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Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Vancouver Canucks – Game #13 Preview, Projected Lines & TV Info – Maple Leafs Hot Stove

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Now sporting six wins in their last seven games and 12 goals in the last two games against Vancouver, the Toronto Maple Leafs, despite suffering another long-term injury, will look to complete a clean sweep in their third consecutive meeting with the fast-imploding Canucks (7 p.m. EST, Sportsnet Ontario).

Wayne Simmonds’ bad break — a clearance from Alex Edler that struck him on the wrist — during Saturday’s game seems to have concluded in the worst possible way, as the 31-year-old will be out approximately a month-and-a-half with a broken wrist. Although they both started skating on their own again today, Simmonds joins Joe Thornton and Nick Robertson as forwards dealing with injuries at the moment. Travis Dermott is still dealing with something minor as well, while Jack Campbell remains on IR and has yet to skate.

The only player who has been on the Leafs‘ roster all season but hasn’t played, Rasmus Sandin, will make his season debut tonight. It has no doubt been a tough few weeks for the former first-rounder, who remained out of the lineup multiple times even when Sheldon Keefe dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Following that experiment, Pierre Engvall, Travis Boyd, and Nic Petan were all thrust into roles as the Leafs went back to 12 forwards. Tonight, after Simmonds’ injury, they will return to 11F/7D and will have both Mikko Lehtonen and Rasmus Sandin in the lineup.

Based on morning skate lines, it will be Alexander Barabanov who enters into the lineup tonight at forward, with Nic Petan sitting out. We can expect some experimentation with the second winger on the Tavares-Nylander line, while the Alex Kerfoot and Travis Boyd lines will be shuffling quite a bit in order for Keefe to observe more combinations now that three forwards who played on opening night are on the mend.

Canucks head coach Travis Green was somewhat tight-lipped in his pre-game availability, but he did mention that Olli Juolevi will make his season debut tonight. The 22-year-old has had a tough development curve after he was drafted fifth overall back in 2016. His first post-draft year was solid, but since then, he’s struggled to live up to expectations at the AHL level and become a consistent offensive threat. He has 38 points in 63 games with Utica (AHL) the last two seasons.

Without much in the way of adjustments to make, the Canucks will just simply have to be much more competitive tonight if they’re to keep the game close. Vancouver fans will be justifiably outraged if the team allows itself to be swept in two straight series (vs. MTL and TOR) without pride kicking in at some point. Given the Leafs‘ uneven lineup at forward, the Canucks will hope that their depth can match up with Toronto better than it has in the last two games.

Speaking of the last two games, here’s a simple rundown of the five-on-five stats from these two lopsided Leafs-Canucks matchups:

stats from evolving-hockey

  • xG: 6.3 to 2.4
  • Shot attempts: 96 to 57
  • Shots on goal: 58 to 36

Not close.

The goaltending matchup will be the same as it was Saturday — Frederik Andersen vs. Braden Holtby.


Game Day Quotes

Sheldon Keefe on the 11F/7D setup:

It gives us a chance to get [Sandin] in the lineup, but it also gives us a chance to move things around a little bit in Simmonds’ absence and to try different things with the lines and get other people opportunities. I expect we’ll have a rotation of people throughout the game filling in with the Tavares-Nylander pairing. Not just that, obviously — when you’ve got 11 people, the changes will be all throughout the lineup.

Keefe on the impact of Simmonds’ injury:

[He’s] obviously a big loss for us. We do think there’s progress here for both Thornton and Robertson. In Jumbo’s case, in particular, we know that he’ll bring a lot to us and will help insulate some of that loss from Simmonds in terms of his personality, voice, and experience on our bench and in our dressing room. But we’re expecting our team to adapt, and those that get the opportunity, you’re expecting them to take advantage and keep our team moving forward.

Keefe on Vesey’s quiet showings so far:

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get to know his game and trying to watch him very closely because he hasn’t jumped off the page really in any game. I take the time to go back and make sure that I’m sure about what I’m seeing or not seeing. I think, in doing so, there’s a lot of things he does that we value and don’t necessarily jump out in the game in terms of getting the puck back and being in good spots defensively.

You lose sight of the fact that he’s scored two even-strength goals for us here, which is significant. It paces out basically to be 10 even-strength goals for us in a 56-game season — we would take that. We think he’s bringing value, but he certainly expects more from himself.

Keefe on Sandin’s first game:

I just want him to go out and have fun, enjoy every shift, every minute that he gets. It’s not going to be a lot for him out there today. We think Mikko [Lehtonen] is coming off his best game. Mikko will be part of the regular rotation and [Sandin] will get shifts here and there and fill in as Dave Hakstol sees fit. We definitely want to get him some shifts and get him going. We’ve moved a lot of forwards in and out to give them an opportunity, but he hasn’t had that quite yet.

Travis Green on his team’s busy schedule thus far and lack of practice:

I almost feel like, even though we’re [fifteen] games into the year, we’ve been doing things in practice that you might almost do right before a season starts. We’ve had so little time to work on parts of our game that I think have not been sharp enough. We’ve been relying on video to work on that, but sometimes you really need to get on the ice and do the work.


Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines

Forwards
#11 Zach Hyman – #34 Auston Matthews  – #16 Mitch Marner
#88 William Nylander – #91 John Tavares – #65 Ilya Mikheyev
#26 Jimmy Vesey – #15 Alex Kerfoot  – #19 Jason Spezza
#94 Alexander Barabanov – #72 Travis Boyd

Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly – #78 T.J Brodie
#8 Jake Muzzin – #3 Justin Holl
#46 Mikko Lehtonen – #22 Zach Bogosian
#38 Rasmus Sandin

Goaltenders
#31 Frederik Andersen (starter)
#30 Michael Hutchinson

Extras: Pierre Engvall, Adam Brooks
Injured: Nick Robertson, Joe Thornton, Jack Campbell, Travis Dermott, Wayne Simmonds


Vancouver Canucks Projected Lines

Forwards
#9 JT Miller – #40 Elias Pettersson – #6 Brock Boeser
#70 Tanner Pearson – #53 Bo Horvat – #35 Louis Eriksson
#35 Justin Bailey – #20 Brandon Sutter – #36 Nils Hoglander
#64 Tyler Motte – #83 Jay Beagle – #26 Antoine Roussel

Defensemen
#43 Quinn Hughes – #4 Jordie Benn
#88 Nate Schmidt – #57 Tyler Myers
#23 Alexander Edler – #48 Olli Juolevi

Goaltenders
#49 Braden Holtby (starter)
#35 Thatcher Demko

Injured: Micheal Ferland, Jayce Hawyrluk, Travis Hamonic

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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:

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