Toronto Maple Leafs

11/30/2024 09:17 AM

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Authored by the Charlie Lindgren of sportswriting.

1. The Toronto Maple Leafs aren't talking about it, but they most definitely should be concerned about it.

Win the Atlantic Division. For once. 

Kinda wild to think that the co-owners of the longest active NHL post-season streak (eight years and humming) have never taken the Atlantic (they did win the one-off North Division in 2021).

In the immortal words of their former head coach, now is the time. 

The Florida Panthers have spilled some talent and become less bothered by regular-season standings. 

The Boston Bruins, with their frightening minus-18 goal differential and their interim head coach, are suddenly more focused on just making the playoffs. 

And today's version of the Tampa Bay Lightning — whom the Leafs face Saturday — isn't quite as fearsome as editions past.

Considering the state of Toronto's goaltending and blue line and the fact that it has already weathered what should be their worst rash of injuries and coldest power-play spell (that sound you hear is Brad Treliving knocking wood), the Leafs should not only see a division title as doable. 

They should be the favourite.

"I don't think it’s talked about. You go out there to play and win every single game," John Tavares says. "The more games you win, the better chance you have of doing that and putting yourself in a great position, earning a playoff spot and earning home ice, higher seeding, all those sorts of things.

"Something like that can go a long way."

The key to turning the Maple Leafs into a great playoff team could very well be sharpening them into an even more elite regular-season team.

Consider: Three of 2024's four conference finalists won their respective divisions. The fourth, Edmonton, was a No. 2 seed.

Rising to the top means arriving to the dance confident and looking across at a weak first dance partner, not only increasing the odds of a Round 1 victory but also of taking care of business before the series stretches to Game 7, thus earning valuable recovery days.

Last season's Eastern Conference wild cards, the Capitals and Lightning were dispelled in convincing fashion. And when you gauge this year's bubble teams, they're all similarly flawed.

We romanticize the chip-and-a-chair eight-seeds, those road warriors like the 2012 Cinderella L.A. Kings, who rip off upset after upset after upset after upset.

In truth, though, the Cup is typically presented to a squad that thrived through the 82 games that preceded its 16 tournament wins.

The 2024, 2023, and 2022 champions all won their respective divisions and home ice through at least two rounds.

For the Maple Leafs, that means showing up for the big mid-season dates, like tonight in Tampa, and not falling for the trap games. (They could have looked past Utah last Sunday but rallied to get the job done.)

Coach Craig Berube is mindful of what a No. 1 seed would do. But his path toward it is one win at a time.

"Do I think it’s important? Yeah, I do. You can get home ice," Berube says. "That’s always an important thing, for sure. But we’re a long way away from that."

Of course. Might as well make it a mission, though.

2. The NHL should consider stealing the new "No Escape Rule" being installed for the second PWHL season, which opens today. 

Rule 15.5 states that the same players who were on the ice when a team commits a penalty must start the penalty kill together. No line changes are allowed, as is the case with icing.

When a defenceman gets penalized, this means starting the PK with three forwards. Coaches who try to get cute and attempt a personnel change anyway will get slapped with an additional delay-of-game bench minor.

A subtle way to boost scoring. 

I'd like to see the "No Escape Rule" earn a trial run in the AHL.

3. Connor Bedard's sophomore slump has him on pace for 15 goals and 60 points over a full 82 games. Those totals would fall shy of his rookie stats, despite missing 14 games to a broken jaw, and despite the Blackhawks' efforts to flush out their roster with a few more proven NHLers.

He's admittedly frustrated and, as face-off struggles continue, has been tried on the wing.

We're certainly not ruling out a rise to superstar status for the 19-year-old. 

(Fellow first-overall pick Nathan MacKinnon's stellar rookie campaign was followed by seasons with 38, 52, and 53 points before he exploded with three 90-plus-point seasons.)

We are, however, of the mind that Bedard should not be placed on Team Canada ahead of a forward more deserving.

Among Canadian forwards, Bedard is tied for 31st in points.

4. Quote of the Week.

"When I heard the word saviour — kiss my ass. That's so wrong to say that about him. It's not fair to him." —Coach John Tortorella on Philadelphia Flyers phenom Matvei Michkov

5. As unfair as it may be for Drew Bannister, we applaud Doug Armstrong's decision to act swiftly and secure the head coach he wanted to run his bench.

Like Claude Julien and Bruce Cassidy before him, Jim Montgomery's firing from Boston almost immediately resulted in a new gig and a fresh start.

Most organizations don't think about hiring a coach until they need one.

Armstrong spotted a chance to upgrade and pounced.

Maybe there's some sort of freedom to be aggressive when you know your days are numbered — heck, just look at Montgomery publicly challenging Bruins leaders David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand in his final weeks — but the veteran Armstrong is managing with increased conviction and aggression before he passes the mantle to Alex Steen in 2026.

We had already circled Armstrong as one of the defining figures of 2024-25 due to his creative double offer sheet against the Oilers. 

This is just another big, bold business move that impresses as much as it may hurt feelings.

6. The Panthers rushed to lock up Carter Verhaeghe long-term, but another core member of the championship squad, defenceman Aaron Ekblad, has been skating through uncertainty.

The difference between Ekblad and, say, Brandon Montour — who expressed a desire to stay in Florida but couldn't turn down the $50 million Seattle offered — is that Ekblad already has $62.775 million (state tax free!) in career earnings.

Still, he's one of the few top-pair defencemen under age 30 who could go to market in a summer where the cap spikes.

How is the second-longest-tenured Cat dealing with contract pressure?

"I mean, it's one of those things. It's always going to linger around," Ekblad says. 

"But at the end of the day, I'm well taken care of. I’m able to go out and play pretty free on a nightly basis and not have to worry about something like that. It's going to come when it comes. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. And life goes on."

Zen.

7. A Stanley Cup ring hasn't taken away Paul Maurice's right to be grouchy.

"You lose a bunch of games, nothing has changed. You're just in a bad mood all the time, right? You can't wait for the next game to start. You got to fix it," Maurice said this week, after the Panthers lost four in a row.

"Our great success last year was that, when things were really s—–, we figured out some things that we kept from that, and we put it into our game and it never came out. So, we've been afforded the opportunity to fix a piece of our game here, and we gotta get it fixed."

Part of Florida's dip is personnel. The Cats lost key blueliners, a stellar backup goalie, and perfect-fit role players up front during a free agency culling.

Part of it is engagement. Surely, it's challenging to muster the same level of urgency for a midweeker in November that you did for do-or-die contests in May and June.

Verhaeghe said the players were "too passive" during the stretch when they lost six of seven and got bag-skated and hollered at as punishment.

"When the emotion gets ramped up, then we're in it, then we're back to our game. Generally, when it's a low-emotion game, then we’re not playing as well as we could be," Verhaeghe explains.

"It comes down to us. It's not really on (Maurice). We go out there every night. We put the pads on and get after it. So, not really too much blame should be on him. Honestly, it's mostly on us and going out there and performing every night."

Ekblad won't use the loss of talent as an excuse.

"Championship or not, every year there's new pieces, right? So, you just have to figure it out. The coaching staff does a great job showing them video and getting them up to speed," alternate captain Ekblad says. "As players, we take care of each other. And if there's something that we see that's not up to par, or something that needs to be taught within our system, then as leaders, we can all do that."

The great challenge for the repeat bid, according to Maurice, is tapping into an energy source. 

"So, you can bring it with anger. You've got desperation if you're trying to make the playoffs. For us, last year there was a little hunger to get back to a place that we fell short the year before but felt we were right there," Maurice says.

"Now, we feel like we're a pretty good team, and that energy to drive our game is a hard game to play. I would give the players room to that."

8. Alex Pietrangelo owns three gold medals from international events — world juniors, World Cup, and the Olympics — but his four children weren't around to see him win any of them. That's who'll be on his mind this week when Canada unveils its 4 Nations Face-Off roster.

"If you make it, great. If I don’t, I get to go on vacation my kids," Pietrangelo says. "That's always an honour, right? My kids have never seen me play for my country. So, it'd be a pretty cool thing to have them watch."

Pietrangelo describes Sochi 2014 and Toronto 2016 as completely different experiences. 

He soaked in the Olympic opportunity, talking to amateur athletes in the food hall and gaining an appreciation for how much they sacrificed to reach the pinnacle of their respective sports. He trekked to the mountains to watch skiing and popped into the other rinks to take in curling and speed skating — sports he'd never see live otherwise.

The other major difference was the time of year, Pietrangelo notes. That the Olympics, like 4 Nations, occurred mid-season smoothed the transition to intense competition. The players are already in rhythm. The last World Cup, which was held in September, was more jarring because the players were just warming up from a summer off.

Almost every projected roster has Pietrangelo slotted beside Vegas teammate Shea Theodore. But when we ask him about the pairing, he throws in a vote for Mark Stone too.

"It's always cool to go through the grind and then do something like that together," Pietrangelo says. "And I’m sure our captain will have a pretty good opportunity. He's having a pretty good year.

"You can say you don't care. And then you get out there to represent your country, you're gonna care."

9. One Golden Knight who needn't worry about making his national team is early Hart Trophy candidate Jack Eichel, one of the original six named to Team USA.

Freed from any stress of wondering if he'd make the cut, Eichel only associates the tournament with anticipation. The Boston University product speaks excitedly about the cities chosen to host (Montreal and Boston), sensing a couple of barns rammed with passionate hockey fans.

"A lot of the things that are associated with it are very close to my heart, so I’m super excited," Eichel says.

The centre is quick to shut down the notion that the players' effort will be more all-star games and less Olympics. He points to the 2016 World Cup pre-tournament warm-up matches between Canada and the U.S. as an example. He's right. Those were fiercely aggressive showdowns, despite having no bearing on tournament results.

"When you put guys in that situation, you have your country on your chest, and you're representing more than you normally do. I think there’s not only a lot of pride that comes with it, I think there’s gonna be a ton of competitiveness," Eichel says. 

"Listen, we all want to win, right? We want to be the champions in the tournament. We're going there to win. We're not going there to just take part. And I'm sure every other team — Finland, Sweden, Canada — feels the same way."

Eichel shoots on a Team Canada goaltending candidate every practice.

Adin Hill wants the gig, and Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy has done his part to help him get it.

They had a chat about Hill's candidacy before the season began, and Cassidy even shuffled some starts around to make sure Hill was in the net when Team Canada's management was in the building to scout.

"So he could get eyes on him live," Cassidy explains. "I don’t think you're making or not making the team in October as a goaltender, but he's built his game. And now I feel like he's as good as he's ever been now here with us — other than that playoff run, obviously.

"And that’s important for him. He wants to be part of it some way, shape, or form."

10. Mitch Marner is a lock, right?

Any doubts about putting the two-way winger on the squad should be dispelled by his performance during this nine-game stint without Auston Matthews.

He's exploded for seven goals and 15 points over that span, the engine driving the Maple Leafs to the top of the Atlantic.

"I mean, it's a childhood dream. You always want to play for Team Canada and represent your country," Marner says. "I'm not trying to focus on that. Trying to focus on the season right now. 

"Focus on here. Focus on winning hockey games."

Canada's coach, Jon Cooper, has a significant say when it comes to the roster. Cooper became a big Marner fan in 2017, when the two won silver medals with Canada at the world championships.

Marner repped the nation at the 2016 world juniors as well, but that squad finished a disappointing sixth.

11. Just wild that Chris Drury is putting core players like Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider on the trade block in the GM group chat when the New York Rangers are plus-11 and still very much in playoff position.

It's interesting that Kreider — who is signed through 2026-27 and holds a 15-team no-trade clause — responded by describing his lingering injury woes.

Power forwards and proven goal-scorers are hard to find, but knowing Kreider is banged up should give buyers pause.

Kreider told the New York Post's Mollie Walker that the "frustration, angst (and) tension" in the Rangers' room is apparent.

"Good. We're 20 games in. Let's go through this s— now and figure out who we are. We had the best regular season in the history of an Original Six franchise last year, won a Presidents' Trophy and didn't go as far as we would've liked. We're getting exposed right now. Our warts are out there, and teams are picking on the things we don't do well, and we've gotten away from the things we do well," Kreider said.

"We don't necessarily know what this is right now, right? This could just be part of the story. We look back at this and say, 'This made us better.'"

Rangers fans love this guy's attitude.

12. We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Sidney Crosby deserves better than this.

One night, he's dropping the gloves to fight Kyle Connor. (That should make every one of his teammates look in the mirror.)

The next, he's scoring his 600th goal, but it's in a 6-1 loss to a mediocre Utah Hockey Club.

No question, Crosby's loyalty in a business that doesn't always reward the virtue is commendable. And the man has earned the right to write his final chapters however he sees fit.

Still, it's difficult to watch him scribble away furiously on an island.