Articles in Toronto Maple Leafs

from Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,

With a 4-2 victory, the Bruins took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, often smothering the Leafs and slamming the door on an ineffective Toronto power play, killing off all five minors.

“Power play is a big part of it, right?” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We get to two (goals). Power plays needs to get you one (more), it gets you to three, if not four, and then it’s a good night offensively in the playoffs, against an elite defensive team.

“I thought the power play was all right. We had some good looks in tight around the net that we didn’t make good on, but we have to find a way to get those in.”...

The power-play is ugly, though. Through three games, the Leafs are 1-for-11 (9.1%).

“The puck is not going in, which is frustrating,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said. “But there are chances coming. We’re trying to focus on our structure and I think our entries have been good. We’re trying to get pucks to the net, trying to create rebounds and traffic. It’s matter of getting the puck across the line.”...

On the other side of special teams, the Leafs are hurting as well. Boston is 5-for-10 on the power play in the series, including going 2-for-3 on Wednesday.

more and watch the game highlights here...

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

In the final minute of Auston Matthews’ tour de force, with overtime seemingly looming, with the Boston Bruins buzzing, with Ilya Samsonov unsure of the location of the puck Matthews slid the disc under Samsonov’s pads.

There is no statistic for composure. There is no statistic for assuring victory. There is no statistic, overall, for being the most complete player on the ice in every zone and every way of a playoff victory.

There is a statistic for this though: The Maple Leafs and the Bruins are tied 1-1 after two games at the TD Garden. This playoff series is now a best of five. The blasted Leafs from Game 1, battled back in Game 2, made some stunning mistakes and some shocking errors and still wound up standing tall enough for a 3-2 hold-your-breath win Monday night over a clearly exasperated Bruins team.

You expect Matthews to score, because that’s what he does better than anyone in hockey. His 70th goal of this season didn’t happen in the regular season. And he set up two other scores. Three goals for the Leafs, three points for the giant, Matthews.

On a night the Leafs were losing at faceoffs, he was winning his. He did what he usually does, win puck battles, block shots, rarely turned it over, rarely get beat in any situation, and think the way great hockey players are supposed to think when the game and the series and maybe the season are all on the line.

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Below watch TSN on Matthews and watch the game highlights here.

from Like Fox of Sportsnet.,

The count is 1-0 for both the Boston Bruins and the can't-flip-a-switch crowd.

For all the talk of clean slates, brand-new years, and meaningless regular seasons, so many of the worrisome hallmarks of the Toronto Maple Leafs' scuffle down the stretch reared their ugly head in a tidy 5-1 victory for the home side in Game 1 on Saturday.

Asked before puck drop what his group had learned from its 0-2-2 regular-season series against the B's, Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe quipped: "We learned what doesn't work."

Well, the Leafs took a refresher course Saturday, as the vociferous TD Garden fans razzed "Sam-soooon-ov!" with glee, partied to five rounds of "Kernkraft 400," and left the barn chanting "Olé! Olé! Olé!"

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from Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,

Never mind that the Maple Leafs didn’t have William Nylander in the first game of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Where were Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner at TD Garden in Boston against the Bruins? Where was the solid goaltending that was being provided by Ilya Samsonov in the second half of the regular season?

hat was being provided by Ilya Samsonov in the second half of the regular season?

The best-of-seven series couldn’t have started much worse for the Leafs on Saturday night, falling in Game 1 by a score of 5-1.

When Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman made a quick pad save on Nick Robertson 90 seconds after the opening faceoff, it served notice that the Boston starter was going to be in a groove.

Not so with Samsonov, who was stuck in rut at the other end.

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Below, watch the TSN panel on game 1.

from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

Of course, Toronto’s ugly playoff drought against the Bruins also could have ended in Game 7 in 2018, but it didn’t. It could have ended with the Leafs holding a 3-2 series lead in 2019, but then Toronto’s finest could only score three goals in the final two games and went down to defeat again.

Which brings us to 2024, and another meeting between the two clubs. This time, someone of a conspiratorial mindset might think that this matchup was deliberately orchestrated by the Bruins, another chance to pummel the Leafs.

All Boston had to do, after all, was beat hapless Ottawa at home on Tuesday night to win the Atlantic Division. Instead, the Bruins made Anton Forsberg look like Vladimir Dzurilla and mailed in a 3-1 loss. That allowed the Florida Panthers, who beat the Leafs that night, to win the division and allowed the Bruins to draw the Leafs in the first round.

Was that Boston’s preference all along? If you had Boston’s record against Toronto, wouldn’t you have done the same? The Leafs haven’t bested the Bruins in a playoff series since 1959, and currently are on a seven-game regular-season losing streak against their Atlantic Division “rival.”

Just this season, it’s been all Boston. Four games, four wins. The Bruins held the powerful Toronto offence to nine goals and the vaunted Leafs power play to nine per cent efficiency. Boston goes right at the strengths of the Leafs and takes them away.

If teams were permitted to choose their first-round playoff opponent, we can agree the Leafs would have been Boston’s No. 1 pick. And maybe that’s exactly the preference the Bruins expressed in losing to the Senators.

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via the Toronto Maple Leafs,

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced today that the hockey club has acquired defenceman Joel Edmundson from the Washington Capitals in exchange for a third-round selection in the 2024 NHL Draft (previously owned by the New York Islanders) and a fifth-round selection in the 2025 NHL Draft (previously owned by the Chicago Blackhawks). The Capitals are retaining 50% of Edmundson’s salary.

Edmundson, 30, has collected 110 points (29 goals, 81 assists) in 521 career regular season games with Washington, Montreal, Carolina and St. Louis. The Brandon, Manitoba native has also registered 21 points in 75 career playoff contests.

from Mick Kypreos at the Toronto Star,

In golf, there’s always a chance your friends will let you take a mulligan if you shank one off the tee. It’s really a shame NHL general managers don’t get the same courtesy when making trades.

Certainly Kyle Dubas could have used a few.

Even if it wouldn’t have saved the former Maple Leafs GM his job and earned him the autonomy he was desperately seeking last off-season, it would have left his replacement, Brad Treliving, more cards to play going into Friday’s NHL trade deadline.

Leafs fans have been on quite the transaction ride since Brendan Shanahan took over as president in 2014.

Four GMs — five if you include Mark Hunter’s brief stint as co-interim GM — in the last 10 years have had a crack at shaping the Leafs roster, but no one has had a bigger impact than Dubas.

Before Dubas became the 17th GM in Leafs history, Shanahan’s first few years as president played out as expected. He was there when Dave Nonis dumped key veterans like Cody Franson and Daniel Winnik for significant picks in 2015. Then, with Lou Lamoriello at the helm in 2016, the first significant addition was made to the Shanaplan by trading first- and second-round picks for 27-year-old goalie Frederik Andersen, a move that helped them get back in the playoffs in 2017.

But things took a turn for the worse the day Shanahan put all his faith in Dubas.

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from Sportsnet,

The Maple Leafs will acquire right-handed shooting defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin from the Anaheim Ducks in a three-team trade involving the Carolina Hurricanes, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reports.

As part of the trade, the Ducks will retain 50 per cent of Lyubushkin’s salary and receive a third-round draft pick. The Hurricanes will retain 25 per cent of Lyubushkin’s salary and receive a sixth-round pick.

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NEW YORK (Feb. 29, 2024) – Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe has been fined $25,000 for unprofessional conduct directed at the officials that resulted in a game misconduct at 17:46 of the third period of NHL Game No. 931 on Tuesday, Feb. 27, the National Hockey League announced today.

from Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star,

First game home after a long road trip, a scenario typically susceptible to a stumble. Facing the same opponent — reigning Stanley Cup champions, no less — you humiliated just a few days ago. The Vegas Golden Knights were huffing steam out of their nostrils.

Situation ripe for the stars to misalign. For the Maple Leafs to sink below the horizon of a seven-game win streak screeching to a halt. Most of these guys have never even been in that time zone before.

For nearly 30 minutes on Tuesday evening at Scotiabank Arena, Ilya Samsonov — the sublimely resurrected Samsonov, on a personal hurtle of six consecutive wins (didn’t start last Thursday’s dismantling of the Knights off the Strip) — looked like he might singlehandedly dictate this encounter. And in a way he did, in the 6-2 defeat....

It was as stinko a game as the Leafs have put up circa ’24, the team inexplicably so much better on the road this season: 15-11-2 at home now. Not quite meek in submission — Keefe would later claim it had been the team’s best start to a game all season, which is a jaw-dropping exaggeration — but it lacked resolve after Toronto had barrel-housed along this past fortnight. The offence dried up and the defence got snookered, most notably the reunited (until the third period) tandem of Morgan Rielly and T.J. Brodie, minus-four for each on the night.

All good things must end, and this one with a thud.

“We lost two points today, yeah?’’ a downcast Samsonov said afterward. “It’s a hard loss for us, especially for me.

“I think we, especially right now, we play better, yeah? We a better team, yeah? I don’t know. I’m so … so mad (that) we lost two points like that.’’

more

Game highlights are below.

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

In short, no member of the Toronto Maple Leafs needed a night like Saturday more than Bertuzzi — who celebrated his 29th birthday with a hat trick, a 4-3 comeback victory over the mighty Colorado Avalanche, and the franchise's longest winning streak in more than 20 years.

"Felt good. That was a great road trip for us, collecting eight points. And being able to go home on that note was awesome," Bertuzzi said, swapping out the birthday cake for a post-game chocolate protein shake.

"Everyone's just buying in. We're at a point in the season where we got to kinda turn things on and have a winning mentality. Take no games off and try and be as consistent as possible."

Partly to help Bertuzzi get off the schneid, coach Sheldon Keefe threw speedy playmakers Max Domi and William Nylander on his line and threw him onto the deadly top power-play unit, asking captain John Tavares to step back.

"I mean, look at the types of goals he scored here tonight. He's been getting those shots and those chances all season long, and the puck hasn't fallen for him," Keefe said. "So that's why you just kind of stay with it. And obviously we've increased his opportunity to get even more of those types of looks. Thrilled for him."

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Game highlights are below.

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Jake McCabe was thinking about it Thursday in sunny Las Vegas, in the middle of back-to-back jacks, sometime between wins five and six of the best and most consistent stretch of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey all winter.

When did things click?

What allowed a group so often praised or ripped for its top heaviness to find a little balance and a lot of buy-in? To reel off a six-pack of convincing wins by a cumulative score of 34-14?

To fight through fatigue and stomp the Vegas Golden Knights 7-3 Thursday in their own bass-boosted barn and leap over the reigning Stanley Cup champions to enter the NHL's top 10 in points percentage (.636)?

McCabe pointed to Feb. 13's home date against the St. Louis Blues, the first game of Morgan Rielly's suspension, when core forwards Mitch Marner and John Tavares came down ill, and the supporting cast was suddenly called upon to read lines intended for the leads.

McCabe thought of Bobby McMann's hat trick that evening, but the effort and purpose spread well beyond the actions of one unlikely hero. It was all hands on deck.

"We played such a simple and north and heavy game. And fast. Got in on the forecheck. And we've kind of continued that here through this stretch," McCabe said inside T-Mobile Arena, after slapping his sixth goal of the season, a career best.

"Building an identity and building confidence within that structure has been really important for us, and it's paying dividends for us."

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Game highlights are below.

In 54 games, the second time Matthews has hit the 50 goal mark.

from Steven Ellis of The Daily Faceoff,

When Tyler Bertuzzi signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 2, it looked like a win-win for both sides.

Bertuzzi needed a chance to bounce back after a difficult 2022-23 season. He had 30 points in 50 games between Detroit and Boston last season after dealing with multiple hand injuries. After he scored a career-best 62 points in 2021-22, Bertuzzi and the Leafs were hoping to see him bounce back and be healthy this season.

Health-wise? All’s good. Performance-wise? The opposite.

Bertuzzi enters Wednesday’s meeting with the Arizona Coyotes with 22 points in 53 games. Previously a 30-goal scorer, Bertuzzi is on pace for just 11 this year – the lowest he’s had in any season with at least 50 games played.

His struggles have been well-documented, and his $5.5 million cap hit makes him very, very difficult to trade. So that’s not an option. Getting him back on track is. Coach Sheldon Keefe finally put Bertuzzi on the power play against Anaheim, scoring one of Toronto’s nine goals in a blowout victory.

Great. That’s good to see. But with two goals in his past 32 games, there hasn’t been much celebrating from No. 59.

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EW YORK (Feb. 20, 2024) – National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman today affirmed the five-game suspension that was assessed to Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly for cross-checking Ottawa Senators forward Ridly Greig during NHL Game No. 812 in Ottawa on Saturday, Feb. 10.

Commissioner Bettman heard Rielly’s appeal of the original decision, assessed Feb. 13, at a hearing on Feb. 16.

The incident occurred at 19:54 of the third period. Rielly was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for cross-checking.

original post was on 2/10/24 at 9:48pm,

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

This story of this one-goal game can be boiled down to one play.

And, no, that play is not Auston Matthews' game-winning goal in overtime to allow his Toronto Maple Leafs to escape with a 1-0 victory and steal two ugly points from the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday. (Even Matthews is happy to concede that.)

The play of grave concern and wonderful consequence occurred in the second period, with the Maple Leafs' star-studded top power-play unit extending its shift and principles Matthews and Mitch Marner committing an atrocious line change as the Jets' penalty killers rushed against the grain.

Toronto's best players' lack of detail paved way for the rare shorthanded 2-on-0 rush.

"Not typical moment, yeah?" Ilya Samsonov thought, as killers Morgan Barron and Adam Lowry came barrelling down on his crease untouched in a 0-0 goalie duel.

Tic-tac-toe, Lowery and Barron played catch with each other. One ripped a shot, the other tried pounding home an uncontested rebound.

Samsonov stoned them both, while Matthews and Marner were busy catching their breath safely on the bench.

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Game highlights are below.

from Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,

The Edmonton Oilers simply don’t lose hockey games.

Against a Maple Leafs team that is experiencing some big-time issues, that wasn’t about to change.

A 2-0 Leafs lead on Tuesday night in Edmonton seemed too good to be true, and sure enough, it was.

When Ryan McLeod beat a screened Martin Jones — by Connor McDavid, no less — at 16:55 of the third period, the Oilers needed no more, scoring their third unanswered goal in a 4-2 win.

An empty-net goal by Evan Bouchard put an exclamation mark on the Oilers’ 11th win in a row.

For the second time this season and first since Oct. 24-Nov. 4, the Leafs have lost four games in a row. It won’t get any easier as their four-game trip continues in Calgary against the Flames on Thursday.

As much as the Leafs have played uneven hockey this season, it was just the fourth time they lost in regulation on the road. That won’t dampen speculation that it’s time for a coaching change, though it could take some heat off Sheldon Keefe if the Leafs can pull it together and win a couple before they return home to face the Winnipeg Jets next Wednesday.

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Game highlights are below.

Team sport isn’t about individuals. It isn’t about contracts. It isn’t about trophies and all-star team choices.

It’s about a group of players coming together, working together, playing a system, playing with structure, playing with intensity, working in cohesion with the coaching staff.

Right now, the Maple Leafs are none of those things.

-Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun where you can read more on the Leafs.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

Another 12 goalies were signed to NHL contracts — including Ilya Samsonov post arbitration — before the Maple Leafs got around to finalizing their deal on Jones, some seven weeks after the free agency process began.

In all, it took some lost offers, missed opportunities, clarity on the condition of Matt Murray, and a touch of good fortune for the Leafs to sign Jones on Aug. 9 for the same money David Rittich signed for in Los Angeles as the first goalie reportedly signed for on July 1.

“We talked for a long time to get a deal done” said Brad Treliving, the Leafs general manager. “Our first reaction after signing him was — ‘great’. Our second reaction was ‘Can we get him through waivers in two months time?’

“It used to be you needed two goalies to get through a season. Now if you look around, you need three.”

Jones, the 29th goalie signed last summer in free agency, cleared waivers in October and has since become paramount for the Maple Leafs success. Playing behind a spotty defensive team, Jones ranks second in the NHL in goals against average and second in league save percentage....

“We were surprised he was available to be honest,” said Treliving. “Everybody has their own situation every year, they do the math, they look around, they see what’s available. It’s like playing musical chairs. You count how many seats there are available and there are only two per team.
“He told us at the beginning he would be competing for a spot on the Leafs.”

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