A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. It’s getting late early.
1. When Craig Berube opens his NHL-issued coaches’ toolbox, he sees fingerprints on many of his weapons already, 18 games in.
He’s gently called out his best player at the podium. He’s reamed out his underperforming group on the bench and during intermissions. He’s called early timeouts. He’s pulled the goalie. He’s shown video and harped on boneheaded mistakes in team meetings. He’s healthy scratched veterans and, once, even one of general manager Brad Treliving’s shiny, new forward additions. He’s leaned on rookie Easton Cowan, who returns Saturday, now multiple times for an energy injection. And he has turnstiled personnel on his top lines, top defence pairs and top power-play unit.
During Thursday’s loss to the Kings, Berube blew a gasket as his team blew another lead.
William Nylander — who sponges criticism better than most — was the target after an extended 93-second shift resulted in tired legs and a red lamp behind Dennis Hildeby.
What was the animated coach saying to the superstar?
“I thought he was hurt for a minute. I didn’t know. Whatever. I was just talking to him about that,” Berube fibbed during his post-game presser.
The coach is not a fan of calling out fellow Toronto Maple Leafs in public. He didn’t like when Anthony Stolarz did just that last month.
So, even though Berube’s bunch has mustered just six regulation wins in 18 attempts and ranks dead last in goals allowed, you won’t see him rip his guys at the podium.
They’ve already been torn down, and they’re injured.
Berube knows the only path is build them up. Get the Leafs to lift their heads and rediscover some measure of confidence through effort. Steal two points. Get lucky. Then build.
“Things aren’t good right now,” Berube understated Friday.
“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 gotta push your way through it — as a team.”
As concerning and plentiful as Berube’s issues are, the coach has lived the dramatic turnaround. Now, he must steer another one.
For his sake. For his boss’s sake. And for the team’s sake.
“Get going in the right direction,” Berube said, “and you never know.”
2. Nick Robertson is on a heater: eight points in eight games since getting a relatively long look in Toronto’s top six.
Why the uptick in production?
“Ice time,” Robertson answers.
That’s it?
“That’s it.”
Prior to this encouraging stretch, where the hardworking winger’s usage has landed between 12:33 and 17:22, Robertson had been healthy scratched and endured many a night where his TOI fell below 10 minutes.
The player’s increased importance is earned. In addition to his wicked shot, Robertson’s feet are always motoring. On a team that has its effort and urgency questioned, Robertson’s is not.
“Tenacious,” teammate Jake McCabe says. “I just see his confidence continuing to grow.”
“It’s every shift,” Berube praises. “It’s the work. Just working.”
Robertson won’t rest on his laurels, but he will say he’s happy with how his personal performance has improved.
“I’m playing with more confidence,” he says. “Obviously, it comes with ice time. My game is to be tenacious and moving my feet and shooting the puck when I can and making plays as well. I’m happy with it so far.”
3. A reminder of how singularly focused hockey players become in-season on their own business.
A week after the NHL proudly announced that it will try to fill AT&T Stadium (football capacity: 80,000) for a Dallas Stars Stadium Series game in February 2027, Nick had no clue that his brother Jason, who plays for the Stars, could be part of history.
The spectacle was news to him.
“I live under a rock,” Nick admitted. “That’s so cool, though.”
Then he pitched his own outdoor-game idea: “It’d be cool if we played at Rogers Centre.”
Open dome? CN Tower alit in blue and white?
Not a bad idea, Nick.
The Leafs waited four seasons between outdoor games, from 2018 (Stadium Series at Washington) to 2022 (Heritage Classic versus Buffalo).
The most lucrative NHL team is about due for another 60 minutes in the fresh air.
Considering the owners of the venue are also the owners of the hockey team, Robertson might be onto something here.
4. Quote of the Week.
“Sometimes a slap in the face is just what you need.” —Leon Draisaitl, on the Edmonton Oilers’ 9-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, which was followed by a wild comeback win over Columbus and another W over Philadelphia.
5. Let’s put a moratorium on the phrase .500 when discussing NHL teams’ place in the standings or as a gauge on how far off they are from league average.
What works when talking about the NFL, MLB, or NBA does not translate.
Today, in Gary Bettman’s picture of parity, 27 of 32 teams are “.500” or better.
There is wild concern in Minnesota, Toronto, and Washington because playing .500 hockey has them ranked 25th, 26th, and 27th. They’ve all lost more games than they’ve won.
The actual median points percentage is .588, but with a loser-point system, that doesn’t stay consistent throughout the season, nor does it have an easy ring to it.
Bottom line: The .500 benchmark should be outlawed in hockey. Really grinds my gears.
6. Kings coach Jim Hiller has no doubt that two-time gold medallist Drew Doughty should once again represent Canada at the Olympics.
“In my mind, yeah, for sure,” the L.A. Kings coach says. “I mean, what he did last year in the 4 Nations is one of the most incredible things that I saw — because we were with him all the time, watching him try and get back healthy, and certainly he wasn’t at 100 per cent.
“And then, 10 days later, he’s playing against the best players in the world. For me, it was one of the best things I’ve seen, as far as a player being able to make that adjustment.”
At age 35, Doughty is making all kinds of adjustments.
He had to surrender veteran privilege on that 4 Nations squad, as some young buck named Cale Makar took No. 8. Doughty — who has worn that number since junior — had to settle for 89, his birth year. (“There would have been a conversation, but they had already started selling jerseys when I got named,” Doughty explains. “I talked to him: ‘If I make the team this year, we gotta stick with it.’”)
Doughty has also given up his spot on L.A.’s top power-play unit, with Hiller deploying a five-forward attack. That has cut into his production.
Even with a two-point night Thursday, Doughty is tied for 16th in scoring among Canadian D-men (eight points) but remains confident in his ability to make the Cortina squad as a third-pair guy based on his defending and penalty killing.
“He’s handled it like you would expect him to. He’s a pro. He’s a captain. Everybody wants to be out there in those critical moments, in the offensive moments. He’s deferred just a little bit,” Hiller says. “But in the times that he’s out there, he’s just played really, really well. And that’s what you expect.”
Doughty is constantly thinking about the Olympics.
“I want to be on that team,” he asserts. “You know, offensively, I’m not doing a ton this year or not getting the numbers that I want. But I’m not going to make that team based on my offence. So as long as I keep playing well defensively, which I have been, I think I got a good shot.”
A healthy, motivated Doughty still leads his club in ice time (23:09), still gets tasked with shutting down the toughest forward lines. Most important: the ankle is healed.
“I can skate so much better this year,” notes Doughty, a plus-six. “I was in one last year, and I’m moving good. I’m playing good defensively. My gaps are back. I’m playing physical, playing tough in front of the net, and I’m back to who I was before last season.”
Team Slovenia’s Anze Kopitar endorses his friend: “We use him in key situations, which we have for the past 18 years, ever since he got to the team. And this year is no different. He’s playing well.”
So confident is Doughty, he’s pitching a third-pair reunion with Dallas’s left shot, Thomas Harley — a player Doughty didn’t even know was on Hockey Canada’s radar until Harley filled in for the injured Shea Theodore midway through 4 Nations.
“We played in that first game,” Doughty recalls. “And me and him as a pair dominated that game. Like, we were so friggin’ good in that game, and he’s a hell of a player. Like, he’s so easy to play with. I remember one time he made a play to me on the blue line. And I mean, I’ve played in the NHL for a long time. I’ve never had a D-man make that play to me ever in my life. And I was not ready for it — at all. And I was like: Holy. I was impressed by him. So, he’s a great player, and if we do make the team, the both of us, I think we’d be great pair together.”
Speak with Doughty for a few minutes and you risk coming down with a case of Olympic fever.
“The whole country gets behind when Team Canada’s playing. So, it’s an exciting time to be back at it, and I hope real bad that I’m gonna be there,” Doughty says.
“I just love playing the game of hockey. I love being in pressure situations. I love being out there in the big moments. I want to be out there in every single big moment. And, yeah, at the end of the day, if you mess up in that moment, life goes on. And if you succeed in that moment, it’s something you never forget.”
Give this man a plane ticket to Italy already.
7. Kopitar hasn’t retired yet, but Doughty already misses him in advance.
“When he was injured there for a couple of games, it was like, ‘Oh, s—. Without him next year, we’re going to be in one,” Doughty says.
“We want to make his last season the best we can possibly make it. It’s not a distraction or anything like that. Like, honestly, at all. We’re just going business as usual, and we’re not even thinking about him retiring next year.”
Doughty took a stab at talking the Kings’ perennial Selke candidate out of retirement over the summer. He describes Kopitar as the poster boy for even-keel.
“The only guy I’ve ever played with, he’s exactly like this the whole way through,” says Doughty, cutting the air near his chest horizontally with a straight hand. “No matter if he’s playing like s— or he’s playing great, he stays like this the whole way through.
“I wish I had that quality,” Doughty adds. He smiles and waves his hand in the motion of a 100-foot wave Californian wave. “I’m (expletive) up and down.”
Kopitar isn’t sure what allows him to be so Zen in a chaotic sport. Maybe it’s his upbringing. The character instilled early by his family.
“Realizing that not everything’s all that bad,” Kopitar says. “You try to stay as upbeat as you can when you fall down on the on the low side of things. Just don’t let it get to you too much — which is a lot easier said than done.”
The captain smiles, thinking how opposite his approach is compared to Doughty’s.
“He is more emotional than I am, for sure,” Kopitar says. “But we’re both competitors, and all competitors show emotion in different ways. You know, it doesn’t mean that I’m lacking emotion. It’s just maybe I don’t show it on the outside as much as he does.”
Doughty’s failed pitch for a 21st season from the King’s top centre has resulted in the KopiTour, one last ride through the league.
“I told myself I was going to try to enjoy it and take it all in,” Kopitar says. “Obviously, I still want to win.”
8. Gallows humour in Toronto dictates that any time a former Maple Leaf plays the Blue and White, he scores.
Sure enough, Leaf-turned-Bruin Fraser Minten sniped an important insurance marker against the team that drafted and gave up on him last Saturday in Toronto. Then longtime Leafs prospect Alex Steeves scored his first goal as Bruin against the Leafs Tuesday in Boston.
Minten was the first teammate to rush over and celebrate with Steeves, then he bolted from the growing group hug toward the enemy’s crease and dug out the milestone puck for his friend behind Anthony Stolarz.
After four years in Toronto’s system, Steeves, who was only recalled a week ago from AHL Providence, didn’t know many folks in Boston. That Minten was already a Bruin helped with his signing as a free agent to such a fierce rival.
As a winger, Steeves got blocked by internal competition in the forward-heavy Leafs system. Hitting free agency for the first time, he saw opportunity in Massachusetts.
“Nobody wants to be scratched. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect every team to carry 12, six, and two,” Steeves reasons. “Great teams, they have a way about them, or a culture, that those extras can come in and play really well and sometimes grab a hold of a role.”
Steeves stresses that he’s grateful for his time in Toronto, which signed him as a NCAA free agent.
“I just felt like I wasn’t able to break in here,” he says. “I’ve learned in my four years — this is Year 5 — that there’s so much timing that goes into it.
“I remember last year, in November, I was up, and I felt like I was really getting to my best hockey, playing a really good role on the (Leafs’) fourth line. And then too many guys got hurt, and then (cap flexibility) was the reason I got sent down.
“You wait for your opportunities, and you want to make the most of each one. And I’ve found you can’t look forward or look backward. You just gotta look at tonight, where I am, and play my best hockey.”
Steeves says he was more driven to outperform the AHLer next to him when he was younger, to earn the next callup.
“When I first signed, Robbie (Nick Robertson) was a guy who pushed me, and I feel like I pushed him,” Steeves says. “Maybe two guys want to play the same spot on the power play or want to be the first call-up. And you navigate being teammates with guys and also looking out for your own career and trying to put yourself in the best position.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized, all you can really do is position yourself the best. And then, what will be, will be.”
9. The NHL’s average save percentage, which has been trending down for a decade now, has sunk to .896. That’s the lowest save rate since 1993-94. The goalie union is on pace to finish below .900 for the first time in 30 years.
Stick technology is better. Offence is coached more seriously. Power plays are deadlier. But also, shooters are pickier. Today’s forwards are less likely to throw a hoper on net. They wait for screens and cross-seam passes and odd-man rushes.
The poor goalies get less warmed up; they can’t pad their stats by turning away long-range muffins.
Data backs this.
Shots faced are down to 27.9 per game. That’s the NHL’s fewest since 2000-01 (27.5).
But the average saves made per team per game in 2000-01 are the same as they are today: 25.
10. The season is 2027-28.
Captain Brady Tkachuk enters his walk year.
The Ottawa Senators have prime-age Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Shane Pinto, Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, Dylan Cozens, Fabian Zetterlund, Ridly Greig, and veteran goalie Linus Ullmark all under contract for a grand total of $62.98 million.
That’s just 55 per cent of a maximum payroll of the (modestly) projected cap ceiling of $113.5 million.
That means Sens management will still have a budget of at least $50.52 million to fill out the roster.
That means it’s time to win a Stanley Cup.
11. In light of the steady stream of signings by players opting to avoid free agency this summer — Pinto and Colorado’s great-start goalie Scott Wedgewood decided to re-up this week — Los Angeles Kings sniper Adrian Kempe is positioned to be the biggest prize on July 1.
Unless he’s not.
Club president Luc Robitaille revealed on Real Kyper & Bourne that Kempe’s agent, J.P. Barry, met in person with Kings brass when the team rolled through Toronto Thursday and that extension talks picked up again.
Worth noting that the last time a Barry client was the best scoring winger trending toward the open market, a lengthy negotiating process ended with a whopping eight-year, $90-million contract for Boston’s David Pastrnak on March 2, 2023, 24 hours before the trade deadline.
Robitaille used the word urgency regarding Kempe’s deal. GM Ken Holland says he’s optimistic that it’ll get done.
But mid-November is not a real pressure point for Kempe and the Kings. The March 6 trade deadline is.
Especially because the player’s performance hasn’t been impacted negatively by the uncertainty of his next deal.
“We’ve had one short conversation about it,” Hiller says. “I mean, he’s our leading scorer. I think he’s played really well. So, I would say he’s done a really good job with it.”
Kempe tops all Kings in assists (13), points (19), and game winners (three).
12. Fun scene in Boston Monday night.
While exiting a Danny Brown concert at a club in the North End (the Detroit rapper’s new record Stardust has some dancey bangers), wrestling fans attending WWE Raw at nearby TD Garden were also flooding onto the street.
Hey, I loved me some Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and JYD back in the day, when I was a little kid dragging a spare mattress onto the family room floor and suplexing my little brother’s buddies into oblivion.
But it was wild to see grownups sporting replica championship belts and face paint, to hear them chant “Ceeee-naaaa!” while riding a giddy testosterone high. Pushing midnight against a miserable November wind, these fans are outside triumphantly raising fake belts and celebrating a scripted sport.
A little on the fence here: Part of me believes there is some arrested development going on with these dudes. A bigger part of me remembers when I believed. Or, at least, was happy to suspend belief. I felt a tinge of envy. Same as watching kids race down to see what Santa left.
Hey, whatever floats your boat. Chase your joy.
