TORONTO — Ryan Reaves is thinking the same thing you are.
Kind of strange that we’ve reached mid-January, the NHL season has slipped past the halfway mark, and one of the league’s most notorious fighters has yet to drop ’em.
“Yeah, it’s the longest I’ve gone without one. I would like one, for sure,” Reaves said Monday in a post-practice conversation with Sportsnet.ca. The usually proficient pugilist sounded like a sniper discussing a goal drought.
“I mean, that’s what I’m here for. Or part of the reason I’m here. To not have one this late in season is new for me. So, I would definitely like one or two soon.”
Reaves, you’ll recall last season, threw down with Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj in his first game as a Toronto Maple Leaf. He went toe-to-toe with heavyweight Marcus Foligno the very next game, willingly took on Matt Rempe during the Rangers rookie’s rampage, and finished 2023-24 with seven entries on his fight card.
Same as 2022-23.
Outside of a quick pre-season takedown of Ottawa’s Donovan Sebrango (not an NHL player), however, Reaves’s fists have been silent since early April.
It’s not that the Maple Leafs are turning the other cheek under new coach Craig Berube.
Quite the opposite.
Feisty Max Domi and rugged Jake McCabe have a pair of scraps apiece. Morgan Rielly, Connor Dewar, and (checks notes, raises eyebrows) Pontus Holmberg each have one.
Reaves, 37, wants back into Fight Club.
We wondered about a Reaves-Xhekaj rematch in October, because the veteran felt he got jumped in Round 1. Tight 1-0 game. Didn’t happen.
When New York rolled into town, Reaves instructed Rempe to not go “running around,” and the 22-year-old didn’t cause a stir. And when the Leafs travelled to New Jersey, the Devils didn’t dress tough guy Kurtis MacDermid.
The fight most outsiders believed Reaves needed to pick was with Philadelphia’s Garnet Hathaway last week. Some old-school justice for the Flyers fourth-liner delivering a head injury to McCabe in their tilt.
Framed as a desire for more “physicality,” Berube inserted Reaves into the lineup in Philly last Tuesday. Reaves understood the assignment.
“I asked (Hathaway) on the draw when we lined up. I think it was right after Dew fought. He was on the ice. I went on the left wing, and I asked him. He said, ‘No,’ and he was awfully quiet for the rest of the game,” Reaves explained.
“I think I’ve asked Hathaway before in my career, and he’s never gone me. I might be a little out of his weight class, to be honest.”
The game has evolved to the point where fewer and fewer combatants qualify for Reaves’s 225-pound weight class. Which is why enforcer-turned-coach Berube says he’s not really surprised that his toughest player hasn’t fought yet.
“I mean, there’s not many fights anywhere anyway, right?” Berube said. “This guy’s been a heavyweight in this league for quite some time. There’s not a lot of takers.
“But I think he’s played good hockey for us. I mean, he is what he is. He doesn’t try to complicate it. He’s physical. I think he’s been a physical player every game for us. And I love his energy, and I love him in the locker room.”
The dusty joke? They don’t flood the locker room.
Reaves (two assists, minus-1, team-best 23.9 hits per 60) hasn’t been a liability when he’s in Berube’s lineup. But with Toronto’s forward group as healthy as it’s been all season, and the GM looking to add on the front end, his spot is tenuous.
Of the 44 games the Leafs have played, Reaves has been scratched for 17 of them.
As tough as the man is, he’s just as smart. You don’t hang around hockey’s best league for 15 years without figuring something out, especially as a role player.
Reaves gets it.
“It’s certainly not fun coming in and out,” he said. “But I try to bring energy when I can for the boys, whether it’s practice or before games, whatever it is. Just try and still be me off the ice. Try and come in and play physical and contribute.”
Reaves will get that chance this week, as Berube calls for more energy in the wake of Saturday’s flat effort to the Canucks.
“The last couple games, not as much life, maybe not as much physicality, especially compared to start the season,” Reaves agreed. “We’ve been playing every other day. Those games are gonna happen. But I think the key is to not slide and let that creep into too many games in a row.
“One, two maybe. But you got to grab it and get back to your game. You don’t want to start stringing losses together when you’ve put in so much work in the beginning of the season, climbing the standings. Maintain that and start pulling away from teams.”
Reaves’s task this week, then, is to help restoke a fire that has shown signs of dwindling.
The contending Dallas Stars bring a heavy brand of hockey to town Tuesday.
The Devils roll through Thursday. Does Sheldon Keefe (0-2 versus the Leafs) insert MacDermid for his emotional return game?
And Xhekaj and the wild-card-hunting Canadiens will be licking their chops in Montreal Saturday.
Reaves sees a chance to get off the schneid.
“There’s not as many (willing fighters) around; I think we’ve been on a little stretch where we haven’t played many guys like that. We have a couple coming up here this week, actually. So, hopefully I get an opportunity to get one,” Reaves said.
