adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Sports

The Maple Leafs Scored 10 And Have Problems – Defector

Published

3 years ago

 on


Look, I’m no happier to be here right now than you are. Asking What’s the deal with the Maple Leafs? is a fool’s errand at the best of times, let alone before the trade deadline and still two months out from the playoffs. They are confounding, is what they are—as much to their own front office as to observers. They are a danger, but to themselves as much as to others. They are a high-priced sports car doing 90 but ready at any minute to fly apart and smash headlong into a tree. They are, in short, basically what they have been for the last half-decade: fearsome up front, mediocre-to-questionable on the blue line, and a time bomb in net. What that has earned them is a series of first-round exits, but perhaps this year is different. Perhaps this offense is talented enough to overwhelm opponents and paper over the cracks, and perhaps this streaky goalie has what it takes to win in the postseason. Perhaps! But these suppositions too have been part of the annual tradition. You can’t achieve disappointment without them. Anyway, the Leafs nearly blew a 7-2 lead last night.

If it’s ludicrous to stock-take after or infer anything from a single game, it’s not nearly as ludicrous as that game itself. Toronto beat the Red Wings on Saturday evening in Detroit by a score of 10-7, and that is no typo. It was the highest scoring NHL game since 2011, and it was an absolutely carnival of bad goaltending. Per MoneyPuck, the game featured 12.2 goals above expected, given the quantity and quality of scoring chances. Both teams yanked their starting netminders, and one of them even brought theirs back in after having to pull his replacement. Jack Campbell, Toronto’s starter, actually had the best numbers of any goalie in this one, even though he allowed five goals on 25 shots. But Campbell gets the coverage because, of the four men who strapped on the pads and watched a bunch of pucks fly past them, he’s the only one who may be counted on by a good team come the playoffs.

The Leafs have to hope it was the third period of this game that was the fluke rather than the first two, though neither were extensively out of character. Because Toronto looked damn good for 40 minutes, utterly outskating and outworking their opponents. “We lost every puck race, every puck battle, every competition battle,” said Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill, “we lost every single one of them.”

Much of the damage was done by what has emerged as perhaps the best line in hockey, that of Michael Bunting, who is scoring his way to a strong Calder case, Auston Matthews, who leads the league in goals and has somehow found yet another gear this season, and Mitch Marner, who’s having the best shooting and goalscoring season of his career. On Saturday Toronto’s first line combined for six goals and nine assists. Marner, as part of his four-goal game, racked up a natural hat trick in a span of under 10 minutes in the second:

[embedded content]

“That line was pretty much unstoppable tonight,” said Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe. It’s that line that Toronto will be counting on to overpower playoff opponents, and even ones capable of siccing talented checking lines on them will find it hard to keep them off the board for a full 60. The top line—give or take some sort of coming back to earth for Bunting, who was a career Coyotes AHLer until this magical rookie year—is not the problem. Depth scoring is, though maybe not a huge one. Unfortunately it’s one that may have to go unaddressed, as the Leafs’ desire to pick up a top-six forward at the deadline may fall by the wayside thanks to a greater need for another defenseman. And even that may not be their biggest hole.

Jack Campbell has gone from feel-good story to another in a long line of Leafs goalies with big blinking question marks. He started off this season with a Vezina-worthy run, but since the new year he’s sported a sub-.900 save percentage. His offense has picked him up more often as not—as they did in this one—but it’s hard to compare him to the other netminders the Leafs may face in the playoffs and feel confident about Toronto’s chances against the likes of a Vasilevskiy or a Bobrovsky, to say nothing of potential later-round match-ups in a strong Eastern Conference.

Speaking of great East goalies: That Freddie Andersen thrived the second he got out of Toronto may hint that the Leafs’ back-end woes are significantly a function of their inability to stop a rush or clear the front of their own net, but when Campbell has been bad, he’s been really bad. Campbell entered the third period on Saturday looking to protect a 7-2 lead, and promptly allowed three goals in under five minutes before getting the hook. The first and third goals of this sequence are among the softest you’ll ever see.

“He’s got to be better,” Keefe said of Campbell. “That goal to start the period is a nothing play, really. It’s a routine save that he can make and he doesn’t. And then it kind of still snowballs, obviously, from there.”

Petr Mrazek wasn’t much better, allowing two goals on eight shots in relief, but the Leafs offense yet again bailed the team out, tacking on a few more for the least comfortable 10-7 win you’ll ever see.

“I’m putting Petr Mrazek in a horrible spot,” Keefe said. “I mean, if there’s ever been a time where a goalie knew for sure he wouldn’t be going into a game, that would probably be it. I’m sure he was pretty much already on the plane in his mind. And then all of a sudden, he’s got to go into a crazy game. I thought it was important to make that change at that time.”

It was a crazy game, and a wildly entertaining one—the NHL is perhaps not thrilled that it overshadowed an outdoor game in Nashville. But these Leafs have a way of demanding attention, for reasons both good and … otherwise. No deficit is overwhelming to them, but also no lead is safe. That makes for fun, fascinating hockey to watch, but not an ideal roster with which to enter the postseason. With a later-than-usual trade deadline of March 21, the front office still has time to come to a decision on whether it can trust Campbell to try to reverse historic fortunes. There may be an unusual number of quality goalies available at the deadline, and if Campbell can’t reverse his slide, I’d expect the Leafs to go get one. With a looming first-round matchup against a more complete team, Toronto is still playing catch-up, no matter how many goals it can score.

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Sports

Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

Published

1 day ago

 on

October 18, 2024

By

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

Published

2 days ago

 on

October 17, 2024

By

 

OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

Published

2 days ago

 on

October 17, 2024

By

 

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending