A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Composed by an unconscious brain.
1. Morgan Rielly, who played his best hockey under Mike Babcock, considers the question.
Is he surprised that he’ll be looking across at his former coach Saturday night in Edmonton?
“Was I surprised? I think I was a little bit surprised,” Rielly replies. “But, you know, I talked to a couple of those guys that I know over there, and they wanted to bring him in. And so, that’s what they did.”
To the tune of a sparkling 8-1-1 start and Connor McDavid’s most spectacular and busiest (average time on ice: 23:46!) October yet.
“He was passionate about trying to make guys better, make the team better. That’s the one thing that comes to mind when I think of it,” Rielly says of his four-plus seasons under Babcock. “I’d be lying if I said I keep track of everything that’s going on out there. But he’s a good coach, so pretty sure they’re doing just fine.”
Much like the 20-goal, 72-point 2018-19 Rielly, Oilers top defenceman Evan Bouchard is also tracking his greatest campaign under Babcock, a coach handpicked by Edmonton’s leadership group. And Edmonton is targeting its first regular-season divisional crown in the McDavid-Draisaitl era.
Saturday’s showdown between the Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs (7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT, Sportsnet, Sportsnet+) features two clubs feeling pretty good about themselves.
There’s Toronto’s two-way No. 1 centre, a rejuvenated Auston Matthews, who was taught defensive responsibility by Babcock so long ago that an active Henrik Zetterberg (nine years retired) was a prime model on their video sessions.
“That was a home run when we won (the lottery) and got him,” Babcock remembers. “Matty, it’s always great to see his progression in the league and how good a player he is.”
There’s Rielly and William Nylander.
“What I always remember about (Nylander) is he’d have a kids thing or whatever, and he’d be the guy out there for hours playing with all the kids and doing all the stuff,” Babcock says. “He’s a great, great person.”
And there’s new Leafs head coach Jim Hiller, who served as Babcock’s assistant in the Core Four’s hope years.
“Babs gave me my chance. Pulled me out of junior when others may not have,” Hiller told reporters before flying west Friday. “He’s got a lot of passion for the game.”
But mostly there is the idea of what could have been for the Maple Leafs in the late 2010s and what McDavid and Zach Hyman & Co. believe might still be in store for them come spring.
“We lost in the first round, I think, three times when I was there,” Babcock said. “But I also know what we had, and we had kids. I’m proud of my time there. I loved my time there.
“It’s about 100 years ago, right? Even The Beatles broke up, so you get on with it.”
Echoes of Babcock’s past ring loud.
Torontonians get a kick out of hearing him play the hits in press conferences two hours delayed: work zone versus fun zone, day-to-day means 10 days, the only opinions that matter come from people whose knees touch your kitchen table…
But the Maple Leafs, too, have long gotten on with it. They have won three straight under a Babcock protégé and begin their road trip feeling good about themselves.
Matthews, taking lessons from Zetterberg, is willing to sacrifice some offence Saturday if it means shutting down Babcock’s new prized pupil.
“The two best players in the world going against each other. All-Canadian matchup. It’s one of the reasons why you play the game,” says Oiler-turned-Leaf Troy Stecher. “It’s going to be a fun one for me, too. Going back to Edmonton, I’m excited. A lot of emotions there.”
More than will be articulated.
2. McDavid is on the ridiculous (and the unsustainable?) pace of 260 points in a single season.
Only one man has broken the 200-point barrier.
He did it four times and wore the same uniform, topping out at 215 points 41 seasons ago, when broken hockey sticks became kindling and goalies preferred to stand, thank you very much.
“There’s just one guy that can do it,” Celebrini replied. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
3. If Connor Hellebuyck was deserving of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, then Kevin Cheveldayoff deserves the Prime Minister’s Medal of Patience.
The Jets general manager likely lost the trade (provided 12th-overall pick Alexander Command, the best piece headed to Manitoba, doesn’t win a Hart) by shedding the best player in the deal, but he recouped a decent haul for a disgruntled goalie that had no intention of suiting up and that he needed to start paying.
Cheveldayoff also rid his dressing room of a headache hours before hosting a feel-good national event, the Heritage Classic.
A tidy bit of business all around.
Winnipeg secures an intriguing mix of immediate help and future hope, while Devils GM Sunny Mehta locks in one of the sport’s rare No. 1 workhorse goalies without subtracting much from his current roster. (Dawson Mercer has better in him but has yet to score this season).
Mehta was going to have to negotiate raises for Mercer (RFA 2027) and Nick Bjugstad (UFA) anyway, so this frees up future funds for the Devils’ next move.
4. The Ottawa Senators and their fans not only finished on the bright side of their emotional showdown with the Florida Panthers this week, but they also did the Columbus Blue Jackets dirty.
From the variety and ingenuity of chants the Canadian Tire Centre volleyed at turncoat Brady Tkachuk to the inspired performance in the game itself, Canada’s capital reminded everyone what revenge games should be all about. One out of 84 that, in the moment, feels like the whole pie.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said the home fans should bring whatever they feel into the barn. And, boy, did Sens fans heed that message.
“They’re a passionate fan base for sure,” said ex-Senator Nick Paul, who watched the game on his off night. “Obviously, when something like that happens, they all showed up.”
It was Paul’s Maple Leafs — and not Kirill Marchenko’s spurned Blue Jackets — who showed up in Columbus one night earlier for the undercard of Revenge Week.
Comparatively, the Blue Jackets took it easy on their star forward who begged out. As did the fans in Ohio, who might be feeling as defeated as Rick Bowness these days.
“You always want to win for someone that gets traded, especially that first game. But that was up there with just us finding our game and our identity. Going back-to-back, we needed four points in those two games, and that was a high priority for us,” Paul explains.
“When you have a guy going back to Columbus, you always want to do whatever you can to help him get that win.”
On one hand, you have Ottawa bench boss Travis Green — whom we circled as one of the most influential characters this season — extending his contract way early, through 2030-31, and guiding his team to a respectable record through multiple injuries and a captaincy exodus.
On the other hand, Bowness appears to be trying to inject a winning culture into a thin roster and doesn’t look long for the gig. Dmitri Voronkov, 26, reportedly wants to follow Marchenko out of town. And how long until Zach Werenski considers a refresh, too?
Bottom line: how your group gets up (or lies down) for a meaningful home game can speak volumes about the spirit of the team.
The Sens passed their test with flying colours. The Jackets flunked.
“Where guys maybe want to get traded out of where they are, then it becomes a more meaningful game for the team for the game,” says William Nylander.
The Leafs star didn’t catch Tkachuk’s noisy return but thinks back to the Islanders and their fans’ rude reception for John Tavares in 2019.
“I don’t think anything compares to that one,” Nylander smiles. “Were they throwing snakes at Brady?
“I was standing right next to him on the line, and then — pffft! — a snake coming over the shoulder. You could barely hear yourself think. It was crazy.”
5. Drafted by the Maple Leafs eight years ago, Sean Durzi has bounced through L.A., Arizona and Utah before landing with the Rangers and making an immediate impact for an overhauled roster that has jumped to an encouraging start.
Moving isn’t ideal, particularly if you’re eager to plant roots. But if you do it enough, you get the hang of it.
“It’s funny. For me, it’s that experience of going through a few trades,” the upbeat defenceman explained. “It’s made this one a little bit easier. I’m a passionate player. I give my everything to a team. So, trades, I’ve realized, aren’t that easy on myself mentally.”
The experience of joining new teams has taught Durzi that it’s best to accept change. Mould in with the group as quickly as possible. So, he travelled to New York City well before training camp to get a head start on bonding.
“I’ve always said you play better when you’re playing with your best friends. How quickly we become friends. I tried to make sure I came down early, having that experience, spending time with the guys, having a few laughs, and then when it’s time to block a shot or have my back on the ice, they’re always there for me,” Durzi said.
He’s being leaned on for 20-plus minutes a night and is still driving offence despite seeing more D-zone starts (66.4 per cent) than O-zone starts for the first time in his six-year career. With Adam Fox entrenched on the top power-play, Durzi is finding other ways to contribute.
“The beauty is, I don’t think I’ve played my best hockey yet. I think there’s a lot more I can contribute on both sides of the puck,” he says.
“I heard a good quote once (from) Cameron Gaunce: ‘If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.’ And that’s kind of the mindset. If you think you’ve hit your peak, you’re in trouble. All the best players, the guys who played for a long time, they’re constantly working on their games.
“It’s just constantly learning, enjoying the game, picking things up from guys. I’ve had the privilege of playing with a few teams now, so there’s a lot of guys I could pick a few things up off of. But that mindset of constantly getting better is just something that I’ll carry with me forever. A nice piece of advice from a familiar face.”
“I already know the DMs I’m going to be getting from Team Tank: ‘Stop winning, idiot.'” —Calgary Flames goaltender Devin Cooley, after defeating Cup contenders Carolina and Minnesota in consecutive starts
Half of us believes the best tack for the talent-starved Flames is to finish 32nd, win a draft lottery for once, then draft and develop around local boy Landon DuPont, who would open his career in conjunction with the shiny new Scotia Place.
The other half craves more post-win press availabilities with Cooley, who is fast becoming the most enjoyable — and viral — personality in the league. Easy to root for.
Cooley’s explanation of his “unconscious brain” mindset after his 3-2 win over the Canes garnered a ton of attention. It’s a high-pressure mental strategy as old as Buddhism, that has roots in Bushido, the samurai code.
The Japanese concept of Mushin translates to “no-mind” or “mind without mind.” Ninja masters were trained to ignore outcome, win or lose. To tap into a Zen mind state and let unconscious flow take over.
Sports psychologists push athletes to perform in the present, to live free of the past gaffe or goal and the shift that hasn’t arrived yet. Golfers are better off not adding up their scorecard mid-round. Poker players shouldn’t perform math on their chip stack. Word to Kenny Rogers.
Writers and musicians celebrate words and notes they didn’t write, one handed to them from some ethereal benefactor. If you find your flow state, sink into the leather.
Dismissing Cooley as just another crazy goalie might be the least sane thing to draw from his comments. We should all be so unconscious.
8. Seattle’s Matty Beniers erupted for 24 goals and 57 points en route to the 2023 Calder Trophy, then it took him three years to return to being a 50-point stud.
“A lot of it is confidence,” Beniers, 23, told me. “You know you have that ability, but being able to have the confidence in yourself to make plays and try things and make mistakes and learn from them, right? That plays a big piece in it. The better you are mentally and the way you’re approaching things, that helps you a lot on the ice. You take care of everything that’s outside of the rink, and then you can go to the rink free. You can play well. You can play freely, right? So that was one step that I took to help in that area.”
The score-by-committee Kraken enjoyed impressive stretches last season but fell short of the playoffs for a third straight season since Beniers’ encouraging freshman year.
Beniers has given great thought as to why Seattle stumbled down the stretch.
“I think the moment could have gotten a little too big for us as a team. We have a wide spectrum of players. We have a lot of older guys, but we also have a lot of young guys. Not a ton in between that. So, we could’ve done a better job staying more connected, staying more consistent.
“We were sitting in second in our division, and we came out of the (Olympic) break, and I think we lost (seven out of 10), and that hurt our confidence, and it was kind of a downhill spiral.
“It’s good for everyone that we experienced that. Now it’s like, OK, let’s get over that hump. We put ourselves in a spot to make it. We didn’t get it done. Now let’s do that same thing and get it done.”
The Kraken are quietly off to a 7-3-1 start, positioning themselves behind only Edmonton and Vegas in the Pacific. That third seed is theirs if they want it.
Beniers loves the water. He still spends summers in Bruins-mad Boston, but he’s come around to hockey in the Pacific Northwest. During training camp, he rented a boat to go wakesurfing in Seattle like he does in the harbour.
“We met one of the captains, and he was like, ‘Hey, if you ever want to come out, just come on ours.’ People are just very friendly there. I don’t know if that’s happening in Boston. But the water is beautiful,” he says.
“A lot of golf courses outside the city, but the seafood is unbelievable. If you go, you got to get the salmon.
“Being able to be all the way across the country and still have the lake right there and the ocean as well… it feels like home.”
9. Gavin McKenna graduated a little piece of Penn State to the NHL.
Toronto’s first-overall pick started doing his slot-machine arm celebration in training camp, and now the veterans are riding the teenager’s wave.
“We did it in college,” McKenna explained to reporters Friday. “And it was like if someone did something cool or they’re like a beauty, then you do that. I started doing it here with the guys, and it’s pretty cool to see it catch on.”
10. Outside of the Red Wings (10 seasons), the San Jose Sharks own the league’s longest active playoff drought (seven seasons).
New signing Kiefer Sherwood, rented from Vancouver last winter to snuff the streak, is adamant that they must make the dance this spring.
No more learning campaigns chalked up to positive growth from a young core.
“We’re putting everything that we have into this. Like, we have to take the next step. We were close last year. We have a lot more pieces this year, and now we’re trying to push the development of not just players but the whole organization forward,” Sherwood told me this week. He sat in his stall and spoke passionately.
“In a lot of our eyes, playoffs is a non-negotiable and something we got to force our way in. It’s not going to be given to us, so we got to start to separate ourselves here and go on a run. You know, we got to start to win some in regulation, obviously.
“Playoffs is the most special time of our game. So, that’s our goal, and that’s what we’re chasing. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.”
Love the passion. The renovations are taking too long.
Wild to see that the Sharks needed 11 games to secure their first 60-minute win, Thursday in Ottawa. They had been blowing late leads and treading water with overtime and shootout heroics.
“There’s no hiding it,” Celebrini says. “We need to learn a lot. We need to learn how to close these games. I mean, we’re leaving points on the table.”
“Sweet and sour” is how the new captain described Month 1 for the Teal.
“You’re happy with where we’re at. Our record could be better, could be worse. But there’s a lot of stuff we still need to build on, and that only shows how much potential our group has,” Celebrini reasoned.
11. Dylan Larkin’s expanded 10-team trade list, as reported by Detroit beat writer Helene St. James, features contenders and is loaded with Team USA teammates: Carolina, Colorado, Dallas, Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Utah, Vegas and Washington.
A keen eye may notice a lack of Canadian teams.
Considering their deep well of futures, cap space, and need of a bona fide second-line centre (only exacerbated by Nick Suzuki’s weeks-long hand injury), the Montreal Canadiens make too much sense for all parties.
If Larkin truly wants to rediscover his joy for the sport and help a good team contend for a championship during the five remaining springs on his contract, Montreal is the spot.
Doing right by his hometown team and placing himself in the best position to win it all might not be top priority, though.
12. Young Maxim Tarasov, 20, has never scored more than three goals in any professional season. But that doesn’t mean he can’t make a highlight reel…