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from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Peace and Humptiness forever.

1. For those of us who have watched the Toronto Maple Leafs turn the other cheek for half a decade, for those of us who looked at the NHL’s most penalized and hardest-hitting teams and routinely see the Leafs way down among the league’s gentle giants (they currently rank 27th in PIM per game), the notion of these Leafs as a dirty team is almost laughable.

If anything, the swirling criticism around this fleet and high-scoring bunch is that they haven’t been dirty enough. Gritty enough. Mean enough.

They’ve openly pined for a killer instinct. Leafs' scrums almost always involve logo'd microphones and TV cameras and cliches.

So, it was quite the ear-opener to hear Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice respond to the question: Are the Maple Leafs dirty?

“I don't think so. I don't feel that,” Maurice responded Friday. Then the coach’s tongue glided into his cheek.

“The league has said that they're not, so we will abide by the league's rulings. But they are a poorer team, right? They've had some fines. Probably they'll be looking at some part-time jobs now. That's going to hurt.”

The sound you hear is me popping corn in preparation for Saturday night, the ninth of 10 Leafs-Jets matches and a possible precursor to the 2021 Canadian division final.

contiue for more topics...

from Michael Traikos of the National Post,

I still cannot believe John Tortorella hasn’t been fired yet.

This is what I was thinking as I watched Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins talk about how “sad” and “painful” and “embarrassing” it is to be playing for a team that has become one of the biggest disappointments in the National Hockey League this season.

Mike Babcock, Gerard Gallant and Bruce Boudreau are currently out of work. But Tortorella, who chased Pierre-Luc Dubois out of Columbus and is now ruining Patrik Laine’s career, is still being paid to coach. He’s still in a position in which he gets to bench Max Domi and make roster decisions. He’s still given a platform in which he gets to refuse to answer reporters’ questions.

To borrow a favourite phrase from ex-Leafs coach Randy Carlyle, it’s mind-boggling — especially considering who else has lost their job this year.

Claude Julien was fired in February after the Habs went 9-5-4. The following month, Calgary replaced Geoff Ward (11-11-2) with Darryl Sutter, while Buffalo let go of Ralph Krueger (6-18-4). And yet, with the losses piling up, Tortorella (15-25-9) continues to pick up a paycheque in Columbus.

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THREE HARD LAPS

* Saturday's 11-game slate includes the League-leading Golden Knights putting their lengthy winning streak on the line, the top two teams in the Discover Central Division going head-to-head again at BB&T Center as well as the Avalanche squaring off with the Blues in a matinee on NBC.

* The Wild improved to 6-0-0 in their last six games as Kirill Kaprizov became the first rookie to reach the 20-goal mark this season.

* The Rangers and Flames inched closer to fourth place in their respective divisions.