The Maple Leafs held a practice at the Ford Performance on Friday before travelling to Chicago.
Joseph Woll is back with the Leafs and all signs point to the 27-year-old making his season debut on Saturday night in Chicago.
“It’s been a bit of a weird start to the season, like we’ve talked about before,” said Woll, who missed the start of the year for personal reasons. “I’m just pumped to get going.”
Woll just wrapped up an American Hockey League conditioning stint, which saw him get into two games with the Toronto Marlies.
“It’s like riding a bike,” he said with a grin. “It was good to just get back out.”
Woll logged 36 minutes in a game last Saturday in Lehigh Valley before going the distance in Grand Rapids on Wednesday. He allowed six goals on 52 shots (.885 save percentage) in the pair of appearances. Despite the numbers, Woll felt good between the pipes.
“A couple of big things are just kind of my pace that I move at, making sure I’m moving quickly and have my feet under me and that type of thing, and just kind of the reads of the game,” Woll said. “I feel like those are both where they need to be.”
The Leafs certainly liked what they saw in Friday’s practice.
“Today he was unreal,” raved winger William Nylander. “It’ll be nice to have him back.”
“He seems normal to me and ready to go,” said coach Craig Berube. “It means a lot to the team. I mean, obviously him leaving at that point [in training camp] was a surprise and, you know, obviously catches everybody off guard, but he was a big part of our team last year.”
Berube is reluctant to confirm his starting goalie ahead of game day and only said he was considering giving Woll the nod against the upstart Blackhawks, who have recorded a point in four straight (3-0-1).
The trip to Chicago is always a special one for Woll, who is from nearby St. Louis and usually has family in attendance. It almost feels like a home game.
“Yeah, it’ll be nice to be close to home,” he said. “It’s getting to the Midwest and breathing the same air in a way.”
Woll stopped 25 of 27 shots to pick up a win at the United Center in February, which is his only previous game in Chicago.
Woll, who led the Leafs with 41 starts last season, hasn’t played in the NHL since taking the loss in Game 7 of the second-round series against the Florida Panthers on May 18.
Woll’s return comes at an important time for the Leafs, who have dropped four straight (0-3-1) and are currently without No. 1 goalie Anthony Stolarz, who sustained an upper-body injury on Tuesday in Boston. Stolarz did not take part in Friday’s practice and is listed as day-to-day.
Dennis Hildeby started on Thursday and stopped 33 of 37 shots in an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings. The 24-year-old prospect has appeared in four straight games, including twice in relief for Stolarz.
Woll ready to return, could make season debut Saturday vs. Blackhawks After playing two games in the AHL as part of a conditioning stint, goaltender Joseph Woll was back with the Maple Leafs for Friday’s practice and all signs point to the 27-year-old making his season debut Saturday night in Chicago. TSN’s Mark Masters has more.
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The Leafs placed centre Auston Matthews (lower body) on injured reserve on Friday, which means he will miss at least seven days.
“There’s hope, and I stress that it’s hope at this point, that it may only be eight or nine days from the time of the injury,” said TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston. “Meaning next Thursday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets could, and I’ll stress could, be the time when Auston Matthews gets back.”
Matthews sustained the injury during Tuesday’s game in Boston. The Leafs captain was rocked by Nikita Zadorov before getting up and skating over to hit the 6-foot-7, 255-pound Bruins defenceman later in the shift. Johnston reports that Matthews got hurt in the process of hitting Zadorov.
The current issue is not connected to the injury that plagued Matthews throughout last season.
Johnston on Matthews’ recovery outlook, Nylander’s contribution, Berube’s mindset Now that the Maple Leafs have placed star forward Auston Matthews on injured reserve retroactive to November 11, is there a better sense of when he could return to the lineup? Can William Nylander step up and lead the team in his captain’s absence? TSN’s Mark Masters is joined by TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston to discuss this and how the coaching staff is handling this latest slump.
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The Leafs recalled winger Easton Cowan from the American Hockey League on Friday.
“I’ve liked Cowboy this year,” said Berube, referring to Cowan by his nickname. “I think he’s given us some really good games up here.”
Cowan has one goal and three assists in 10 games with the Leafs. He picked up one assist in two games with the Marlies.
Berube noted that Cowan’s demotion was simply for “roster reasons.” The 20-year-old rookie does not require waivers to be sent to the AHL unlike the team’s other forwards.
“I thought he looked really good out there today,” Berube said.
Cowan skated on a line with Nicolas Roy and Sammy Blais, who appeared to be a placeholder for Matthew Knies, who missed practice for maintenance.
Cowan also took reps with the top power-play unit. He got a look on that unit in his last NHL game on Nov. 3.
Leafs Ice Chips: Cowan called up; Knies, Carlo miss practice for maintenance The Maple Leafs recalled forward Easton Cowan from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies ahead of Saturday’s game against the Blackhawks, while forward Matthew Knies and defenceman Brandon Carlo missed practice on Friday for maintenance. TSN’s Mark Masters has more.
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Monday was a travel day to Boston and Wednesday was a scheduled day off for the players, so Friday marked the first full practice for the team since the start of their four-game winless run.
“I thought the guys worked,” said Berube of the 30-minute session. “They had pretty good energy out there, which is good. Things aren’t good right now and a lot of times you can come in today with practice and, you know, everybody’s hanging their heads and kind of going through the motions. I didn’t see that today, which is good. We had energy. Guys worked hard. They did what we asked them to do.”
Despite allowing four goals against the Kings, the Leafs felt they took a step forward on Thursday in terms of how they defended.
“Other than giving up more shots than we’d like to, I think it was harder to get to our net, harder to get cleaner looks,” said centre John Tavares.
The Leafs struggled to break out against the Kings and were repeatedly hemmed in their own end. The Kings directed 87 shot attempts at the Leafs net with 37 hitting the target. Toronto mustered just 15 shots on net, the lowest total of the Berube era, on 33 attempts.
“I think second and third, we’re defending too much,” Tavares acknowledged. “We’re on our heels.”
Part of the focus at Toronto’s practice on Friday was on breaking the puck out of the defensive end.
“We just all got to come back and be together,” said Nylander. “Tape-to-tape passes, hold-ups [on] the forecheckers coming in, give the D some more time and make the game easy on each other.”
“There’s been periods of time where we’ve done it okay,” said defenceman Morgan Rielly. “With the D, I think it starts with communication. We have a plan. We have systems in place. Depending on where the puck is, we have plans to fall back on. It’s about executing, really. I think that’s what it comes down to. You can be in the right spots. You can communicate. You can do everything right, but if you don’t execute, it’s going to lead to some breakdowns.”
Berube feels a lack of confidence is causing some of those breakdowns.
“Confidence is a funny thing,” Berube said. “You want to get your confidence back, you go and work and get it back. That’s how you get your confidence back. Yeah, we’re in adversity right now. Well, what are we going to do? We’re going to go through that adversity, go through that wall, find a way to get through it, climb over the wall, whatever it is. You know, you’ve got to push your way through it as a team and every individual.”
Rielly noted it’s important to embrace the situation and view it as an opportunity to respond.
“It’s not exactly the position you want to be in right now, but this is the challenge and it’s fun,” the longest-serving Leaf said.
Fun?
Rielly admits that’s not the right word. But he stands by the sentiment.
“When you say you want to be an athlete and you want to go through ups and downs, this is the challenge,” he said. “You’re in the fight, and these games are important. It’s a challenge right now. It’s a grind. But, as an athlete, you’ve got to kind of appreciate that and be grateful that you’re in a position where we believe in ourselves, and we’re going to go out and work, and no one’s going to do it for you. You’ve got to go out and do it. So that’s how we’re looking at it.”
Berube: ‘You want to get your confidence back? You go and work and get it back’ Mired in a four-game losing streak, head coach Craig Berube stresses the importance of the Leafs working to regain their confidence and pushing through the adversity.
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Nylander leads the Leafs in scoring (25 points in 15 games) and has hit the scoresheet in his last 12 games. But he’s minus-two during the last four games and got an earful from Berube at the bench after being on the ice for the Kings’ second goal in the second period.
“That shift in particular ended up being a long one,” said Nylander, who had been on the ice for more than 90 seconds and struggled to cover anyone in the lead up to the goal. “It was the second period and, you know, couldn’t get a change.”
Nylander finished the game without a shot on net. It’s only the third time he’s been held without a shot this season.
With Matthews, the team’s captain, sidelined, the Leafs had the chance to identify a new player to wear a letter on Thursday. It was Nylander, who wore an ‘A’, which was also the case when Rielly, an alternate captain, missed a game earlier in the year.
How can Nylander help lead the Leafs out of their current funk?
“I just try to talk and be positive,” he said. “I think that’s important in this kind of time. I mean, we will turn it around. We just got to have each other’s backs.”
Before the season, Berube urged Nylander to be more of a leader and the coach has seen growth in that area off the ice. However, there’s still room for growth on the ice.
“A little bit more consistency,” Berube said when asked what he’s looking for from Nylander. “There’s a lot of good, but then it’s got a little bit inconsistent. So consistency and just staying with it and working.”
Nylander is averaging 21:49 of ice time during the four game losing streak. Before this skid, he averaged 19:23 per game.
Berube says Nylander has shown ‘a lot of good’, but wants to see more consistency Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube says William Nylander has shown “a lot of good” on the ice, but just wants to see some more consistency from the talented winger. Meanwhile, Nylander discusses his effort level on the Kevin Fiala goal on Thursday night.
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Defenceman Brandon Carlo missed Friday’s practice with the team calling it a maintenance day.
Centre Scott Laughton, who has been out since taking a big hit from Zadorov last Saturday, participated in practice while wearing a red no-contact sweater.
Defenceman Chris Tanev is “trending in the right direction” in his recovery from an upper-body injury, Berube said.
“But it’s going to be a bit,” the coach added. “I don’t know how long yet for him.”
Saturday will mark two weeks since Tanev was stretchered off the ice in Philadelphia.
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Lines at Friday’s Leafs practice:
Robertson – Tavares – Nylander
Blais* – Roy – Cowan
Maccelli – Domi – McMann
Joshua – Lorentz – Jarnkrok
Laughton
Rielly – Myers**
Benoit – McCabe
Mermis – Ekman-Larsson
Woll
Hildeby
*Placeholder for Knies
**Placeholder for Carlo