The Maple Leafs held a practice at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Friday before flying to Denver.
John Tavares has returned home to be with his family following the birth of his fourth child.
“John is a proud father again,” coach Jim Hiller revealed after practice. “Great news there. Tucker Tavares, 10 pounder, so we got ourselves a power forward on the way.”
The baby arrived a little earlier than expected.
“To be honest, I thought it was next week,” said winger William Nylander. “So, I was shocked when I saw texts this morning. It was awesome and so happy for him. It’s incredible.”
Hiller isn’t sure when Tavares will rejoin the team, but the 36-year-old centre will not play in Saturday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. After that game, the Leafs have a couple days off before wrapping up their road trip on Tuesday against the Utah Mammoth.
With Tavares out, Nick Paul is moving up to the second-line centre spot between Nylander and Easton Cowan.
“We had a couple nice reps today in practice,” Nylander noted. “I think it was clicking pretty good. I haven’t played with him yet, but I know what he’s done in Tampa and seeing him in the first couple of games here with us, I love the way he plays the game. I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”
Paul has been anchoring Toronto’s third line so far this season playing mainly between Cowan and Colton Sissons.
“One, I’m just thankful for the depth that we have in the centre position,” said Hiller. “And, two, I think he’s played really well this year. You know, we’ve really liked him together with Sissons, whether it’s been with [Gavin] McKenna or Cowan, they’ve been solid defensively and been a dangerous offensive line … So, playing with Nylander and Cowan, I think that can be a good offensive line as well.”
Sissons moved to the middle on the third line at practice skating between McKenna and Bo Groulx.
Zack MacEwen, who has been a healthy scratch in the last four games, skated on the fourth line with Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime.
The Leafs also called up Miles Wood from the American Hockey League and he was set to meet the team in Denver. Wood was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Kirill Marchenko trade on the eve of the season.
Leafs Ice Chips: With new dad Tavares out, Paul moves up to second-line centre John Tavares is back in Toronto after another addition to their family, which means Nick Paul is getting bumped up to the second line. Mark Masters has more on the lineup as the Maple Leafs prepare for the Avalanche.
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Paul scored his first goal of the season on Thursday when a shot by Darren Raddysh deflected in off him in the first period. Although Raddysh initially thought his shot went straight in.
“He just said, ‘Yeah, right, you touched that,’” Paul revealed of their conversation at the bench. “I was like, ‘Oh, look at my leg.’”
“I saw the black mark on his socks, so I’ll give him that one,” Raddysh acknowledged with a grin.
Raddysh’s shot registered at 95.3 mph. Did it hurt?
“It just nicked me, honestly,” said Paul, who also played with Raddysh in Tampa Bay. “Trust me, I’ve eaten a lot of his [shots], especially in practice, and it’s not fun, especially when they get to you above the shin pad. But, yeah, on those, you know, if you’re taking the goalie’s eyes away, you kind of get skinny as soon as it’s hit, and make the goalie choose a side and hopefully it’s the wrong side.”
Setting up shop in front of the net is a big part of Paul’s game and the 6-foot-3, 225-pound forward isn’t planning to change his approach despite moving up the lineup.
“I just play the same way,” he said. “Obviously when plays are there to be made, make them, but for me it’s just hard forecheck, turn pucks over, and get it into their [Nylander and Cowan’s] hands and be in around the net. So nothing really changes from my game.”
What does Nylander like about Paul’s game?
“Just his overall competitiveness,” the smooth-skating Swede said. “He plays both sides of the puck. Size, too. Just a very dependable guy.”
‘I saw the black mark’: Paul keeps Raddysh receipt on first goal with Leafs After Nick Paul took away Darren Raddysh’s first goal as a Maple Leaf, with a sneaky deflection off his leg. The two new Leafs had a good laugh after seeing visual proof on Paul’s sock.
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During the third period on Thursday, Hiller moved Nylander up to the top line beside Auston Matthews. The same thing happened down the stretch of Tuesday’s game against the Nashville Predators.
But at Friday’s practice the top line was once again back to the usual formation with Matthews between Marchenko and Jack Roslovic.
Why is Hiller holding off on putting Matthews and Nylander together to start games?
“Well, we’re just starting to find our way,” the coach explained. “We know what they can do together. Typically, they played a lot. When I was here [as an assistant coach in the first three seasons of Matthews’ career] they played together all the time, and so we always know that’s a go-to. But we want to try to find some more chemistry with some other guys, or see if we can find some more chemistry with some other guys. And, you know, if those things don’t work then we’ll probably lean more on that.”
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It looks like the Leafs will be shuffling their defence pairs for the first time this season as Raddysh took the first reps of practice with Jake McCabe on Friday.
“He’s a steady defenceman,” said Raddysh. “He’s done it a long time, and he makes a smart read, smart plays, and he can be physical as well. So, yeah, looking forward to playing with him and trying to build some chemistry.”
“A great puck mover,” McCabe said of Raddysh. “He’s got a heavy shot, obviously. Try to feed him as much as we can in the offensive zone to get the shot off. Obviously produced a goal for us last night. But, I mean, just the presence of it is huge, and he plays hard. He plays really good defence. He’s got a good stick, very competitive, so I look forward to it.”
Raddysh had been partnered with Morgan Rielly through the first five games of the season while McCabe had been skating alongside Chris Tanev.
Rielly and Tanev took reps together on Friday while the third pair of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Troy Stecher remained unchanged.
Ekman-Larsson appeared no worse for wear despite leaving Thursday’s game early after taking a big hit from Jeremy Lauzon.
Leafs set to shuffle defence pairs for first time with MacKinnon on deck Jim Hiller explains why now was the right time to mix up his defensive pairs, as the Maple Leafs get set to visit Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche on Saturday.
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During a second period penalty kill on Thursday, McCabe was able to stand-up former teammate Mitch Marner with a big hit.
“I knew Caber’s a physical guy so I wish I got my head up a little bit better there,” Marner said. “But I’ll joke around with him a little bit about that and try to get him back later.”
The pair of good friends met up after the game.
“I told him, ‘It took me 12 years and I can finally catch you now,’” McCabe said with a wide smile. “Because he’s not very easy to catch out there. No, we had a good laugh about it. I love Mitchy to death, so it was good to catch up with him after the game.”
McCabe’s check was only the second hit Marner has taken this season, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
“I mean, you don’t usually see Mitch get hit,” said Nylander. “Maybe he was just relaxing because he thought he wasn’t going to get hit. That’s probably what happened … I was sitting on the side of the bench where I didn’t see what happened. I just heard an ‘Ooooooh.’ But that was fun to see [on replay].”
McCabe on hitting pal Marner: ‘Took me 12 years and I can finally catch him now’ Former Maple Leaf Mitch Marner had a good laugh after getting into it with his former defencemen Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev.
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McCabe will be facing another elusive opponent on Saturday in Nathan MacKinnon. He sees the challenge as similar to what he dealt with on Thursday against Jack Eichel.
“They’re so good at building speed,” McCabe said. “You gotta really be paying attention when they’re in their own end. Really their own D-zone is almost where they’re most dangerous sometimes. It sounds silly but when they build that speed and you don’t see it coming, they get that puck in the middle of the ice and it’s pretty hard to close the gap and get a good stick on them or slow them down. So just got to be very mindful when he’s out there and when he’s building that speed and then just trying to get above him and eliminate his time and space as best you can.”
MacKinnon has eight points in four games as the Avalanche have once again stormed out of the gates with a 3-1-0 record.
“They play a pretty unique style of game,” Hiller said. “They’re a really dynamic rush team. The defence probably skate as well, as six, as any other group in the league. It presents some challenges defensively, for sure. For us, we’ve got to continue to focus on being in the offensive zone and with tight support. We’ve seen some good strides that way. That’s the best defence, really, if you can just hold onto pucks, be dangerous, and tire people out, which Vegas did to us. We weren’t able to create any offence because we were too tired. That’s kind of the game we have to play against Colorado.”
Maple Leafs: Bad loss or sign major problems still exist? The Maple Leafs stormed out to an early 3-0 lead against the Golden Knights on Thursday, before Vegas took the game over and eventually won in a shootout. Was this just a bad loss for the Leafs or a sign that major problems still exist within the team? TSN Hockey analyst Cameron Gaunce joins Domino’s That’s Hockey to discuss.
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Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 40 of 43 shots to help the Leafs steal a point on Thursday night.
“He was phenomenal,” said back-up goalie Anthony Stolarz. “He made a lot of big saves, kept us in it in that second period. You know, just calm, cool, collected, and that’s something that he does a lot. I’ve seen it many a time. So, you know, it’s something that we needed and for us to be able to get a point out of that, you know, it was all on him.”
Bobrovsky stayed off the ice on Friday.
“He has a bit of a routine,” Hiller said. “I think typically you’ll see him take a break. There might be a time or two that he goes on, but I think, you know, when he plays, we like to kind of give him a rest. And he’s kind of worked his way through his long career to find out what works best for him, and we just support that.”
Bobrovsky is three starts into his Leafs career, but still hasn’t tasted victory with Toronto.
“Obviously, we want to get a win for him badly,” said Tanev.
The 38-year-old goalie is not feeling any frustration about his 0-2-1 record.
“You know, it is what it is,” said Bobrovsky. “You play, you put the gear on, you want to win every game, but we got to play good players against us and everybody works hard. So we just keep grinding, keep chipping away one moment at a time, and we keep building.”
‘We want to get a win for him badly’: Bobrovsky helps Leafs salvage a point Sergei Bobrovsky made 40 saves to help the Leafs salvage a point in Vegas, but the 38-year-old goalie remains winless on the season. “He gave us a chance in overtime and the shootout,” defenceman Chris Tanev said. “So obviously we want to get a win for him badly.”
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Bobrovsky and Stolarz have alternated starts so far this season as the Leafs look to keep both goalies healthy and thriving.
“There’s been a lot of thought put into it by a lot of people, a lot of different departments that we have, and we put a plan in place,” Hiller said of the goalie schedule. “We’ll adjust as the season goes but there’s no one person who makes the final decision.”
Andy O’Brien, the team’s new vice president of sports performance, is among those helping make the decision.
Stolarz has never played more than 34 games in a season, but is hoping to surpass that number with help from O’Brien.
“Andy and his staff have done a great job kind of getting us in shape,” Stolarz said. “They have a great program for everyone. Each guy’s [got] an individualized program, so that’s something that we haven’t had in past years that I think has helped us a lot.”
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McKenna hit the scoresheet for a second straight game by picking up an assist on Paul’s goal.
“Super kind kid,” said Marner, who skated with the 18-year-old winger a few times in the summer. “Super humble and down to earth. The future’s going to be so bright for him. You even see it [on Thursday], just the plays he made, just how much patience and confidence he has with the puck, it’s amazing to see at that age. Yeah, he’s going to be a scary player in a couple years.”
In fact, Marner predicted that McKenna’s development will accelerate in the next few weeks.
“That’s how this game goes,” he said. “You gotta kind of get with things and you’ll feel the speed and a player of his caliber, as soon as he feels it, you know, he’s going to turn into a helluva player here shortly. Yeah, they should be excited about him.”
Despite producing a pair of points, including his first goal, while playing on the second line, McKenna was dropped to the third unit late in Tuesday’s game against Nashville.
“I thought Gavin took charge a little more with the puck knowing that maybe he didn’t have to defer to Willy or John and could be the offensive driver of the line,” Hiller explained.
How did the Leafs allow a 3-0 lead to evaporate so quickly in Vegas? The Leafs jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in Vegas on Thursday, but a parade to the penalty box helped the Knights turn the tide and eventually win in a shootout. Coach Jim Hiller and the players did their best to explain how a promising start turned so quickly.
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Lines at Friday’s practice:
Marchenko – Matthews – Roslovic
Cowan – Paul – Nylander
McKenna – Sissons – Groulx
MacEwen – Blueger – Duhaime
McCabe – Raddysh
Rielly – Tanev
Ekman-Larsson – Stecher
Blankenburg
Stolarz
Bonello (EBUG)