Is newly-acquired defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin a potential fit for Toronto’s top four?
“What I see is just him getting into that mix and competing with the others and may the best defenceman win that spot,” general manager Kyle Dubas said.
Lyubushkin has averaged 18 minutes of ice time in Arizona this season while spending most of his five-on-five shifts alongside Jakob Chychrun.
“Let’s get to know him better before making any sort of proclamations,” said coach Sheldon Keefe. “The fact he does have experience playing with top defencemen is a positive, obviously.”
The Leafs acquired Lyubushkin and forward Ryan Dzingel from the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night in exchange for Nick Ritchie and a conditional second round pick.
Lyubushkin is dealing with some immigration issues and is expected to join the Leafs on Tuesday when they play in Columbus.
“We don’t really have a lot of different guys with his utility,” said Dubas. “A big, strong, right-shot defenceman, strong defensively, able to kill penalties and play with a little more physicality than we may have. He’s kind of gone under the radar in Arizona and we thought, compared to the market on other types of guys, that it was a good bet for us.”
Lyubushkin has racked up 94 hits this season to lead all Arizona defencemen. Jake Muzzin leads the Leafs with 82 hits.
Dubas on acquiring Lyubushkin: ‘It was a good bet for us’
After the Maple Leafs completed a trade Saturday that sent Nick Ritchie and a pick to the Arizona Coyotes for defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin and forward Ryan Dzingel, Leafs GM Kyle Dubas spoke to the media Sunday morning detailing his thought process on the deal and what made Lyubushkin so attractive of an acquisition.
“I skated a little bit with him in the summer when they first signed him,” said Arizona native Auston Matthews. “He’s big and strong and he’s pretty good defensively. Hopefully he meshes pretty well here and we can get him in a game soon.”
Lyubushkin’s nickname in Arizona was “The Russian Bear.” Why?
“He’s just a big boy [6-foot-2, 208 pounds] and plays rough out there,” said Leafs winger Michael Bunting, who spent last season in Arizona. “He’s not afraid to be physical. He works hard every single night. He’s willing to block shots and put his body on the line.”
Dubas hopes that making this deal a month before the March 21 trade deadline will help ease Lyubushkin’s transition.
“His family is going to be in Arizona,” Dubas pointed out. “It will be a bigger adjustment. He goes from playing in Phoenix to playing in Toronto [with more] attention and focus. So, the longer that we can have for him to adjust the better. It was good to get that one across the line yesterday.”
Lyubushkin, 27, will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
“He was playing more this year and playing against better players and doing so fairly well,” Dubas said. “He probably doesn’t fit their timeline as a UFA in Arizona.”
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Saturday’s trade brings to an end Ritchie’s ill-fated tenure in Toronto. The big left winger from Orangeville, Ont. signed a two-year, $5-million contract in the summer and started the season on Toronto’s top line with Matthews and Mitch Marner.
“He had a lot of chances early in the year,” Dubas said. “They didn’t go in. The impact of that on confidence and chemistry is massive. Bunting steps up, [Alex] Kerfoot finds good chemistry with John [Tavares] and it just doesn’t really play out well for Nick, right? That’s the way she goes. Sometimes she goes. Sometimes she doesn’t.”
Ritchie scored a career high 15 goals in 56 games with Boston last season, but mustered just two tallies in 33 games with the Leafs. He was recently demoted to the American Hockey League where he played a couple games with the Toronto Marlies.
“There were a number of other teams that were interested, but they would’ve involved retention and other items we weren’t interested in,” Dubas said. “Arizona had the cap space. They also had a couple of players we were interested in.”
The Leafs placed Dzingel on waivers on Sunday.
“He is an NHL player,” said Dubas. “Selfishly, we hope he gets through and can provide us with depth, but if not that will just be another contract slot and some cash for us.”
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Is Dubas still looking to add on defence?
“I don’t think we’ll ever say, ‘Never,’ at this point. Every day is a new day. If we have the chance to improve the team, we will be looking to do so.”
Toronto’s top pair – Morgan Rielly and T.J. Brodie – has been solid this season. Youngsters Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren have shown promise on the third pair with Travis Dermott rotating in. But the second unit – Muzzin and Justin Holl – has been inconsistent.
Muzzin, who will turn 33 on Monday, has been a minus player in four of five games since returning from a concussion.
“When we’re not defending well as a team, he takes on a lot of that himself and at times he’s doing a little bit too much and is being caught,” Keefe said. “We need our guys to play connected as a team and that’s going to help a guy like Muzz just do his job and when he’s focused on just that, he does it well.”
The Leafs are averaging 3.38 goals against in 16 games since Jan. 8. Toronto ranks 24th overall in that stretch.
Keefe made a point of speaking to Muzzin on the ice after practice wrapped up on Sunday.
Keefe chatted with Muzzin after practice
“When we’re not defending well as a team, he takes on a lot of that himself &, at times, he’s doing a little bit too much & is being caught. We need to play connected as a team & that’s going to help a guy like Muzz just do his job.” pic.twitter.com/zeQp2rNR9e
“The way that things have gone defensively, especially of late, he’s taking on a lot of that himself and that’s not good for anybody,” said Keefe, who once described Muzzin as the conscience of the team.
Keefe has experimented with different looks this week with Muzzin seeing time alongside Sandin, Liljegren as well as Holl.
How can Keefe help Muzzin not take on as much?
“Improve the team around him,” the coach stated succinctly.
Leafs Ice Chips: Helping Muzzin get back on track
It has been an up-and-down season for Leafs defenceman Jake Muzzin, who recently returned from a concussion. Head coach Sheldon Keefe has been trying to help Muzzin find his form again, as the Leafs await the arrival of newly acquired defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin. TSN’s Mark Masters has more.
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Matthews spoke to the media for the first time since colliding with the crossbar near the end of Thursday’s game.
“I’ve had better days,” the 24-year-old said through swollen lips. “It’s been a battle trying to eat and all that stuff. I mean, it is what it is. Just try and push through it and hopefully continue to feel better and better every day.”
Matthews spent a couple of hours at the dentist on Friday. He lost one tooth and required stitches to repair the damage.
Matthews, understandably, was in no mood to dissect the play.
“I saw the crossbar and decided it would be a great idea if I just put my face right through it and see what happened,” he said.
‘It’s been a bit of a battle’ for Matthews after crossbar collision
After Leafs forward Auston Matthews collided with the post in Thursday’s contest against the Penguins, disloding one of his teeth, the 24-year old centerman says ‘it’s been a bit of a battle’ during the recovery process and hopes to continue feeling better with each passing day.
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During the first period of Saturday’s game, the Leafs were assessed a too-many-men penalty after winger William Nylander jumped on the ice and played the puck before Ilya Mikheyev reached the bench.
“Micky was about to step into the bench,” Nylander said. “That happens a lot. Like, to call that one is kind of crazy. It’s not like he was out in the neutral zone. But, it is what it is.”
The Leafs are tied for second in the NHL with eight bench minors. Keefe believes part of that is an anomaly due to the bang-bang nature of too-many-men calls. However, the coach wasn’t making any excuses for Saturday’s penalty.
“This one is not a good one,” Keefe said. “We had more than enough time to process what was going on on the ice and let the puck go by. We failed to do so.”
Top prospect Nick Robertson appears to finally be on track after an injury-plagued run.
“He has been outstanding,” Dubas gushed. “He is only 20 years old and sometimes that gets forgotten because of the strange way his development has gone. He was drafted in the second round [in 2019], had a great season with Peterborough, and then came to our team and played in the bubble [in the playoffs].
“Last season, as a 19-year-old, in [our] third game of the year in Ottawa, he gets injured. And then he gets injured late in the Marlies season and he has a bad injury [non-displaced fracture of his right fibula] in the second game of this season against Manitoba with the Marlies.”
Robertson has three goals and two assists since returning to the Marlies lineup.
“It is the best I have seen him play at this level,” Dubas said, “not only on the puck but off of it, and on the penalty kill. He is much more dangerous with the puck. His skating looks a lot better, which is a credit to him and the work he put in with the staff during his injury to continue to become more explosive, improve his acceleration, get open, and use his shot. As everyone has seen in the last couple of days, he is shooting it in the net from distance.”
And while Dubas heaped praise on the American, he also preached patience.
“We are very, very happy with him,” Dubas said. “The key is for him to continue to build momentum … Last year, with the taxi squad, it was up and down. It tends to stunt momentum. We want to see him continue to build momentum and continue to take on a huge role with the penalty kill and defensively while producing offensively. It will just be a matter of time until he forces our hand.”
Sandin missed practice, because the Leafs needed to send someone down to the AHL to create cap space following Saturday’s trade. Sandin spent some time working with the team’s development staff in the morning. With Dzingel on waivers, Sandin will be available to play on Monday night in Montreal.
Petr Mrazek will get the start against the Canadiens.
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.
