A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Doug Armstrong tried to go through my phone, but Mike Babcock still had it.
1. Straight shooter Jake McCabe is biting his tongue.
Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews is nowhere to be seen, his season prematurely ended Thursday by a greasy knee-on-knee delivered by repeat offender Radko Gudas. The team is in Buffalo Saturday, and ex-Sabre McCabe takes Matthews’ usual position at centre ice and leads the pre-game stretch.
“You lose a guy for the rest of the year, your leader, and the guy gets five games,” McCabe says of the controversial punishment doled out Friday evening by the NHL’s department of player safety. “I mean, I don’t know. It’s not the first time he’s done it either. So… frustrating.”
That Gudas — who has now been suspended for 26 games during his career, losing more than $855,000 in salary in the process — was not required to face an in-person hearing and will be back in action well before Matthews has given another boot to the hornet’s nest that is the touchy hand-in-hand topic of player safety and player punishment.
Is the NHL doing enough? Is long-serving safety chief George Parros coming down hard enough on repeat offenders? On star hunters?
“I can sit here and say whatever, but it’s not going to change it. I’m not in charge. I’m not George sitting in the chair making the phone call and making those decisions. So, doesn’t matter what the hell I say,” McCabe says.
Like Gudas, McCabe is a tough, veteran D-man who regularly gets charged with the task of shutting down dynamic threats like Matthews. So, what McCabe says next screams between the lines: “I play plenty hard. I haven’t been suspended.”
No one around Matthews is content with the verdict.
They’re less so when they learn that Matt Cooke, another repeat offender, got slapped with a seven-game ban for a kneeing Tyson Barrie in the 2014 playoffs. (Playoff bans are intentionally less severe because of the importance of each game.)
“We lose our guy, our captain, for the year. It doesn’t seem like enough for me,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “The guy doing it is a repeat offender. It just doesn’t seem like enough.”
Matthews has had brief conversations with Berube and new No. 1 centre Tavares since suffering his MCL injury. He’s still processing everything.
“Auston’s been ruled out for quite a while, right? It’s gonna be more than five games, what he’s missing. So, yeah, I mean, (the suspension) easily could have been longer,” Tavares said. “You feel for Auston. I know how hard he’s been just grinding away, trying to play the game at a high level and help this team as best he can and lead the way.”
Matthew Knies agrees: “The league could have done a little bit more, seeing it’s our best player, our captain, not going to be with us for the rest of the year. That’s a big loss for us. That decision is kind of out of my control, but I would’ve loved to see a little bit more.”
Barring injury of his own (or another ban), Gudas will be in the Ducks’ lineup on March 30, when the Maple Leafs visit Anaheim. Matthews, of course, will not.
“We’re going to obviously be upset about the suspension because it happened to our player, right?” Berube says. “That’s how it works.”
2. There are a couple things to keep in mind when reading agent Judd Moldaver’s I’m-not-out-of-order-this-whole-court’s-out-of-order statement on the Gudas suspension:
• George Parros’s reign as the head of the NHL’s department of player safety as lasted nearly thrice as long as that of any of his predecessors.
Parros has held down the scrutinized gig since September 2017. He’s coming up on nine years.
Stephane Quintal served for the three seasons before that, and Brendan Shanahan introduced the department in 2011.
There is something to be said for consistency, but some fresh perspective in such a scrutinized post might be due.
Is Parros doing enough to protect the stars?
“It’s not in our control,” Knies says. “We need to trust them that they’re doing the right thing. But to see (Matthews) go down like that and to be in as much pain as he was getting off the ice, and a guy like (Gudas) who’s a repeat offender of occasions like that, I don’t think it was enough. That’s all I’ll say about that. You just hope we can trust them, that they’re doing the right thing.”
• No doubt, Moldaver is sticking up for Matthews, a high-profile client. But do not forget Connor McDavid, also represented by Moldaver.
Parros dealt McDavid a three-gamer in January 2025 for cross-checking Conor Garland. The superstar and his camp believed that much too steep a penalty.
Superstars like McDavid go out of their way to promote the league. It’s no secret they don’t always feel like the league has their back.
3. Not only did Brent Burns skate in his 989th consecutive game this week and tie Keith Yandle for the NHL’s second-longest ironman streak, the 41-year-old is hardly hanging on.
When Yandle’s incredible streak ended, he was averaging 13:59 and went a dash-47 for 2021-22’s rebuilding Flyers squad.
Burns is skating 19:12, has chipped in 28 points, and is a plus-24 for the juggernaut Avalanche.
Burns will become the ironman of defencemen this weekend, should hit 1,000 straight games on April 4, and — good Lord and new contract willing — position himself to take down the legendary Phil Kessel (1,064 consecutive games) in 2027.
Turns out, Burns played through something significant earlier this season, keeping the streak alive.
“Our medical guys were like, ‘This is a couple weeks injury,’” Avs coach Jared Bednar told reporters. “He was like, ‘I’m playing next game.’ That’s just his mentality.”
4. Quote of the week.
“It’s the month of March. We’ve either got a bunch of Irish guys, they love the month of March, they like March Madness, or they’re Spring Breakers.” —St. Louis Blues coach Jim Montgomery on his team going a phenomenal 18-2-2 over the past two Marches
5. Jared Bednar nailed it in his epic post-game rip of the officials’ decision to give Nathan MacKinnon a game misconduct for goalie interference when Darnell Nurse changed the star’s path away from the net.
“I don’t really give a crap if their goalie is hurt. That’s on their D-man, not our guy,” Bednar said.
The reflex might be to think: Uh-oh, comments like that are gonna get the coach fined.
Refreshingly, the NHL went and rescinded MacKinnon’s game misconduct, The Denver Post reported.
“I think (general manager Chris MacFarland) asked them to review it, from what I know, and they took it away,” MacKinnon said.
“Mistakes happen. They know they made a mistake and that’s why they took away the five. Obviously, I wasn’t doing anything on purpose. I was playing the puck and I got hit.
“It was bizarre, especially when you know you didn’t do anything wrong.”
Sure, rescinding the penalty doesn’t help the Avs after their loss to the Oilers is in the books, but it does help MacKinnon’s reputation with officials and the department of player safety.
6. If you coach hockey, find yourself a player that talks about you the way Canada/Tampa forward Brandon Hagel talks about Jon Cooper, who returned to the Lightning bench with a smile after losing a gold medal and his father within days.
“You could almost get a little emotional for him. He’s the best to ever do it,” Hagel said. “He’s won at every single level. There’s a reason he’s coaching the Canadian Olympic team. There’s a reason he dresses like that in games — because he can. Because he’s the best to ever do it. He’s the best coach in this league.
“And the way he handles himself, especially in those ups and downs, I mean, that’s not easy. And to come around and still put a smile on his face after everything he’s been through is pretty impressive. He treats us like his kids. We’re one big family in here, and it starts with him.”
7. Surely the ability to offer pending UFA Nick Schmaltz an eighth year of term (a luxury being phased out of the NHL) helped Utah GM Bill Armstrong lock up his man.
“The thought of losing Nick left me sleepless night after night after night and thinking about what he was going to get in free agency,” Armstrong told reporters via Zoom upon taking Schmaltz off the market.
“He has a unique ability. He can play if you’re up a goal or down by a goal in the last minute. He can play left wing. He can play centre. He can play right wing. He can play on the power play. He can play on the PK. He is a huge minute muncher on our team and has maximum importance. … It’s such an integral part of our organization to sign this young man today and make him a part for a long time.”
Schmaltz picked the perfect time to break out with his best season yet. His career-high 24 goals and plus-20 mark through just 66 games helped set himself up with a $64 million contract that pays him through age 38. And the number should look favourable on Armstrong’s books against a spiking cap.
Only one pending UFA forward is averaging a point per game, and it’s 39-year-old Pittsburgh icon Evgeni Malkin (47 points in 46 games).
8. Since Feb. 1, Toronto’s Matias Lemieux Maccelli has ripped seven goals and added four assists. Eleven points in 11 games while his Maple Leafs skate out the string.
In the previous four months, Maccelli scored seven goals over a 44-game span. He was scratched several times. Some wondered if the 25-year-old might be playing himself out of the NHL.
Step back, and 14 goals and 32 points in 55 games is useful production — even if he’s now padding stats in games that don’t mean much to his team
Maccelli is a pending RFA with arbitration rights. His qualifying offer is a steep $4.25 million. Buyer beware at that price.
If the Leafs don’t negotiate a lower deal to keep him, surely some team will bet on his skill and take a flyer in this weak UFA class.
9. Scott Laughton, who got traded from Toronto to Los Angeles last week, reminds us of the unseen complications of a deadline move.
“I don’t know if the cats are making it. We might try and get ’em down here. We’re figuring out the logistics of the cats. I might have to go from New York and fly them back with the team. We’ll see.”
10. King for what felt like a day, Corey Perry agreed to be traded, flew across the country, caught a few hours of sleep and jumped right back on the scoresheet.
His first game on his second tour with the Lightning, the 40-year-old scored the game winner in Toronto. The very next night, in Buffalo, he scored again — and threw down in a fight.
“Away you go. Second nature,” said Perry, who could have stayed home comfy with his family and Stanley Cup ring in sunny California.
Why chase a second title with such abandon?
“Well, I mean, when you lose five of the last six, there’s some hunger still in there. There’s a lot of games left to be played, and I’m just part of it. And I love playing the game.”
The Lightning have let a few prodigal sons go, only to watch them come back. Yanni Gourde. Ryan McDonagh. And now Perry.
“Corey was big part of our team, big part of our run in 2022. He enjoyed playing for us. I think our system helped him,” Cooper said. “He and I see eye to eye in everything that goes on. I think he’s comfortable here. And as you can still see, his nose around the net is… there’s not too many guys that have that ability he has, and clearly he still has it.”
Hagel describes Perry as the type of guy you want in the room, on the bench and dragging you into the fight.
“And he’s one heck of a player. You’ve seen what he’s done in the playoffs over the years. No surprise he’s been to (six) finals,” Hagel said. “I’ll take that guy on my team any day of the week, and he’s still doing it every day in and day out. Shows guys how to be a pro, how to play till you’re 40 years old. I think we all want to do that.
“That’s a guy that’s gonna push everyone to that next level, and that’s a guy you want to win for. So really, really happy that was the guy we went with.”
Cooper smiles when he calls Perry “a guy’s guy.” Yes, the wormy veteran understands hockey, but he understands the environment around the game.
“So, he knows when to speak, when not to,” Cooper said. “When trouble might be on the rise, he knows how to sniff it out, and he’s just really good at it. Coaches talk about having kind of the player-coach — Corey’s similar to that.”
11. We seek comparables because we want proof that the doubtful can be accomplished.
In discussing the 2025-26 Maple Leafs, whose future looks bleak, many have pointed to the 2024-25 Bruins, who missed the playoffs only to jump right back in the mix now.
A stellar 2025 trade deadline by GM Don Sweeney, a Jeremy Swayman bounce-back and a healthier Charlie McAvoy all played a role.
Another go-to template is the 2016-17 Lightning, who whiffed on the dance only to reach the conference finals in 2017-18 and build towards Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.
Injury restricted sniper Steven Stamkos to just 17 games in the Bolts’ miss year; Toronto has had its share of man-games lost in this one.
The coach of those Tampa teams, Cooper, opined on the Leafs’ situation, after beating them last Saturday.
“They have a fabulous core still there of players. I think it’s a team that is probably in a situation it hasn’t been in for a while and probably won’t be again next year,” Cooper said.
“This is probably gonna be a one-off for them, because they’ve got a good group.”
The Maple Leafs caught wind of Cooper’s optimism.
“You look around this room, and you see the talent, the skill base we have here,” Matthew Knies said. “I agree with what he says. I think we’ll be back and stronger than ever.”
Matthews said he thinks about both of those divisional rivals rebounding strong from a down year.
“I remember the Lightning missed the playoffs one year, and the next year they’re back at the top of the division competing. I look at a team like Boston this year. They had a down year, and same thing — they’re in the mix,” Matthews told reporters, prior to his injury.
“Sometimes it happens.”
12. The wonderful thing about hockey is how things keep happening that I’ve never seen before. Here’s Tage Thompson doing his best Alex Ovechkin impression:
Hey, Tage. How’d your arms feel after hitting the batting cage like that?
“Fine. I could hit a million of those and not get tired,” says Thompson, who’s never had five one-timer attempts in a row at any level.
“Stuff you work on after practice. Never thought a sequence like that would play out in a game, but it just kept finding its way back over to me. So, figured I’d just keep teeing them up.”
