TORONTO — Life inside the practice rink is not as they left it.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs recongregated nearly three months after COVID-19 slammed the brakes on their season, they did so wearing masks and under instruction to keep a safe distance. They skated in groups as small as four and operated under strictly timed parameters to complete their workouts. John Tavares brought his sticks and a few rolls of tape home so as not to waste any of his allotment on a ritual usually reserved for the locker-room.
And yet, for all of the new restrictions and guidelines now governing Phase 2 of the NHL’s return-to-play protocol, there was just enough “normal” to make for a positive mental experience as well as a physical one.
Tavares called it a breath of fresh air.
“Just kind of training together, being on the ice, passing the puck, being in the gym, getting a good workout in. Everyone’s kind of pushing each other,” he said Tuesday. “It’s been a blast just the first few days to be around that again.”
The Leafs have jumped into Phase 2 more enthusiastically than any of the other 23 NHL teams currently on standby for a summer playoff tournament. They expect to see about 20 of their own players pass through the practice facility within the first week, including some like William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen and Jack Campbell who have already observed a 14-day quarantine after returning from the United States.
These workouts are completely voluntary, so Toronto’s high degree of involvement is entirely player-driven. It’s partly a reflection of the number of guys who hail from the area — a list that includes Tavares, Mitch Marner, Zach Hyman, Jake Muzzin, Jason Spezza, Travis Dermott and others — but also a belief within the group that this extra time together represents an opportunity.
“We definitely want to take advantage of this,” said Tavares. “This isn’t just about kind of getting the cobwebs out.”
That’s an interesting thought because roughly one-third of the returning NHL teams aren’t even expected to open their facilities before next week, mainly because they either don’t have enough players in town to justify it or haven’t received a sufficient level of interest from those who are.
In many cases, those players don’t feel the need to participate in Phase 2 because they’re already in locations where they’re able to skate and train — just like Leafs star Auston Matthews and No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen, who continue to wait out the pause together in Scottsdale, Ariz.
(The main reason Matthews and Andersen haven’t travelled back yet is because of the mandatory 14-day quarantine for those entering Canada, which could soon be eased pending the outcome of ongoing conversations between the federal government and NHL).
Where other teams have looked at training camps not likely starting before mid-July and decided there’s no rush, a good portion of the Leafs roster has prioritized making use of this five-week window to get back together.
In fact, Tavares indicated he hasn’t heard one member of the team express any concern about the unresolved details still to be worked out in the return-to-play plan — a sign of an eagerness to finish off this interrupted season that isn’t likely shared as enthusiastically in dressing rooms across the league.
“The urgency is extremely high,” said Tavares. “To take advantage of this opportunity, to feel fortunate that there’s a good chance that we’re going to be able to finish this season and be able to play for the Stanley Cup and that we’re a part of this.
“To really embrace it.”
The sessions are closed to the media, but the Leafs appear to have organized the six-skater groups by line groupings where possible — with Tavares, Marner and Ilya Mikheyev together in one, and Nylander, Hyman and Alexander Kerfoot (a likely placeholder for Matthews) part of another.
Tavares said the focus over the first couple days has been about fundamentals and regaining some comfort on the ice, but eventually they’ll be looking to build some chemistry with the expectation that training camp will only run for three weeks and include just two exhibition games before a best-of-five play-in series with Columbus begins.
“Everyone is taking this very seriously and I think has been very dialled in,” said Tavares. “We obviously want to be firing on full cylinders as best we can be once competition begins.”
While it would be a stretch to label this approach as an outright advantage — the Blue Jackets are due to open their facility for Phase 2 on Wednesday — it tells us something about how the Leafs players hope to gain an edge before the most unpredictable playoffs in NHL history.
After being forced apart suddenly and without warning, they’ve chosen to get back together as soon as they safely could.
