The Maple Leafs’ first matchup with the Canucks was an entertaining 10-goal affair in which they rolled over Vancouver with relative ease. Tonight, Toronto will try to hold off a Vancouver team that will be desperate to break their three-game losing slide (7 p.m. EST, CBC).
After a victory in their season opener against Edmonton, the Canucks have been a major disappointment coming off of their unexpected run to the second round in the 2020 playoffs, where they beat the St. Louis Blues and gave the Vegas Golden Knights a scare. They lost their next three games, scoring only four goals before a shootout win against Montreal. They then lost two more straight to the Habs 7-3 then 5-2 before bouncing back with three-straight wins against the last-place Senators.
A fourth straight win over the Jets last week preceded another pair of big losses to former-teammate Tyler Toffoli and the Montreal Canadiens, this time by scores of 6-2 and 5-3. The fact that they’ve only won six games, three of them against a rebuilding Senators team, has the Canucks fan base feeling justifiably uneasy.
Compared to even the most defensively inadequate teams in the NHL, the Canucks are a special level of incompetent to start the 2021 season — and that’s while being in arguably the worst of the four divisions. They’ve allowed 2.95 xGoals/60 at five-on-five, worst in the league above the Kings’ 2.88. Last season, Chicago finished with a league-worst 2.78 while the Canucks finished at 2.55*. It’s not new for the Canucks to be porous defensively, but the rate at which they’re giving up chances early this year has reached a new level.
Unlike last season, goaltending has not been a saving grace so far for Vancouver. Thatcher Demko has started eight games while Brayden Holtby has started six — both are just below a .900 save percentage and have both been slightly worse than average relative to what their team has given up, although it can be quite a strain on a goalie’s resolve and confidence facing a workload this tough. After the Leafs lit up Demko on Thursday, Holtby will get the start tonight — his last start was Monday against Montreal, where he gave up six goals.
The only lineup change on Toronto’s side will be Mikko Lehtonen in for Travis Dermott, this time due to Dermott’s short-term injury sustained during Thursday’s game.
The team’s bottom line, centered by Travis Boyd, will stay intact with Nic Petan playing his second game of the season and Jason Spezza coming off of his highlight-reel hat-trick. The Canucks as a whole made it very difficult on themselves with their woeful defensive habits all game on Thursday, but the Leafs‘ new-look bottom line took advantage, outperforming Alex Kerfoot’s line in only two fewer minutes. Petan, who only played 15 NHL games last season, has earned an extended opportunity as he looks to show he’s both responsible and capable of creating chances when he has the puck. The line’s skill level and offensive talent relative to the Canucks’ grind-it-out bottom-six was evident on Thursday.
Frederik Andersen, who is settling now into his critical contract year, will start again for Toronto with Jack Campbell still on IR. He’s been far from perfect, giving up 12 goals in his last four games, but those numbers aren’t helped by the fact that the Leafs have been trending downwards defensively despite winning five of their last six games.
Game Day Quotes
Sheldon Keefe on Travis Boyd and what impressed him before he came to Toronto:
I was able to watch him in the NHL and in the playoffs last season with Washington, in particular. He played a playoff game in the season that Washington won the cup as well, so he has some experience — not just in the NHL but in playing when it matters most.
There’s his background, of course, playing the American league. He was a very dangerous player with lots of skill — if you made a mistake, he could score. So, you saw that ability, which spoke to potential for him to be able to play up and down the lineup if required. He has, through his limited time in the NHL, produced at a pretty good rate.
Keefe on avoiding extended stretches of bad play this season:
[Slumps] are definitely what we don’t want to see. To expect that there’s not going to be lulls throughout a game or a season is probably unrealistic, particularly with this season and the way the schedule is with the travel and whatnot. Through the 11 games, I think that’s an area we’ve been real good at. Obviously, we’ve had good results. When we’ve had a bad period or a bad sequence in a game, we’ve responded and gotten it back on track.
That’s how we’ve found a way to win so many of those one-goal games. I’d say we’ve made major progress in that area. I think the players feel it, too. They’ve found themselves in some situations where they’ve looked at it and, in my talks with them, those are the kind of games we would have lost last season. In the early going, we’ve found our way on the right side of it, but each day is a new challenge and a new opportunity.
Keefe on Wayne Simmonds’ performance up the lineup with Tavares and Nylander:
I thought he did a good job. He’s showing lots of jump, skating really well, and he’s able to sustain it really well throughout games with his speed. He does a good job keeping his shifts short, so he gets off the ice before things get too difficult on his shifts, and he trusts his teammates to go out and do the job.
Obviously, his minutes have increased greatly as the season has gone on. We’ve seen the benefits of that when it comes to his confidence and his puck play. Beacuse of how he works, he goes to the net and creates things on the forecheck and he creates a lot more loose pucks for [Tavares] and [Nylander].
Keefe on his team’s two strong power-play units:
There is some competition there — that’s how we designed it and what we’d hoped would materialize. Both units have found success. That helps, of course. If you’ve got one that’s stalled or both have stalled, it’s probably not one you’d stick with for very long, but it’s caught on.
We do combine the two units together at different times if we feel the game calls for it or line changes happen, but we like the balance that we have. The players have responded well, most importantly.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards #11 Zach Hyman – #34 Auston Matthews – #16 Mitch Marner #88 William Nylander – #91 John Tavares – #24 Wayne Simmonds #26 Jimmy Vesey – #15 Alex Kerfoot – #65 Ilya Mikheyev #61 Nic Petan – #72 Travis Boyd – #19 Jason Spezza
Defensemen #44 Morgan Rielly – #78 T.J Brodie #8 Jake Muzzin – #3 Justin Holl #45 Mikko Lehtonen – #22 Zach Bogosian
Goaltenders #31 Frederik Andersen (starter) #30 Michael Hutchinson
Extras: Pierre Engvall, Adam Brooks, Alexander Barabanov, Rasmus Sandin Injured: Nick Robertson, Joe Thornton, Jack Campbell, Travis Dermott
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
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.
