking Travis Scott during practice. The other is run by a five-time Jack Adams finalist who doesn’t give a bleep if the microphones catch him cursing out a winger who forgets to stay above the puck.
One hasn’t won an NHL elimination series since Miracle was in theatres. The other is hot off pulling its own miracle by sweeping the 2019 Presidents’ Trophy–winning Tampa Bay Lightning the last time stakes were this high.
Offence versus defence. PP versus PK. Skill versus will.
Maple Leafs: 23.1 PP% (6th), 77.1 PK% (21st), 237 GF (2nd), 222 GA (25th)
Blue Jackets: 16.4 PP% (27th), 81.7 PK% (12th), 180 GF (28th), 183 GA (3rd)
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD
Maple Leafs: 1-0-1
Blue Jackets: 1-1-0
THE SKINNY
“It’s no secret that we’ve got really good offensive players,” says Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe.
Handpicked by GM Kyle Dubas to replace the fired Mike Babcock — no other candidates were interviewed for the position — Keefe is here to let the horses run. So, he’s teasing his “All-Star Game line” and experimenting with teenage sniper Nick Robertson on his third line at training camp, knowing full well the Maple Leafs need to outscore their defensive deficiencies in order to succeed.
Toronto, the NHL’s highest-scoring outfit since Keefe took the reins, can wow with its speed, drop jaws with its creativity, and strike fear with its power play. But the Maple Leafs will also tote the burden of pressure from the Royal York to Scotiabank Area. Their star players are already being paid like world champions but are 0-for-3 in elimination series and, thus, their killer instinct has been questioned.
Conversely, the Blue Jackets couldn’t be more comfortable in the plucky underdog role. The off-season departures of superstars Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky have furthered their us-against-the-world scrappiness, and an influx of healthy bodies (Seth Jones, Cam Atkinson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, possibly Josh Anderson) has renewed confidence in a group that already stunned the hockey world by knocking off Cup favourite Tampa last spring.
Columbus coach John Tortorella has downplayed the less-than-full participation of captain Nick Foligno and Pierre-Luc Dubois at camp and is doing his damnedest to instill a mature mindset in the tournament’s youngest roster.
“It’s playoff hockey, right? You’re gonna have to fight for every inch of ice,” reminds Nyquist.
If the blue-collar Jackets are to upset the white-collar Leafs, it will be because they won the trenches. If the Maple Leafs can survive this test, however, an injection of confidence could propel them to great heights.
Maple Leafs X-Factor: Ilya Mikheyev The last time we saw the borsht-loving rookie in NHL game action, he was skating off the Prudential Center ice as fast as possible, a frightening crime scene of blood spatter behind him. Since having his wrist sliced by a blade in late December, Mikheyev has diligently committed himself to coming back stronger, skating throughout the pause, polishing his English, and wowing rehab pal Jake Muzzin in the gym.
“He came in and worked his b– off,” Muzzin marvels. A standout at reset camp, Mikheyev has washed away concerns about Andreas Johnsson’s early unavailability and injected both the second line and a mediocre penalty kill with renewed energy. Souperman could be a late-round steal in your playoff fantasy draft.
Blue Jackets X-Factor: John Tortorella On paper, the Jacks Adams finalist has the weaker roster, but we all know the games aren’t played on loose-leaf. An ornery motivator supreme — and one who’s already in midseason form — Torts has a track record of conjuring sum-greater-than-parts efforts from his teams, and we need only look back to 2019’s sweep of Jon Cooper’s stacked Lightning as proof.
Toronto’s Sheldon Keefe vows he’s ready for this chess match against his former coach, but Tortorella would love nothing more here than to reinforce the value of committed defence and a willingness to sacrifice individual reward for group gain.
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Biggest question facing Toronto: Can they get out of their own end before it all goes to hell? “There’s no area of our game defensively that we were satisfied with,” Keefe said at the outset of camp. “We fully expect our guys to be a lot better defensively when we come back here, and of course we’re going to need to be given what’s at stake.” Clear the zone quickly with possession, limit the Grade-A chances against, and the Maple Leafs should be able to run-and-gun the Blue Jackets into submission. Easier said than done. Columbus is one of the NHL’s best at sustaining a heavy cycle and forcing its opponents into own-zone turnovers. The less time the Leafs are forced to spend on their heels, the better.
Biggest question facing Columbus: Can they score? Tortorella plans to inject his lineup with youth and speed — Hello, Liam Foudy! No pressure, Alexandre Texier! — in an effort to keep pace with one of the fastest teams in the East. But the young Blue Jackets have just one 20-goal forward (Oliver Bjorkstrand); Toronto has four of them. Who would you rather have as your second-line centre, John Tavares or Alexander Wennberg? The Jackets can defend all they like, but at some point the likes of Atkinson, Dubois, Nyquist, Foligno, and Boone Jenner will need to put the puck in the net.
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.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
