Sports
Would the Raptors consider pulling the plug on the season
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TORONTO – With each loss, the Toronto Raptors are watching their once-promising season slip away.
They were 11-9 when Pascal Siakam returned from his groin injury in an impressive win over Cleveland late last month. After treading water without their best player for three weeks, they seemed poised to make a run in what looked like a wide-open Eastern Conference.
Since then, they’ve dropped nine of 11 games, including their past six – the longest active losing streak in the NBA. Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel depends on your willingness to separate process from result.
If winning is the cure, as Siakam put it last week, then they’ve been close to turning the corner. Of those six straight losses, four have come down to the final possession or two.
In their latest defeat, a 104-101 overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday, they played hard on the second night of a back-to-back, defended well and got a brilliant performance from Siakam, who scored 38 points and hit the game-tying layup at the end of regulation. They were also held to just five points on 16 possessions in nine minutes to close the contest.
Good teams find ways to win games. Instead, the Raptors are finding new and increasingly frustrating ways to lose.
From top to bottom, everyone in the organization has remained patient, understanding that there’s still plenty of basketball left to be played and a chance to turn things around, like they started to do around this time last year. But that’s only true until it’s not anymore. A sense of urgency is beginning to creep in, as it should.
After visiting the Knicks – the league’s hottest team and winners of eight straight games – on Wednesday, they’ll face the red-hot Cavaliers in Cleveland to close out the week. Coming out of a short Christmas break, they host the Clippers, Grizzlies and Suns – each of them top-five teams in the Western Conference – before the calendar flips to 2023. If their luck, and their play, doesn’t turn quickly, they could be looking at an 11-game losing streak on Jan. 1.
At 13-18, they currently sit 10th in the East, occupying the conference’s final play-in seed. They’re only five games back of fifth-place Philadelphia, but they’re even closer to the bottom of the standings. Only 3.5 games separate them from the Houston Rockets for the third-worst record in the league and a 14 per cent chance at the first-overall pick in this summer’s draft.
The clock is ticking, leaving Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster with a big decision to make as we move closer to the Feb. 9 trade deadline.
The vultures are already circling. If the losses continue to pile up, people are wondering whether the Raptors would consider pulling the plug on this season, or even take a more drastic measure. It’s not just fans. Sensing blood in the water, teams have started calling Toronto to inquire into the availability of its core players, multiple sources confirm to TSN.
This front office isn’t one to hang up the phone. They’ll listen to offers, as they generally do, and at this point everything – and everyone, save for reigning Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes – should be on the table.
Still, those preliminary and very hypothetical discussions are a long way away from becoming anything more. This is not a short-sighted group. Tempting as it may be to chase lottery balls in a draft year headlined by a pair of generational talents, French big man Victor Wembanyama and dynamic guard Scoot Henderson, they won’t do that at the expense of their long-term vision. What will ultimately determine how Ujiri and Webster approach the deadline is whether that vision has changed.
Heading into the season, the plan was to continue developing their core and remain competitive, while sitting on their assets – which include a full complement of first-round picks – and waiting for the right opportunity to go all-in and add a star via trade. Sure, they wanted to see progress and take another step forward this season, but it was less about what they would do this year and more about what they could become in the years to come.
We know they felt strongly about that plan, the core and their preferred style of play a few months ago. Do they feel differently based on what they’ve seen – or haven’t seen – over the past few weeks?
That’s the question they’ll have to answer internally, first and foremost. Do they still believe that some combination of Barnes, Siakam, Fred VanVleet and O.G Anunoby, plus that hypothetical star, could be the nucleus of a championship team? If the answer is yes, then you stay the course and live with a potentially disappointing result to this season. If the answer is no, then this could be the time to pivot.
What might that look like? While you never want to rule anything out completely, a full-on rebuild seems unlikely. There’s a reason why their guys are in high demand: they’re really good players and extremely valuable assets. Siakam and VanVleet are all-stars in their prime. Anunoby is one of the league’s best two-ways players, just entering his prime. All three are homegrown and fit the organizational culture and preferred style of play.
Those are not the kinds of players that you trade just to bottom out and be bad. You’re not trading them for a middling prospect, expiring salary and a contending team’s late first-round picks. And you’re probably not getting fair value if you’re looking for a win-now return. The only way you’re considering moving those guys, Siakam in particular, is if you decide to rebuild and a team is offering a massive haul of unprotected future picks, on par with what Utah got from Minnesota for Rudy Gobert this past summer.
Even then, that’s not a decision you make lightly. Trading a player, or players, of that calibre is not something you can undo. Those are the moves that can make or break a franchise’s fate for years to come.
The Raptors have worked hard to build and, with the exception of the anomaly 2020-21 season, maintain a winning culture. There’s value in that, and it’s hard to see them upending it and putting their future in jeopardy for an outside shot at hitting it big in the lottery.
“The Tampa Tank,” as Ujiri would later refer to it, was under completely different circumstances. The Kyle Lowry era was coming to an end on its own merit. VanVleet was yet to become an all-star and Siakam still hadn’t regained his pre-pandemic form. If there was a long-term plan, it was a lot harder to see, making “Play-in for what?” hit differently. The opportunity cost of tanking was a lot lower.
And even still, not all tanks are created equal. That was more of a soft or natural tank. For one, they didn’t have to unload anyone. The deal they made at the deadline – turning Norman Powell’s expiring contract into a younger and more controllable asset in Gary Trent Jr. – was a neutral move.
Then, with the injuries and losses mounting late in the season, it made sense to start sitting guys out, especially Lowry at the tail end of his Raptors tenure. That they were playing games in an empty arena or in front of other teams’ fans on the other side of the continent made that decision easier, and the result was the fourth-overall pick and, ultimately, Barnes.
In the event that this season can’t be salvaged, and we’ll get a pretty good sense of that over the coming weeks, then the soft tank remains a possibility. Post-deadline, if they’re still dealing with various ailments and are hovering around those play-in spots, you could imagine them opting to take another strategic, short-term step back and shutting players down early. Expect to see plenty of “sore ankles” and “knee contusions” around the league as the Wembanyama sweepstakes heats up late in the season.
At some point in the not-so-distant future, decisions have to be made regarding the viability of this core, which is about to become very expensive. But any major change is more likely to come during the off-season, when Ujiri and Webster prefer to do their heavy lifting.
That doesn’t mean they should stand pat now, or that they will. Regardless of how they approach the deadline, expect them to gauge the market for Trent, who’s likely to opt out of his deal and become a free agent this summer, when he’ll be in line for a big raise. Unless they plan to pay him, he could be dealt in a similar move to the one that brought him to Toronto.
The deadline is seven weeks away. You can expect Ujiri and Webster to spend that time watching closely, evaluating, and trying to determine whether this recent skid is a blip on the radar or something bigger and more concerning.
Sports
Canucks start new playoff tradition and Dakota Joshua got first honour | Offside – Daily Hive
Good Co. Bars is your home for the playoffs! Enjoy $5 beers, prizes, a full game-day experience, and the best atmosphere to catch the game. Join us at any of our five locations.
The Vancouver Canucks revealed the debut of a new playoff tradition after last night’s exciting Game 1 comeback win against the Nashville Predators.
The team has created a win tracker in the shape of the Stanley Cup to commemorate their victories as they go through this year’s playoffs, the first non-COVID postseason for the Canucks since 2015.
The Stanley Cup tracker has space for 16 pucks, one for each win needed on the journey to capture the sport’s ultimate trophy. The player of the game, after each win, gets to place a puck into an empty slot.
Winger Dakota Joshua earned the honour of inserting the first puck after a huge performance in Game 1.
“We’re going to start a little tradition here, 16 pucks, 16 wins,” explained captain Quinn Hughes after the team’s big Game 1 comeback victory. “[Could] give it to Demmer, he made some big saves, Lindy, way to get us going, but this is going to Playoff D!”
The Captain has spoken.
Game puck goes to “Playoff D”! pic.twitter.com/e6VaT49Bkv
— Y – Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) April 22, 2024
“One of 16, let’s f**king go,” Joshua said as he placed the puck into the tracker.
The bruising power forward deserved the honour as he scored twice, including the game-winner, and added an assist in the Game 1 victory. Thatcher Demko and Elias Lindholm also had big games, as Hughes alluded to during his mini-speech before picking the winger as the player of the game.
Joshua’s contributions helped the Canucks take a 1-0 series lead on a truly special night at Rogers Arena. The crowd was the loudest than it had been in years.
The team will have the chance to add another puck to the Stanley Cup tracker tomorrow night when they take on the Predators in Game 2. The puck drops at 7 pm PT.
Sports
Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston Bruins — Game #2 Preview, Projected Lineups & TV Broadcast Info – Maple Leafs Hot Stove
Following a frustrating Game 1 in which many familiar playoff issues reared their ugly heads, the Maple Leafs will need a cleaner and tighter performance in Game 2 if they’re to bring the series back to Toronto tied at 1-1 (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet, CBC, ESPN).
The reactions to Game 1 on both sides of the spectrum have been… well, reactionary. On the one hand, the Leafs also got blown out in Game 1 a year ago against the Tampa Bay Lightning, yet rebounded to win the series in six games. On the other hand, the Leafs are now 2-7 in Game 1s in the Matthews era and just 1-5 since Sheldon Keefe took the reins as head coach. To state the obvious, a 0-1 series deficit makes a difficult task — one that the Leafs have only completely successfully once in the last 20 years — that much more difficult.
It’s also true that the five-on-five play was a lot closer than the final Game 1 scoreline reflects. Even if we removed the third period when score effects were in full swing at 4-0, Natural Stat Trick pegged the 5v5 expected goals at 2.03-1.88 in favor of Toronto, and shot attempts were 29-28 Bruins over the opening 40.
The Leafs gave the Bruins five power-play opportunities, and it wasn’t only a case of some dodgy officiating. The Leafs took some sloppy penalties, including one from each member of the top line, with Tyler Bertuzzi and Auston Matthews taking high-sticking calls in front of the Bruins’ net. They also were off to a positive start to the game before giving up a 2-on-1 goal, and on the PK, Jake DeBrusk’s goal was far too easy. Those are the types of looks the Bruins simply did not afford the Leafs over the course of the game.
The other big storyline continues to be the Leafs’ infamous streak of scoring two goals per game in the playoffs (now at eight games). Some of the challenges were due to Jeremy Swayman, and some were Toronto’s offensive approach in the game. The (possibly) good news is that one of the team’s best offensive weapons was on the ice this morning and is not ruled out for tonight.
William Nylander was seen at the Leafs’ optional skate Sunday morning with the Leafs’ projected scratches and again participated in the morning skate on Monday. With all due respect to Nick Robertson, he’s nowhere near the calibre of the play-driving threat Nylander is both at five-on-five and on the power play. On paper, a new-look third line of Järnkrok-Holmberg-Nylander could give the Bruins some matchup headaches after Game 1 played out in a fairly straightforward manner for Jim Montgomery.
As was the case in Game 1, with Keefe staying mum in the media, we won’t know for sure about Nylander until close to puck drop.
Maple Leafs’ Keys to Game 2
via Anthony Petrielli
– The Bruins have scored first in all five games this season, and the Leafs have not led a single game at any point. The first goal would provide Toronto with some confidence and allow them to settle down.
– The Leafs need to play more north/south and attack the net. There was too much east-west in Game 1.
– There was a lot of focus on the PK, the defense, and the goaltending after Game 1, all of which are real issues, but the Leafs have eight goals in five games vs. Boston this season. Cut it any way you want, but the Leafs are not going to win consistently with that poor of an offensive output. They need to get inside on Boston, crash the net, shoot more, and win battles in front of the net.
– The Leafs’ penalty kill needs to do a better job of pressuring. They can’t allow a player like Jake DeBrusk to curl up top with the puck, go downhill, and shoot untouched. That’s far too easy.
– The Leafs need to limit time in the box and not get carried away physically or with the overall emotions of the game.
– Put simply, the Leafs need some saves and for their stars to be stars. The Bruins’ top players have outplayed the Leafs’ in all five games so far this year. In Game 1, Boston got away with matching Brandon Carlo vs. Auston Matthews. It is very difficult for any team in the league to win when its best players don’t deliver.
Game Day Quotes
Jim Montgomery on his starting goalie for Game 2:
I don’t like keeping you guys in the dark. Do any of you play Wordle? The starting goalie tonight has two vowels in his first and last name.
Montgomery on why he keeps his goalie decision tight to his chest:
I don’t know why we would divulge information. If you are preparing for a game, there are parts of the goaltender that are a part of your pre-scout. That is an advantage for us, right? We don’t know who is starting.
I don’t tell my wife. I am not telling [the media].
Montgomery on what he is hoping to repeat about the team’s Game 1 performance:
I liked our physicality. That has to be repeated. I liked how we got over top of people. We didn’t give up too much off the rush. That is really important against such an electric offensive team.
Sheldon Keefe on the expectation for his team in Game 2:
I expect our team to come out and play hard, play well, and play — in a lot of ways — like we did the other night. Just make a few fewer mistakes and finish a few of our chances. We don’t have to change much more than that. Quite honestly, we liked a lot of things about our game. We just have to get back to it.
Keefe on shifting Tyler Bertuzzi onto PP1:
Bert is good around the net. It gives you a second guy similar to John in the sense that he can hound the puck and be good around the net. That is really it.
Keefe on the message to Max Domi after his slashing penalty in Game 1:
It is playoff hockey. I don’t even have to talk to Max about these things. He has been through it a lot. It is all part of the intensity. I don’t need Max to change anything about who he is and how he plays.
He is an important guy for us. I love the intensity he brought the other night. He got caught on a penalty. Their guy is probably going to give the same slash 10 times over the rest of the series. We’ll see if he gets called on it.
I love Max’s intensity.
Keefe on the group of six defensemen he’s started the series with, with TJ Brodie on the outside looking in:
We looked at how the season has gone, how the group has come together, how the pairs fit, the opponent, and the type of matchups and intensity you expect early in the series. Those are the guys we are going with.
Head-to-Head (Regular Season) Stats: Maple Leafs vs. Bruins
In the regular-season statistics, the Leafs hold the advantage over the Bruins in five out of five offensive categories, but the Bruins hold the advantage in three out of five defensive categories.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines*
Forwards
#59 Tyler Bertuzzi – #34 Auston Matthews – #11 Max Domi
#23 Matthew Knies – #91 John Tavares – #16 Mitch Marner
#89 Nick Robertson – #29 Pontus Holmberg – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
#24 Connor Dewar – #64 David Kampf – #75 Ryan Reaves
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly – #46 Ilya Lyubushkin
#2 Simon Benoit – #22 Jake McCabe
#20 Joel Edmundson – #37 Timothy Liljegren
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Ilya Samsonov
#60 Joseph Woll
Extras: TJ Brodie, Mark Giordano, Conor Timmins, Noah Gregor, Martin Jones, Cade Webber
Injured: Bobby McMann, William Nylander
Boston Bruins Projected Lines*
Forwards
#43 Danton Heinen – #18 Pavel Zacha – #88 David Pastrnak
#63 Brad Marchand – #13 Charlie Coyle – #74 Jake DeBrusk
#94 Jakub Lauko – #39 Morgan Geeke – #11 Trent Frederic
#19 John Beecher – #70 Jesper Boqvist – #61 Patrick Maroon
Defensemen
#27 Hampus Lindholm – #73 Charlie McAvoy
#48 Matt Grzelcyk – #25 Brandon Carlo
#22 Kevin Shattenkirk – #52 Andrew Peeke
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Linus Ullmark
#1 Jeremy Swayman
Extras: James van Riemsdyk, Parker Wotherspoon, Mason Lohrei
Injured/Out: Justin Brazeau, Milan Lucic, Derek Forbort
*Note: At playoff time, with neither coach forthcoming on lineup decisions or injury situations, the final lineups won’t be known until close to puck drop.
BOSTON — William Nylander will not play for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Monday because of an undisclosed injury.
The 27-year-old forward had participated in the morning skate after missing Game 1 of the best-of-7 series on Saturday, a 5-1 loss. Despite taking the ice with the full team Monday, he did not participate in line rushes and stayed on for extra skating with projected scratches.
Nylander also did not participate in special-teams drills. Forward Tyler Bertuzzi was elevated to the top power-play unit, while forward Calle Jarnkrok moved down to the second unit. Toronto went 0-for-3 with the man-advantage Saturday, and its only goal came from David Kampf on the fourth line.
Nylander played all 82 games in the regular season, finishing with an NHL career-high 98 points (40 goals, 58 assists), which ranked 10th in the League. His offensive ability was missed in Game 1, but his teammates said they received a boost just by seeing him on the ice Monday.
“Obviously, a really good sign,” Maple Leafs captain John Tavares said. “We know what he means to our hockey club, so obviously great that he was out there.”
After Game 1, Keefe and multiple players pointed to how Toronto overcame key absences during the regular season, and it’ll have to do the same in Game 2 with Nylander unavailable.
“They’re taking care of him, so it’s [only] a matter of time until he’s back in the lineup,” Maple Leafs forward Nicholas Robertson said. “We’ve got to do what we can without him and hopefully get a win tonight.”
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