A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Struggling to get emotionally invested in the game.
1. Actions speak louder than words.
Auston Matthews offered a hushed and unconvincing “yeah” Friday night in Buffalo when asked if he was feeling good.
But the Toronto Maple Leafs captain wasn’t feeling good enough to participate in the morning skate and is not feeling good enough to dress Saturday at home versus the Islanders.
Monday’s matinee versus Winnipeg is now in doubt, and everyone will relax and reassess after the break.
The Sabres played Matthews hard. He scored but he looked hurt and labouring.
A couple firm cross-checks smashed his back, and frenemy Tage Thompson trucked him from the front. Clean but hard.
That Morgan Rielly immediately jumped Thompson and picked a scrap with a much larger foe screamed volumes.
Rielly wouldn’t say it, but we will: That was a don’t hurt-my-captain-he’s-already-hurt fight.
“That response in itself was great to see,” said Matthews, who didn’t want to dwell on the subject. “But I just thought the way we started the game in general, jumping up to the lead right away, just seemed like we were ready to play.”
Coach Craig Berube has recently spoken out about the challenge of managing his stud centre’s undisclosed injury. Not dressing on a back-to-back is a start. (Or, just maybe, skating him between Mitch Marner and William Nylander was the start?)
So is sending a hands-off memo to the rest of the league.
Which may work in the regular season but could prove impossible in a vicious best-of-seven.
“I mean, Mo, that’s not his job by any means,” Max Domi said of the fight. “But I think it sends a message to everyone out there that we’re a strong group that sticks together.
“Want to go after our best player like that? Doesn’t matter who’s on the ice, someone’s gonna jump in. So, it’s a great message for our group and for everyone else. And it’s a big part of why we won.”
The catch is, Matthews needs to be a big part of the Leafs’ chances of winning when it matters. And right now, at much less than full health, he is not their best player.
“He’s doing everything he can,” Rielly says. “I mean, that’s what he always does — when he’s healthy or not. You know, he’s always trying to give himself every advantage. And you know he’s a pro.”
How — and how often — Matthews is deployed after Christmas will, hopefully, help tell us where this is headed.
2. Between their teams’ hectic schedules and different time zones, brothers Jason and Nick Robertson still make sure to plan windows of free time to play Call of Duty together.
The video game sessions (never on a game day, though) offer the siblings a chance to catch up, talk hockey and life, and be on the same team, sniping enemies in their battle royales with one of their cousins.
Who’s better?
“I would say me,” Nick smiles. “But I put a little more money into the game, getting the good, good stuff. So, I think I’m a little better.”
Jason underwent his first surgery this summer. He had a cyst removed from his foot and missed the bulk of training camp. He’s thankful that his setback occurred in the off-season, and it gave him a deeper appreciation for the more serious injuries his little brother has needed to recover from.
“I mean, his whole career has been (built) on adversity, not so much the scratches but the injuries. Some very significant injuries,” Jason says. “I mean, I had my first-ever significant surgery process this summer, and it was tough. I’m curious how he did it.
“Mine was not as bad as some of his. You don’t really know the experience until it happens, and it puts into perspective what he went through.”
Nick has had past seasons derailed by a serious knee injury, shoulder surgery, and a broken fibula. Today, he’s clicking on the Leafs’ hottest line.
“It’s been a long time coming, but he’s 23 now. He works bag off,” Jason says of his COD teammate. “And when everything else goes awry, he can always fall back on that.”
3. Bruins-turned-Blackhawks Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno are generally two of the NHL’s better interviews.
Together, they gave the What Chaos! podcast a candid look into the blown opportunity of 2023, when the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins blew their 3-1 series lead to the Panthers.
Hall: “We f—– that up.”
Foligno: “We had something special there. It’s just disappointing that we didn’t get it done.”
Hall: “Now that you’re removed from it, you’re like, ‘Man, we should have won a Cup.’”
Chances like that don’t come around often. With Foligno and Hall on a rebuilding squad, that may have been the best and last chance to go all the way.
Haunting stuff.
4. Quote of the Week.
“I think five. That’s why it looks so pretty.” — Brad Marchand on how many times his nose has been broken
5. Of all the Maple Leafs core players, Rielly is the one most struggling to produce at the same clip as he did under Sheldon Keefe. (Matthews notwithstanding; it’s apparent the captain is still not himself healthwise.)
Rielly has 18 points through 33 games and is on pace for a 45-point campaign. Despite playing more 5-on-5 minutes than any other Leaf and starting a career-high 67.4 per cent of his shifts in the offensive zone, the club’s longest-tenured player is producing at his lowest rate since 2016-17.
“I think there’s good things happening. I feel really good with my skating,” Rielly says. “But I want to be more consistent. I always want to be more well-rounded. And I’m always trying to get better.”
His minus-7 rating is the lowest on the team, but any criticism of the veteran is tempered by the fact he routinely morphs into one of Toronto’s best players come playoff time.
How does the coach assess the defenceman’s season?
“Pretty solid. We wanted him to really focus on playing good D and not being so risky. I think he’s taken to that, and he’s done a pretty good job of it,” Berube says.
“But on the other side, he’s a point producer, and we need him to get up in a play. I think he’s doing a better job of his reads, of getting up into play when he should and creating offence.
“You look at his plus/minus, but a lot of those are empty-net goals.”
A few things are going on here:
• Rielly’s home life has changed, as this is his first winter going to work as a dad.
He unleashes a wide smile at the idea that lost sleep or more responsibility at home has had any effect on his game, though.
“No, that’s all good stuff. And I think that it’s helpful, and that’s been a real highlight,” says Rielly, perking up at the idea of Baby McCormick’s first Christmas.
“Oh yeah, that’s gonna be fun. We got plans,” he says. “Again, at least for me, that gives me life and energy and happiness and all that stuff. So, if anything, that’s been a driving force of positivity.”
• Berube’s risk-averse system, which Rielly is adhering to, doesn’t emphasize the speedy chance-taker’s strengths. Nor does his current D partner, fellow lefty Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who also could contribute more from the blue line.
• Rielly has been bounced on and off a power-play that has fallen from elite to mediocre.
• The Maple Leafs, as a whole, simply haven’t scored as much, which automatically chops down his assists.
• And he hasn’t rode one of those confidence waves in a minute.
We understand that the shutdown pairing of Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev, Rielly’s original partner, has been phenomenal. But that duo has resulted in the imperfect Rielly–Ekman-Larsson pairing. Now, he’s getting looks beside Philippe Myers and Conor Timmins.
“That stuff happens. That stuff changes,” says Rielly, loathe to lean on an excuse. “As a player, you got to be willing and able to change with it.”
We wonder if Berube reunites Rielly with Tanev at some point here, or if GM Brad Treliving looks at the right-shot trade market. (Because Jani Hakanpää’s return is anything but imminent.)
6. With St. Louis trade bait Brandon Saad, 32, on the books through 2025-26 at a $4.5-million cap hit and producing at the worst rate of his career (1.12 points per 60 minutes), this feels like buyer beware.
If the Blues (or a second party) can retain half the winger’s salary, however, Saad may be worth a flyer.
7. Kaapo Kakko was healthy scratched in Game 2 of the Rangers’ Eastern Conference Final versus the eventual champion Panthers.
Speaking to the second-overall draft pick in the wake of that benching, one could feel his frustration. His body language and tone spoke louder than his quotes that day.
The sense was he was biting his lip because his team was in the middle of a critical playoff series.
That Kakko and the Rangers only agreed to a one-year extension over the summer and with arbitration rights looming, this felt like a doomed marriage.
Kakko’s final scratch, and his public bristling afterwards, was the last straw for GM Chris Drury.
“I would think when he was healthy scratched that Chris got a lot of calls, not just from me. That tends to be the nature of the beast in our business,” Kraken GM Ron Francis said on Thursday’s Zoom call.
“You’ve got a disgruntled guy in your locker room. So, did that speed things up? It probably did.”
Here’s to a change of scenery unlocking Kakko’s potential.
Surely, Francis was encouraged to make the trade based on the success forwards like Jared McCann and Eeli Tolvanen have enjoyed since going to Seattle.
8. Following last Thursday’s ugly 4-1 loss to the rebuilding Flyers, Patrick Kane sat in his stall and called for a momentum-shifting homestand in Detroit.
“Whether it’s being hard on each other, keeping each other accountable, looking yourself in the mirror, make sure you’re playing better yourself — all those things come into account when the team is struggling,” Kane said.
The future Hall of Famer insists his health is in good shape following hip surgery, but he isn’t happy with his own performance since re-signing with the Red Wings as a free agent for $4 million.
At the time of his honest, hard self-evaluation, Kane ranked ninth among Wings in points (10) and eighth in goals (three). He was a minus-8.
A reporter asked the 36-year-old where the “pop” in his game had gone.
“It’s definitely been missing, right?” Kane conceded.
“I gotta be more demanding with the puck. I gotta find ways to get it on my stick and do what I can when I get it. But I don’t think I’ve had the puck enough this year. That’s on me to demand it, to get it back.”
I was struck by Kane’s candour and his resolve fielding some pointed questions. He didn’t duck the criticism, yet he stressed a belief that he could get his game back on the rails.
“The production hasn’t been there, so it’s been disappointing and probably a big reason for where we are as a team,” Kane said.
“At this point, it’s like maybe you’re hoping for things to happen. It’s not a good thing. When things are going like that, you gotta go make it happen. So, let’s make tomorrow the night to do that.”
Kane notched an assist in a win over the Maple Leafs on that “tomorrow,” then added another plus a game-winning goal in a Flyers rematch this week. He followed that up with another nice snipe Friday.
This is the first three-game stretch all season that Kane has registered at least three shots per night.
9. That aged well.
Last year when the Maple Leafs made their annual trek to Texas, the Stars threw out backup Scott Wedgewood against Joseph Woll.
But Jake Oettinger — who shared a net with a young Woll at the U.S. National Team Development Program, then butted heads as Boston University–Boston College and AHL rivals — spoke highly about his friend.
“He’s a stud,” Oettinger said that day in the bowels of a cavernous American Airlines Center. “You can ask anyone in our locker room. Last year in the playoffs I was saying I think that will be his net very soon.”
Woll smiled Wednesday night, upon drawing first blood in the two 26-year-olds’ first NHL showdown.
“We’re probably pretty even, if you go back through the games at BU and American League. We’ll reassess that at the end of our careers, I think, who gets bragging rights,” Woll said.
“We’ve done a good job staying in touch since we played together, and I got to see him a lot in Boston since we were in the same city. Since then, we’ve done a good job (maintaining our friendship), and he’s an awesome person. Lucky to share the net with him for a few years. And every time I get to play him, it’s fun. He’s obviously a heckuva goalie and very special player and special guy.”
10. On Tuesday, I witnessed the future of grand-scale sports entertainment.
The night before Leafs-Stars, I watched the NBA Cup final with David Alter at Cosm Dallas, which is like if your favourite sports bar and Vegas’s Sphere made an 8K baby. And that baby’s pablum got spiked with steroids.
The technological wow factor was akin to a young Luke leaving the small-town arcade and walking into an early Playdium in the mid-’90s.
A massive screen pits fans in a wholly immersive viewing experience using cameras around the actual arena where the game is being played, not only the broadcast feed.
Going to Cosm is the closest thing to actually attending a game live, without wearing goofy virtual-reality goggles or suffering the hassles of traffic and $22 pints.
This is not a free ad. Just some friendly advice. Go check out a game at a Cosm if you can.
The first two opened in Dallas and L.A.
Atlanta and Detroit are up next.
11. Take a bow, Mat Ishbia.
Take notes, all other major sports franchise owners.
Ishbia, owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Mercury, is pushing a new $2 value menu at Footprint Center.
The value menu includes five items — a hot dog, 16-ounce Dasani water, 16-ounce fountain soda, a bag of chips, and a bag of popcorn — for two bucks apiece.
As a proud loyalist to Dugout Deals at Blue Jays games, I heartily approve of Ishbia’s decision to make his games more affordable for families.
Attending live sports on an empty stomach is an investment. Hopefully other teams follow suit.
12. On Monday, the Maple Leafs will ring in their annual “Next Generation” game, a kid-friendly matinee that kicks off the Christmas season.
Pretty cool that longtime radio call man Joe Bowen is taking the theme literally, as his son David will step in the booth for play-by-play duties.
