Leafs falling like leaves ?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been firing on all cylinders since Sheldon Keefe was named head coach back on November 20th.

Posting a 12-4-1 record under Keefe, the Leafs went on a seven game points streak and now hold second place in the Atlantic Division.

Despite the team turning the tide after the Babcock saga, the Toronto Maple Leafs have yet to play a single game this season with a healthy roster.

It seems every game they get a player back, another one goes down. The Maple Leafs PR released a series up injury updates on Saturday, adding Jake Muzzin and Ilya Mikheyev to the list of injuries.


The Maple Leafs PR also released that defenceman Timothy Liljegren and forward Kenny Agostino have been called up from the Toronto Marlies.
With Rasmus Sandin playing in the Word Junior Championship for Sweden, the Muzzin injury opens a spot and opportunity for Timothy Liljegren.


Mikheyev and Moore have effectively been put on IR and Jake Muzzin listed as week-to-week, which leaves the Maple Leafs without three key contributing forwards and their top shutdown left hand defenceman.
In a season where the majority of the health conversation likely hovered around Auston Matthews’ inability to play a full season since his rookie campaign, it has been everyone but Matthews holding the ice packs.
In 40 games so far this season, the Toronto Maple leafs have lost a total of 84 man games combined. The image below highlights each player who has missed games this season, and the players who are currently injured.

 The Toronto Maple Leafs have battled a ton of adversity this NHL season.
It started out with contract negotiations with Mitch Marner in the summer, Auston Matthews’ run into with the law, Mike Babcock and his struggles early, the firing of Mike Babcock, and now the injury bug.
When you consider where the team is in spite of all this, it truly is impressive.


 It’s the next man up mentality for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and despite all the injury issues and distractions from the beginning of the season; the have points in seven straight games and look to continue the hot streak on Tuesday when they take on the Minnesota Wild on the road.

It's going to be a Wild ride.

Zach Attack

Zach and the Devils

Zach Hyman was standing outside the visitor’s locker room in the Prudential Center answering questions from a reporter when Mitch Marner passed by. Marner couldn’t help interrupting Hyman’s answer.

“Yeah, there’s no one better than me,” said Marner, in an attempt to playfully mock Hyman’s answer.
It might have been a comment made in jest, but there’s some truth to Marner pumping his teammate’s tires. After missing the first 19 games of the season following an ACL injury in last year’s playoffs, then enduring a relatively slow start that saw him net just three points in his first 10 games back, Hyman has scored seven points in his past three games. His power-play goal in the first period of Toronto’s 5-4 overtime win over the New Jersey Devils on Friday was just the second power-play goal of his career, both of which have come this season.

Hyman now has nine goals and 15 points through 20 games, which puts him on pace for 28 goals in a shortened season. Sure, he’s probably not going to keep up his 17.4 shooting percentage, but the perception of what Hyman is within the Leafs is starting to change.
Once regarded largely as a player who excelled on the forecheck by hunting down the puck for his linemates, Hyman is beginning to be viewed as more than a puck hunter by head coach Sheldon Keefe.
“The thing that’s really impressed me is just the poise that he’s showing with the puck,” Keefe said. “He’s making plays himself, he’s not just, you know, winning puck battles letting the others come in to clean it up, but he’s getting them the puck and actually moving into good spots.”
And Keefe isn’t alone in his assertion.
Minutes before Keefe spoke after the game, Leafs captain John Tavares offered up similar praise.
“The poise he’s playing with, he’s seeing the ice real well and finding his linemates,” Tavares said of Hyman.
“I think he’s got a lot better touch around the net than people give him credit for,” added Tavares. “You can see he’s got good timing and good body position, and he gets his stick on the puck a lot. Good to see him get rewarded.”
Poise probably isn’t the first word that would have come to mind in association with Hyman’s name over the past few seasons. He had a role, and it was one he excelled at, but it wasn’t one that garnered headlines.
Yet as of late, Hyman’s poise — that word again — and ensuing point production has helped propel the Leafs. And production from players like Hyman could ease the burden of having three forwards sidelined by injury, including Trevor Moore out indefinitely with a concussion, Andreas Johnsson still out with a leg injury and the possible long-term loss of Ilya Mikheyev after a laceration to his wrist on Friday night. (More on that in a bit.)
Hyman, 27, has always been a respectable offensive producer. His point totals have increased in each of his four NHL seasons, with 21 goals and 41 points in 71 games last season, good value for his $2.25 million cap hit.
Those offensive numbers were seen as a byproduct of his dogged determination deep in the offensive zone. He was adored by previous Leafs coach Mike Babcock for his ability to create scoring chances for his skilled linemates with his forechecking.
“Hyman’s good, eh?” Babcock notably said in October when asked by The Athletic’s Jonas Siegel about the adjustment period for Tavares with Hyman lost to injury.
But now, that newfound skill and confidence with the puck are part of an evolution in Hyman’s game that, in a sense, shows that Babcock isn’t the only coach who can appreciate how vital he is to the Leafs.


And also, that perhaps there could be another level to Hyman’s game unleashed this season.
“Guys like playing with him,” said Keefe, “and a lot of good things happen when he’s out there.”
Hyman laughs awkwardly when he’s told that he’s now on pace for 28 goals for his shortened season. He concedes that he sets goals for himself, but they’re not statistical in nature.
“The key to success is to do what you do best and try not to be someone else or just try to be yourself and be the best version of yourself, right? I think that that’s really important. No matter who you are is to do what got you to the NHL for a reason. You can expand your game but make sure that you keep what makes you,” said Hyman.
Babcock used Hyman’s strengths accordingly, especially on the penalty kill, where he was routinely one of the Leafs’ most deployed forwards. But his power-play time was limited. In his three full seasons as a Leaf, his highest average time on ice with the man advantage was just 15 seconds per game, in the 2018-19 season.
But since Keefe has taken over the Leafs, Hyman’s power-play time has increased to 28 seconds per game.
“Something that I’ve learned, playing the role that I play, is that what makes me effective is doing those things and then when you have the chance to do something else and make a play then go out and make the play, right?” said Hyman.
Sure, it’s not a spot on the first unit, but it’s a sign from Keefe that he believes there is another layer to Hyman’s game. Hyman might have been on the ice for only 10 seconds of power-play time Friday night, but he made the most of it, as he has throughout December.
Hyman banging in a rebound in front of the net to open the scoring for the Leafs wasn’t pretty, but it was a goal on the power play that might not have come under Babcock. His goal comes less than a week after his two-goal effort against the Detroit Red Wings that included a backhanded goal on his own that looked unlike anything Hyman had in his toolbox.
“I thought I was playing with Patrick Kane out there down the left wing,” Auston Matthews said after the win against the Red Wings. “I think so far in the month that Sheldon (Keefe) has been here, he’s got a pretty good feel for the game and doesn’t mind switching things up. I think as players you don’t mind to see that if maybe something’s not working on a particular night to switch it up and see if you can kind of get something going. Tonight, it worked.”
We’ve seen Keefe not be afraid to take very different approaches with the Leafs lineup, be it with their style of play or juggling lines. On Friday, Hyman skated with Marner and Matthews after previously skating on a line with Tavares.
And another element of that change comes in the form of trying to entice more skill out of players wherever possible, all while not changing a player’s makeup completely.
When Keefe was hired, he said that he wasn’t “focused on what this team isn’t. I’m focused on what this team is.” It was assumed he was referring to some of the Leafs’ bigger stars.
The list of players who have benefitted under Keefe includes Marner, Jason Spezza and Justin Holl. It’s probably fair to include Hyman on that list, which is interesting given how big of a favourite Hyman was for Babcock.

Hyman’s play is an early affirmation of Keefe’s insistence on rewarding production with more opportunity. Hyman’s play could force Keefe’s hand when he does finally get his full lineup back and healthy. Maybe he continues to use Hyman on the power play and give him more ice time when the offensively inclined Johnsson comes back into the lineup.

In Hyman’s past seven games alone, he has logged more than 21 minutes of ice time on three occasions. He had not previously played more than 21 minutes three times in a season once throughout his NHL career.
Right now, what’s certain is that Hyman is benefitting from the opportunities Keefe is providing, and he’s showcasing how dynamic a player he can be.
“You’ve just got to stay the course and try to progressively get better every year and try to improve on what you need to improve on,” said Hyman.

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Mikheyev leaves game after scary incident

As forward Ilya Mikheyev ditched his gloves and hurriedly skated across the ice toward the trainer’s room after being accidentally cut by Devils forward Jesper Bratt’s skate on his right wrist, the Leafs watched in shock.
“It’s terrifying,” said goalie Michael Hutchinson.
A trail of blood was left on the ice.
“All of a sudden, I could see a ton of blood coming from somewhere and a lot more than a usual high stick or anything like that,” said Hutchinson.
The Leafs said Mikheyev suffered a significant laceration to his wrist. Keefe confirmed after the game that Mikheyev would spend the night in a hospital.
“The bench was a little shaken at the time, and it seemed like every stoppage in play the guys are kind of looking for an update,” said Keefe. “They’re concerned about their teammate.”
There weren’t additional details available after the game, but Mikheyev’s health was understandably front of mind for the Leafs.
“I think first and foremost, we’re thinking about (Mikheyev) and hopefully he’s OK,” said Tavares. “It was obviously scary there, seeing that much blood. Obviously, a guy that we care deeply about and was having a great night and playing tremendous for us, so thoughts are with him. I think even after that, emotionally, that can hit you a little bit when you see something that can be as dangerous as something like that.”
“It’s bigger than the game when something like that happens,” said Hyman. “Right now, you want to make sure that first and foremost your friend and your teammate is OK because it’s a scary thing to happen.”
Mikheyev’s injury comes after New York Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck was accidentally cut on the wrist by Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron’s skate Dec. 19.
“It seems to be more frequent these days than it was even when I played,” said Keefe. “I’m not sure if that’s actually the case, but it seems to be. It’s unfortunate. There’s been lots done to try to prevent these types of things, but some of it isn’t preventable, of course. It’s the nature of the game, but we’ve got to continue to find ways to prevent it as best we can.”

Merry Christmas Maple Leafs

Merry Christmas, kids.

In their first Next Gen game of the season, the Maple Leafs roared down the chimney and stuffed children’s stockings with a thrilling victory on Monday afternoon, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 8-6 in a wildly entertaining affair at Scotiabank Arena.


Follow the bouncing puck: The Leafs had an early 3-0 lead, gave up five goals in a row, were down 6-4 in the third period and then scored four in a row to take an improbable victory before a crowd of 19,176.
“New Year’s Eve, I think,” goaltender Frederik Andersen said when he was asked what he saw from his end as the Leafs mounted an otherwise unbelievable comeback. “Fireworks everywhere and it looked pretty. Incredible.”
A five-point night by Mitch Marner — tying his career high — was among the twinkling ornaments the Leafs put on their 11th win in 15 games under coach Sheldon Keefe.

Captain John Tavares set a team record when he had three points — two assists and a goal — in the opening five minutes 10 seconds, the quickest three points to start a game in Leafs history.
It was the Leafs’ first eight-goal game since Dec. 19, 2017, when they beat Carolina 8-1 in a similar afternoon game in Toronto.
Toronto enters the Christmas break with 44 points, entrenching them in second place in the Atlantic Division, and turkey dinner suddenly will taste a lot better on Wednesday.
Marner and Auston Matthews, playing on a line with Zach Hyman, were the catalysts as the Hurricanes’ two-goal lead evaporated.
A span of 59 seconds, starting at 11:01 of the third, sent the Leafs into the break with a cup of cheer and no lumps of coal.

Matthews made like Marner and hit No. 16 with a cross-ice spinorama pass, with Marner one-timing a shot past Carolina goalie Petr Mrazek.
At 11:54, Marner spotted Tyson Barrie in the slot and it was 6-6 when Barrie moved to his backhand to beat Mrazek.
Six seconds after the faceoff, Marner scored again. Marner’s ability to anticipate the next play has few equals in the National Hockey League, and so it was that Marner leapt from the circle, intercepted defenceman Trevor van Riemsdyk’s pass to Jake Gardiner and swept in on Mrazek, scoring on a forehand deke.
“Our adrenaline is pumping, our hearts are pumping, you’re fired up,” Marner said of the outburst. “The first one was a great pass by Matty, the second one a great play by Barrie to find that open spot and make that move. The third one I jumped through and saw their D-man have it, saw their other D-man folding out, and tried to get it. Lucky enough, I picked it off, got down the ice and was able to score.”

Lucky? We beg to differ, Mitch.
On goals by Jason Spezza, William Nylander and Tavares early in the first, the Leafs appeared to be well on their way.
But when Tavares chased starter James Reimer — the ex-Leaf was gone in favour of Mrazek after allowing three goals on seven shots — the Hurricanes recovered and took over.
Goals by Brock McGinn (shorthanded) and Martin Necas in the first period cut the Leafs lead to one heading into the intermission. Carolina picked up the theme in the second — getting three from Necas, Erik Haula and Andrei Svechnikov in a span of 64 seconds starting at 15:09 — as it took advantage of several Leafs defensive miscues to go up 5-3.
Matthews stemmed the flow at 2:35 of the third with his 24th goal; Haula scored his second at 5:58, and the air was sucked out of the building again.
But wait. Marner and Matthews took over. Pierre Engvall scored into an empty net with 1:40 remaining.

The Leafs’ comeback came 24 hours after the Toronto Raptors stunned the Dallas Mavericks, rallying from a 23-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win.
So, yes indeed, Merry Christmas from your friends at MLSE.

“Guys just believe in themselves,” Tavares said. “I think it’s huge. But I think when we move forward we know a lot of (the manner in which the Leafs won) wasn’t the recipe for the success in the long term. You have to find ways to win. It’s not always pretty.”
Keefe had no trouble peering at the victory in the bigger picture.
“We need wins, we need points,” Keefe said. “You give up the lead and the nature some of the goals (against), you don’t feel great about them.

“But we can’t forget about the good things that we did. We scored seven plus an empty netter and we had a terrific start against a very good team that we knew was going to come back.
“I think it’s part of our growth and trying to figure things out. That’s partially the reason why I didn’t call a timeout in that second period. It was a good time for our team to sort themselves out. I don’t really know in that second period that we did, but we found a way and our best players made big time plays.”
The Leafs are off until Friday night, when they take on the Devils in New Jersey.
They’re going to enjoy the break. No reason that Leafs Nation, with the way Keefe has this team going, shouldn’t either.

Merry Christmas to all,and to all a Good Night !

Hutch proves Clutch

346 days removed from a National Hockey League victory, who could’ve pictured a scene like this?
Michael Hutchinson standing tall, and Toronto standing right there with him.

Chants of “Let’s! Go! Hutch!” rained as the much-maligned goaltender twirled to first-star-of-the-night honours, the Toronto Maple Leafs finally left the second half of a back-to-back with two points and backup-for-the-night Frederik Andersen scooped up the game puck for a friend.

“It’s been a long time coming. It means a lot that he thought of me enough to grab it for me,” said Hutchinson, a Hockey Night in Canada towel draped over a neck had previously been supported the proverbial monkey.
“It’s definitely a weight off your shoulders. Winning – there’s no better feeling than it.”
The goalie had just been tossed the team’s game ball, a Raptors championship keepsake. He’d tried to dribble it around the back but the thick pads that had stopped 29 pucks got in the way of that too.
Each start is a fresh slate.
Enjoy the moment.
Five minutes at a time.
It’s just hockey.

These are the mantras of a struggling goaltender, a man who stood under the bright lights for six starts and failed to finish any of them with a save percentage over .897. He went 0-for-autumn.
After a 346-day drought bristling with speculation and consternation — and lowlighted by a confidence-testing demotion to the AHL — Hutchinson cleared his mind, dug in his edges, and gave himself permission to relax.

He secured a victory in the big leagues, again.
Finally.
Brilliantly.
One might say Hutchinson got the monkey off his back-to-back.

Monkey on Hutch's back

Winter’s first night was bright for the beleaguered Maple Leafs backup, as the affable Hutchinson made a series of stellar stops en route to a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings Saturday, backstopping the home side to its very first victory on the tired half of a back-to-back all season.
“It’s huge,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “All the attention will be on Hutch, and I recognize, of course, why that has been a story. But, it’s also for our group. It’s not just Hutch that hasn’t done well in these games. Our team hasn’t done well in these games. It’s important for us to get a good result.”

The Leafs began a little too loose against the rested, last-place Red Wings after thumping the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden Friday.
Hutchinson’s first test arrived a mere 30 seconds following puck drop, and it was a doozy: a Dylan Larkin breakaway straight down the gut from 125 feet out, plenty of time to let the mind wander to the worst.

But Hutchinson stood poised, turning away a second untouched Larkin burst to the crease and stymied speedster Andreas Athanasiou on a second-period freebie.
“We kind of hung him out there, and he was able to bail us out there the first and beginning the second,” Zach Hyman said.
“Without him, it could have been a 2-0 or 3-0 game in that first,” Mitch Marner added.
Throughout the losing, Hutchinson held encouraging conversations with multiple people in the Maple Leafs organization. Publicly, his coach, his GM and his teammates all offered belief.
“You can’t do it on your own,” Hutchinson said.

But his daily springboard has been goalie coach Steve Briere, who devoted as much effort into building Hutchinson’s mental strength as his puck tracking.

Briere stressed the value of keeping the game in perspective, reminding Hutchinson, a father of an eight month old girl, that there were more important things in life than sport. That if you can uncover joys away from the rink, you can drive to work in the proper headspace.
“Then I can go in freely. Your mind’s not wandering.

You’re not thinking of the worst possible outcome. You’re not putting extra pressure on yourself,” Hutchinson explained.

“Then I can go in freely. Your mind’s not wandering. You’re not thinking of the worst possible outcome. You’re not putting extra pressure on yourself,” Hutchinson explained.
“When you’re not winning games, it can be frustrating — but it’s finding joys in other people’s success when you’re not having success at that moment.”
So Hutchinson would get pumped for the red-hot Andersen and be happy even when the Leafs’ No. 1 requested he take a scheduled start for Hutchinson.
Even starting cold on 22 days out of action, Hutchinson would come to the rink with a smile on his face. His teammates took note. They wanted this one for him.

“Positive energy comes around,” Hutchinson said.

At the other end of the rink, starter Jonathan Bernier departed just minutes into the game with a lower-body injury, bringing in ex-Leaf Calvin Pickard, also winless.
Pickard, too, looked sharp early… until a streaking Hyman — sprung by a slick Morgan Rielly stretch feed — got tripped by a chasing Mike Green and plowed into the net, bringing the puck with him to open the scoring.

Seattle Bound

The new rink

Marc Malsam has this vision.
The father of two children, ages 7 and 9, imagines a day when his daughter will come home from the University of Washington – the school that both Malsam and his wife attended.

She will have long ago picked a favorite NHL team, and maybe a favorite team to hate – a rival for the hometown Seattle team. And she will mark the dates on her calendar when that team will be in town, and she and her dad will go to those games season after season.
It will be their thing.
“I can’t wait for those special things,” said Malsam, a structural engineer. “I can’t wait for those experiences.”
And when Malsam retires, maybe even when he shuffles off this mortal coil, those tickets will still remain in his family, creating their own experiences on top of the ones created over the intervening years.
“Someone’s going to enjoy these tickets,” Malsam said. “These tickets are almost a legacy.”
In early November, Malsam walked into the Seattle NHL Preview Center in downtown Seattle and breathed life into that dream by selecting the four club seats that he and his business partner Ivan Tsang put deposits on when the call came last March for fans to prove that Seattle was ready to embrace the world’s best hockey league.

Possible team names

The Malsam family isn’t what you would call a prototypical club seat holder. They’re not transplanted from some other hockey market north of the border or across the continent in the American northeast. They didn’t grow up around the game.
Malsam is from the Seattle area. When he got his driver’s license he would occasionally venture down to see the Western Hockey League’s Thunderbirds.
“That’s my hockey exposure,” he said.

Malsam’s wife is related to longtime local hockey icon Guyle Fielder, who played in just nine NHL games but was a fixture in the old Western Hockey League playing for the Seattle Totems in the 1950s and 1960s. So they know the game. But not nearly as well as they’re going to.
And if they may not fit some sort of preconceived notion of what a Seattle season ticket holder might look like that’s probably a good thing given that this team seems built to break existing hockey molds.
Malsam and Tsang have built a small but thriving engineering company and one of the perks they like to offer their employees and clients are chances to go to local sporting events. So they buy season tickets for the local teams like the NFL’s Seahawks, MLB’s Mariners and MLS’s Sounders.
“Now we have the opportunity to give them NHL tickets,” Malsam said.
Getting in on the ground floor with the expansion team and certainly by getting a chance to physically select his own seats represents an entirely new experience.
“My Seahawks tickets suck,” Malsam admitted. And given the demand for NFL tickets in this market that isn’t likely to change as time passes.
His new hockey tickets, by comparison?
“Killer,” he said.
When the deposit period opened last March, three months after the NHL’s Board of Governors approved the Seattle expansion team, Malsam and Tsang were like tens of thousands of other mostly local hockey fans, setting up multiple computer screens, using their phones, trying to make sure that they at the very least got a shot at a seat.
He was No. 1,804. Not bad really considering that when the deposit period opened, 10,000 people put down money in the first 12 minutes. In the first 31 hours, 32,000 deposits were made and there’s now a waiting list for tickets that numbers 33,300.
Building a team from nothing, like Vegas did leading up to 2017-18 and what Seattle is in the throes of doing, is complex. That’s a given. But it requires more than a little elasticity, the ability to bend and manipulate time.

The Seattle Totems ?

The initial part, the deposits, was wildly exciting, the first tangible connection between the fan base and the expansion team. And frankly, the response was to be expected. After all, this is a market that owners, including movie titan Jerry Bruckheimer, believed strongly enough in to put down a $650 million expansion fee ($150 million more than Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley in 2017), so seeing this kind of depositor response was anticipated, reassuring of course, but expected.
But then what?

An elaborate $930 million renovation of the former KeyArena pushed the team’s inaugural season to the 2021-22 campaign, which presented those in charge on the marketing and business side with a bit of a quandary.
How to keep alive the excitement for a team that is still without a name or jersey until at least early in 2020? How to keep a nascent fan base engaged when there is still a year and a half before the expansion draft?
And how do the folks in the team’s offices in Seattle nurture and grow interest in the game as a whole, and create a bond with a community that will sustain it through good times and bad?
“It definitely is a challenge,” said Heidi Dettmer, vice president of marketing for the team. “We have a long road map.”
The construction of New Arena at Seattle Center, a temporary name for the ambitious reconstruction project, created quite a buzz in and of itself. The original KeyArena roof, part of a structure built for the World’s Fair in 1962, will remain intact, buttressed and suspended above what will be a brand new arena with a capacity for hockey of 17,400.

The team has unveiled plans for a 180,000 square foot practice facility inside the city limits of Seattle, which will be the first hockey facility technically in the city. The plans, which include three ice pads and lots of parking for the public who will be invited to the team’s practices, speak to the team’s mission to create a team that will be accessible to everyone in the Seattle area regardless of ethnic or economic background.
A top-notch facility for the clubs’ American Hockey League team is being readied in Palm Springs, California, also.
There is the foundation of an NHL front office, now headed by GM Ron Francis. And there is the beginning of a talented, diverse hockey operations staff to begin the process of unearthing players.
But keeping fans attached to all of that is a delicate proposition.
There have been fan forums and early learn to play hockey sessions guided by the team’s new director of youth and community, Kyle Boyd. His mandate is to grow the existing hockey community, which has about 3,000 youth players, while opening doors to those who will be starting with the game from the ground up.
“We need to have something where kids can get their hands on hockey sticks,” Boyd said.

But the first point of contact for many has been the seat selection process.
It’s a short walk from the arena construction site to the seat preview center.
With the sound of construction in the background, visitors view the models of the arena, watch video presentations and view high tech representations of the various seat options to imagine what lies ahead.
Depositors can see exactly where the seats are vis a vis center ice, the players’ benches, penalty boxes, food services, restrooms and the ice resurfacing machine doors.
There are visual reminders of how this team will fit with the city’s long connection to the game, a history that includes the 1917 Stanley Cup won by the Seattle Metropolitans.

There is a short video featuring clips from, among others, Francis, Bruckheimer, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, and the team’s president and CEO Tod Leiweke, that ends with an iconic shot of a giant flag with the NHL logo fluttering from the top of the Seattle Space Needle observation tower.
Starting in late October depositors who opted for the prime club seats have been contacted one by one about coming down to the seat selection center and picking out their seats.
Although it has been logistically daunting, the business team is committed to maintaining the sanctity of the deposit order. Each of the depositors, 32,000 in all, were given a number, and that is the order in which the visits are scheduled.
Those who couldn’t come down in person to select their seats were given the opportunity to do so electronically. But for the hundreds who have come down in person it has been another small but important step in allowing these fans to take ownership of the team.
These visits will tell the early story of this franchise and in studying how other teams had set up their own seat selection process it was important to the Seattle group that the moment wasn’t just a transaction but an experience.
Between 40 and 50 people a day, six days a week make their way to the preview center to cement the relationship with the as yet unnamed team.

The individuals – and these are individuals as opposed to ticket brokers who were weeded out of the process from the get-go – have the choice of committing to the club seats for three, five or seven years, and at this point there is a fairly even split between the three options.
When people come in for their selection appointments, it’s often not just those who are purchasing the tickets, but extended family, friends, colleagues.
Bill Chapin is the senior vice president of sales for the new Seattle franchise. His previous experience includes stops with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Seahawks, as well as the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.
The incredible response from the depositors “put the wind in the sails of this franchise,” Chapin said.
Now they are getting to find out what they signed up for.
“We find that people are so excited to come down,” Chapin said. “They want to share in the excitement of what they’re doing.”
The club seats, which cost between $285-$355 a seat per game, come with access to one of two private in-arena clubs, first right of refusal for concert tickets at the new arena and benefits at both the new practice facility and the AHL facility in Palm Springs.
The club seats are phase one of the seat selection process. Located on the east and west side of the new arena, those 2,600 seats should all be allocated by the first of January.
That will be followed by distribution of general seats to the next level of depositors. Then the waitlist.
The marketing and ticket folks will also hold open houses and help disperse the 13,500 regular seats. Special access seats have already been allocated, as well.
“I think what we’re seeing here is completely unique,” Chapin said. “The fan base is just dying to engage and activate here. Now that we’ve got a team ready to go, the fan base is confirming what we knew about Seattle. Their fervor for hockey is real.”
One family walked through the doors of the selection center with an entourage of about 15 people. They were getting four seats and all of them were assisting the father who was making the final decision.
“They were all so excited and so engaged,” Chapin said. “You saw this father navigating it. There were a couple of tense moments, but he did a great job of masterfully navigating.”
When Adam Nathan heard the NHL was coming to town he and his wife, Michelle, decided they wanted in and prepared as best they could to make sure that happened. In fact, it became something of a ‘thing’ with his colleagues and pals.
“A lot of us had multiple computers, multiple browsers and windows open,” in preparation for the opening of the deposit period last March.
“I also had it up on the cell phone in case there were wi-fi issues. For whatever reason it was way faster on the phone,” Nathan said.
Faster indeed. They ended up with a magical number: Eight.
Eight among 32,000.
When they got the call to come down to pick their seats, they learned they were the first to physically show up for seat selection, as the others selected electronically or on the phone.
“They did a great job with their model and three-D renderings,” Nathan said. “It was way better, way smoother than I could have possibly imagined.”
So, you’re number eight of 32,000 and you’ve got to pick two seats? What do you do?
“I agonized over this a long time,” Nathan admitted. “Basically we had the pick of practically anything.”
Lots of questions later, lots of opinions offered and taken in, and it came down to seats on the glass that were a bit more expensive or in the middle of the club seat section.
Might as well be as close as possible, no?

So the Nathans are on the glass next to the penalty boxes.
And the family signed on for the seven-year plan.
“We figure we’re in this for the long-haul,” Nathan said.
Malsam and Tsang put down deposits on four tickets, and when they finally selected their seats, Malsam was euphoric.

“I was on Cloud Nine. I was so jazzed up about it,” he said of his new in-arena home about 20 rows up from the ice in the middle of the arena.
Yet, after selecting his seats, he began to covet seats that were closer to the ice to get a feel for the action of the game, the speed and physicality. So already he is imagining making contact with other season ticket holders about swapping seats periodically to get a different experience once the games start.
The Seattle group has anticipated this desire for fans to share their experiences, to meet one another, even if they don’t yet have players to ruminate over or special teams to laud or lament. Around Thanksgiving the team’s marketing group put on a Fansgiving event to help facilitate that kind of bonding where depositors got a chance to ask questions of the hockey operations folks, along with meeting fellow depositors.
Malsam isn’t on the Seattle payroll. But at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, he feels connected.
“I don’t know how you could do this better than these guys are doing it,” he said of being encouraged to weigh in on the team’s name, logos, color schemes, what kind of foods should be served at the arena.
“They’ve done a great job of rewarding all of the fans. They make me feel like a frickin’ rock star.”

Leafs led by their Jedi Master

 

 

 

Matthews joins Dave Keon as only Leafs to score 20 goals or more in first 4 seasons. Fine company.

 

Toronto Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews scores against Buffalo Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark on Tuesday. Despite a late comeback effort from Buffalo, the Maple Leafs hung on to win 5-3.

Sheldon Keefe feels his Maple Leafs have a long way go.
  And that's a good thing.


Auston Matthews scored twice as Toronto dominated early before having to hang on late in Tuesday's 5-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.
The Leafs looked like schoolyard bullies playing keep away with the puck at times in the first period, but had just one goal to show for their efforts.
Toronto would lead 3-0 through 40 minutes, but warts were starting to show around the game's midway point. Buffalo pushed back and made it 4-3 late, and the Leafs needed a big penalty kill and an empty netter to finally seal it as Keefe improved to 8-4-0 since taking over for the fired Mike Babcock on Nov. 20.
"It just speaks to the potential of the team," Keefe said of his players picking up wins as they learn an entirely new system on the fly. "Because we're still nowhere near what I think we can look like and what we're capable of, but we're doing a lot of good things."

A perfect example of the difference between Keefe and Babcock came in the first when Leafs defencemen Morgan Rielly and Tyson Barrie were basically playing like rovers in the offensive zone, with the former setting up the latter for a great chance down low.
Barrie, who finished with two assists, said Keefe has encouraged that "a ton" since taking over a team that now wants to possess the puck as much as possible.

"He's actually showed clips where I'll dive in and end up in front of the net and he's like, 'I love that, do more of that,"' Barrie said. "I haven't had that often from a coach, so it's nice to see."
Frederik Gauthier, with a goal and an assist, Dmytro Timashov and Ilya Mikheyev provided the rest of the offence for Toronto (17-14-4), which got 27 saves from Frederik Andersen.

Matthews, meanwhile, became the second player in franchise history to score at least 20 goals in each of his first four NHL seasons, joining Dave Keon, who did it in six straight from 1960-61 to 1965-66.
"It's pretty big honour just to be in the same breath as that guy," said the 22-year-old centre.
Rasmus Dahlin and Jack Eichel, with a goal and an assist each, and Kyle Okposo replied for Buffalo (16-12-7). NHL rookie scoring leader Victor Olofsson added two assists for the Sabres, who got 28 stops from Linus Ullmark.
Eichel extended his point streak to 17 games (16 goals, 15 assists) — the longest in the NHL this season.
"The battle level probably wasn't there," Buffalo's captain said of his team's start. "You've got to give them credit. They played well."

Toronto led 1-0 after that dominant first and went up 2-0 at 4:47 of the second when Matthews wired a shot under the crossbar shortside for his 20th.
The Leafs stretched their advantage to 3-0 with 2:21 left in the second when William Nylander found Matthews in the slot. He stepped around Conor Sheary like the Sabres forward wasn't even there before roofing a backhand past Ullmark.

The Sabres — who are now just a point up on their Atlantic Division rivals in the standings — made it 3-1 at 1:29 of the third when Dahlin buried his 10th on a power play.

Timashov restored the home side's three-goal lead at 4:58 when he scored his third on a backhand between Ullmark's pads following a breakaway feed from Barrie.

The visitors, however, were far from done.

Eichel beat Andersen on a tremendous shot for his 24th just 92 seconds later, and Okposo added his fourth to make it 4-3 with 5:19 left in regulation.

Buffalo got a power play shortly thereafter, but Mikheyev scored his sixth shorthanded into an empty net with 2:34 remaining with Ullmark on the bench for an extra attacker.

"Disappointed we didn't make more of a game of it early," Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger said. "When we made the push and we got to our game, we found our legs, there was a real chance."
The Leafs, meanwhile, still need to find a balance between going for it offensively and knowing when to pull back.

"You've got to be responsible," Barrie said. "There's got to be a line."
Toronto opened the scoring at 2:30 of the first when Gauthier pounced on a loose puck to snap home his fourth, and second in as many games, after sitting out four straight as a healthy scratch.

The Leafs, who were playing at home for the first time since Dec. 4 and coming off a 3-1-0 road trip, controlled the play for huge chunks of the period, but Ullmark was there each time before Matthews went to work in the second.

"Playing with the lead, getting the lead — a lot of good, positive things that we've seen," Keefe said. "Yet, I still think there's a long way for the team to go and continue to grow. "

Leafs clean Oil Slick, but lose Tyson Barrie to injury

The low end of the salary scale had the goals, while the brawn on the blue line supplied the minutes when Tyson Barrie was hurt.
All that and 36 saves from Frederik Andersen — now the fastest European goalie to 200 NHL wins — sent the Leafs home on a high from their four-game road trip. They not only beat the Oilers 4-1, but kept NHL leading scorer Connor McDavid off the board for just the eighth time this season, and bent but didn’t break when their third-period lead was threatened.
Take away the first three minutes of the final period in Calgary and the Leafs could’ve swept a trip against four teams higher than them in the standings. Seven teams are separated by five points in the Eastern Conference wild card race as a result of Toronto’s win.

“It’s been a bit of roller- coaster on the trip,” said coach Sheldon Keefe, now 7-4 as Mike Babcock’s replacement. “There were a lot of positives, lots of things that were covered up by the nature of how the games went and some of the chances we gave up. It masked some of the good things.”
The immediate concern was Barrie, who took a shot off his ankle midway through the first period. He went right to the dressing room, tried to skate during a timeout, but then packed it in.
“No update, other than his X-rays were negative, but he didn’t feel comfortable coming back,” Keefe said.

That meant the Leafs leaned on the shutdown pair of Justin Holl and Jake Muzzin. McDavid danced around each of them early in the game, but was held to one shot, one miss and nothing on the first of two power plays in which he and Leon Draisaitl didn’t come off the ice. Keeping the Oilers to the outside and not getting burned in transition was well- executed.
Holl, named the second star at Rogers Place with 26:10 of ice time, joined Muzzin (27:01), Morgan Rielly (24:53) and Cody Ceci (22:56) as the busiest Leafs.

“It takes a lot to play five guys that long of a game,” praised Andersen. “Muzz had some nice blocks at the end (a team-high three). They showed a lot of character.”

McJesus

While the line of John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Zach Hymandid not score until a power-play empty-netter with 1:21 to go, they were glad McDavid and Draisaitl didn’t bust out.
“Those two guys, we know how dynamic they are, they don’t need much,” Tavares said.
While it was another silent night for the trio of Auston Matthews — who had just 14:34 of total ice time — William Nylander and Kasperi Kapanen (one point in the last two games of the trip), who needed them when Alex Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev and Pierre Engvall were flying and gave the Leafs a 2-0 lead after two periods? The insurance goal, after Alex Chiasson cut the lead in half at 6:08 of the third, was manufactured by two players who’d been healthy scratches on the trip, Frederik Gauthier, who converted a slick feed from Dmytro Timashov.
Mikheyev had not scored since Oct. 25, while Kerfoot had the Leafs’ first and the line could’ve had a couple more.
“Pierre and Mik have a lot of speed, they can fly,” Kerfoot said. “They get on the opposition quickly and force plays. For the most part we stayed above their top guys.”Despite Toronto’s two-goal lead, there was likely lots of chatter between periods before the third. They were in the lead at Calgary two nights, a game that went south in less than three minutes.
After Chiasson’s power play goal, Andersen turned away 13 more shots in the final frame to preserve the win.

Matthews battles McJesus

Muzzin made sure to collect the 200-win puck as a souvenir for Andersen.
“I’ve been on really good teams,” Andersen said of his start with Anaheim and the past 219 games as a Leaf. “You can’t do that by yourself. You just have to do your part and hope the other guys do theirs.”
After Nic Petan was demoted on Friday, Keefe pulled unproductive Pontus Aberg after three games and rebuilt the fourth line with Gauthier coming out of the press box with Timashov to join Jason Spezza.
“We want (Gauthier and Timashov) to get back to playing the way they were,” Keefe said of his pre-game expectations. “Those guys were doing fine when they were in, but I’ve said a number of times, we just want to give ourselves a different look, see different people. We gave Petan and Engvall a chance.”
The Leafs are back to facing Ilya Mikheyev is still not comfortable in huge media scrums with his limited English.

But when called into one, it means the Russian rookie has done something good. That was the case Saturday, his first goal in 22 games, on a great relay with centre Alex Kerfoot. Though he had Edmonton goalie Mikko Koskinen beaten, the Russian slammed the puck in so hard, it broke the net camera the league uses for reviews and caused a few minutes delay.

“I am sorry,” Mikheyev said when informed of the damage afterwards, getting a roar out of reporters.
“A long time since I scored, I’m a little nervous. The important thing is we win and it’s a good trip.”
He has 18 points in 34 games.

The Leafs burn continues

You want meaningful games. And you wanted Tuesday.
There were enough players with Ontario birth certificates and one — winger Josh Leivo — with a chip on his shoulder to make a regular-season tussle in December feel more like a mid-April playoff struggle.
That’s what happens when the Toronto Maple Leafs and their throng of leather-lunged supporters try to turn Griffiths Way into Yonge and Bloor. And whether it was the Vancouver Canucks purposely starting their all-Ontario line of Tanner Pearson, Bo Horvat and Leivo, this wasn’t just another game.
Here’s what we learned as little things added up to a big deal as the Canucks fell 4-1 at Rogers Arena
 On a night where Jacob Markstrom was standing up to superlative snipers like William Nylander — he stopped the winger twice from scoring early off rippers — it looked like it was going to take something special to beat the starter in an emotional return to the net after attending his father’s funeral in Sweden.

What it took was a perfect pass and a perfect deflection in a game where there was little margin for error.
The Leafs struck first when John Tavares pounced on a wide shot off the endboards that hit the back of the net. His backhand feed found Auston Matthews open at the side of the net for the tap-in. And in the second period, it was a perfect Tavares deflection of a point shot that bounced down and past Markstrom.

Action around the Leaf's net

To their credit, the Canucks kept pressing.
There were two deft deflections by J.T. Miller that nearly found the net. There were two third-period breakaways by Brock Boeser that were stymied by Frederik Andersen, who made glove and pad saves. Boeser was also denied on a first-period break.
And, finally, there was Leivo the ex-Leaf jamming home a loose puck in the crease to make it 2-1. Bo Horvat and Elias Pettersson were then foiled — Pettersson hit two crossbars — to make it look like it was going to be a nail-biter finish. But Tavares struck again with five minutes remaining before Zach Hyman scored into the empty net.

Boeser took issue with his own play despite eight shots and 10 attempts. If anything, one goal in his last eight games could be attributed to some hesitation in his release and occasional accuracy problems. Or, it is something else?
“At least I’m getting the chances,” said Boeser. “I haven’t been playing my best of late and I really wanted to make this a statement game. I tried to pick my spots on the breakaways. But there have been times when I could move my feet more and you can see when I do it — like tonight — I get more chances. I just have to make sure I play that way every night.”
As much as the Canucks could take stock in the game they played, they had to tip their cap to Tavares. It wasn’t just his three-point night (2-1), it was the manner in which the Leafs captain led by example, won 57 per cent of his draws and showed form and finish with five shots and 10 shot attempts.

Take him out of the game and it might have been a different result.
“He’s earned every little penny,” said Leivo. “He’s a workhorse and when I played with him, he was in the gym right away and on the ice early and always working. It showed tonight. He’s always on.”
“His biggest attribute is his two-way game and a lot of is offence comes from playing well defensively and he’s probably one of the better two-way defencemen in the league,” added Horvat. “He capitalizes on opportunities and hits holes and is good at finding players.”
Which made the night tough to stomach. After all, a 39-shot effort should have yielded more.

“One of our better games overall for the year to be honest,” added Horvat. “I felt like we were consistent and in a lot of games we kind of lull and tonight we finished strong. We played well for 15 minutes in the second period and traded chances, but nine times out of 10, you come out with win a win there.”
Maybe Pettersson, who more than held his own in tough matchups. put it best about the collective effort and the Tavares effect.
“If I score on the first crossbar, it’s a tie game,” said Pettersson. “It’s frustrating. We played good enough to win. One of those games where the puck won’t go in. But they played the puck faster than we could react. A great team and showed it today.”
And Tavares? He has been very good of late.
“He’s been such a good player in this league for a long time and it showed today — he scored two important goals for them.”
And, as expected, Tavares wanted to talk about what didn’t go quite right. So what !

Sorry , this a long blog, as it was a late night, and an even earlier morning. Look, I need coffee.

“At times tonight, especially in the third, we’re trying to be aggressive but we’ve got to be a little smarter,” said Tavares. “They’ve got skilled forwards who get in behind us and Freddie had to make big saves. But we’re getting better and making cleaner exits and digging and defending well when he have to.”
But what about his offence and that deft deflection and his first three-point night of the season?
“You’re fighting for every inch of ice and do anything you can to get a result,” he said. “I’m just trying to play my game and getting more comfortable with Mitchy (Mitch Marner) back on our line.”

Leafs beat the Blues

Auston Matthews let out a sigh and broke into a smile.

The Toronto centre snapped a slump with a pair of goals and Zach Hyman also scored twice as the Maple Leafs downed the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Saturday night.

 "It's a huge relief," Matthews said. "It kind of gets you going, gets your confidence back. I've just got to try and get my chances, shoot the puck as much as I can and, eventually, I think it's going to go in."

Frederik Andersen made 26 saves for Toronto, which had lost seven in a row against St. Louis.
David Perron and Ivan Barbashev scored for St. Louis, which has lost two in a row following a four-game winning streak.

Jason Spezza capped the Leafs' four-goal first period outburst with his 19th of the season.
Matthews had gone a season-high five games without a goal. He broke a 1-1 tie with a wrist shot from the left wing 6:51 into the opening period.
The No. 1 overall choice in the 2016 NHL draft, Matthews had scored just once in seven career games against the Blues. He pushed the lead to 5-1 with a power-play goal midway through the second period, his 18th goal of the season.

Matthews had expressed displeasure with his team's effort in a 6-1 loss at Philadelphia on Tuesday.
"We just kind of folded, kind of just quit."
Not on this night. The Leafs came out with intensity from the opening faceoff against the defending Stanley Cup champions. They scored four times in the first period, including a three-goal salvo in 6:06.
"We got off to a good start, [Andersen] made some big saves and we got to roll all four lines during the game," Matthews said.

Matthews' outbreak came as no surprise to coach Sheldon Keefe.
"It's got to feel good for him," Keefe said. "I had full confidence it was going to fall in for him."
Hyman scored his second goal of the game by converting on a short-handed breakaway for a 3-1 lead. He took a perfect pass from Pierre Engvall as they broke in alone on St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington.

"As a team, we're starting to learn how to play with a lead better," Hyman said. "It's really important. As we progress in the season, and games become tighter, playing with a lead and not letting up is really important."
Andersen recorded his fifth win in his last seven starts to improve to 14-7-3.
"We played with confidence a little bit better," Andersen said. "We had some pretty good moments and got rewarded with some of our chances."


Binnington was removed after giving up four goals on 11 shots in the first 9:28. It was the first time he had been pulled since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final after surrendering five goals on 19 shots.
The Blues had recorded points in 24 of their first 30 games but were doomed by the slow start.
"I didn't think we came out that bad, but we made a couple of mistakes that went in our net," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said.

Santa Claus visited the Leafs a little early against the Blues

Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo was disappointed in the effort.

"We just weren't ready. It happens," he said.

A manifesto to all coaches

This blog is going to be a tricky one. I am going to have to navigate like Admiral Nelson to make sure that I don't offend anyone, and you know that can't be a easy task.
First off, let me explain something.

1. I am not in favour of anyone abusing another human being for any any reason.
2. I am not in favour of someone yelling at someone to motivate another person.
    ( I guess this means that I will never coach in the NHL )

Even Keon was not motivated by Punch Imlach

Davey does his best

Well, to begin with, let me say that what Bill Peters said, and did years back was horrendous,and deplorable.
Secondly, firing a hard ass coach and installing a moderate voice in the dressing room can have healing qualities.  As a friend once said, share the puck. But that doesn't mean you can't correct with a stern voice,a passive approach can be a s harmful as a belligerent one.

What do I mean by that ? If you do not correct bad habits, they are bound to repeat themselves, and if you have a soft demeanor about you, chances are that the message won't get received as effectively as it would if someone uses less gentler language. Now I do not advocate using foul language, but neither do I condone the use of it. Temperatures can get get pretty hot sometimes, in the heat of battle, and tempers get riled up, by athlete and coach.

But I never saw a player do his or her best for very long after a verbal tongue lashing on the sidelines or the bench.  It is better to correct in practice when you can stop the action to inject your message, than yell at a player during the game.

You see, it is not easy to tell the story, and I do feel awkward for the way i am saying things, but tally ho, on I go.

I think that we should adopt some hardened principles towards coaching.

1. Never yell when a softer voice will do.
2.Always wait 3 seconds before saying anything, saner heads and all that
3.Never put your hands on another person in anger, for any reason.
4. Put yourself in the person's shoes first.
5. Teach rather than preach

Now onto Mike Babcock, well it's obvious that his message was lost in the dressing room, and his tactics had worn through, but despite that, he was, and I emphasize was a good coach, but prone to repeat him self.

Mitch Marner

Today's athlete has obvious limitations to them, they can only process a certain amount of knowledge into themselves, and no more.  I do not know why, it's just the way of things.
Telling Mitch Marner to rank the hardest working players on his own team was not a good choice.
Actually asking him to rank the Boston Bruin players might have been a better way of accomplishing what Babcock was  going for.

I know, it's getting too long a preachy message so I will wind things up by saying a few choice words.

Love your enemies, love your faults, love yourself, and believe in your self.

Tavares to the rescue

Frederik Andersen was put to the test and the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender did enough to hold his team to victory.
"He gave us a chance to win, especially in the third period, where we had to defend" Toronto Maple Leafs forward John Tavares said. "He made some big saves, even at the end of the second (period), too. That’s why he’s one of the best goalies in the league."

Tavares scored his 10th goal of the season at 1:45 of overtime and picked up his 400th NHL assist while Andersen made 29 saves as the Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 2-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.
Andersen started in goal in the back half of a home-and-home series, breaking the trend from recently fired head coach Mike Babcock of starting Andersen in the first game of the sequence.
"It was a little different because we didn’t have a skate yesterday because of the early game," Andersen said of the change. "I was able to skate a little this morning and obviously, we had more of a relaxed morning."
The change is one of many that newly-installed Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe has made since taking over the reins. The 39-year-old from nearby Brampton made his home-coaching debut after going 3-1-0 in his first four NHL games.

"We had some good moments, but (our effort level) was not where we want it to be or where we wanted it to be," Keefe said of his team’s play. "We have to give some credit to Buffalo, they really did a good job in both games against us and made it a little harder on us."
William Nylander recorded the other goal for the Maple Leafs (13-11-4), while Rasmus Ristolainen scored Buffalo’s lone goal (12-10-5).
Carter Hutton made 41 saves in defeat and fell to 0-5-3 in his last eight games.
The Maple Leafs outshot the Sabres 11-8 in the opening period. The best scoring chance for either team in the frame came when Sabres forward Sam Reinhart’s shot from the circle hit the post at 7:31.

The Maple Leafs opened the scoring in the second period.
Nylander went to the net after receiving a pass from Auston Matthews. He deked Hutton and shot the puck under his shoulder and into the net for the power-play goal at 5:30. John Tavares picked up his 400th career assist on the Nylander goal.
"It was a little lucky and it deflected between his arm and in," Nylander said of his goal. "It was nice to get one on the power play, that’s for sure."

The Sabres had several chances to score in the frame. Andersen made a glove save off Connor Sheary at 11:50. The play was reviewed as part of Andersen’s glove appeared to be over the line, but the review was inconclusive.
"That was amazing, it kind of saved me because that was my guy," Nylander said of Andersen’s save on Sheary. "It was a big save for him."

Later in the period, Jeff Skinner had a chance from the slot while Andersen lost control of his stick, but Andersen made the save at 18:31. Victor Olofsson’s shot from the circle hit the post at 19:09.
The Maple Leafs outshot the Sabres 16-11 in the second period.
Buffalo found the equalizer in the third. Rasmus Ristolainen scored his second goal after he saw a clear path to the net while trying to find a player open. He cut across the net and beat Andersen blocker side at 6:58.

"I thought the guys put that away really well and really deserved more than a point here when I look at the third period," Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger said. "So really proud of the effort of the guys just digging it really deep and extremely disappointed with the final result.


The Sabres went 0 for 2 on the power play. They now have just one goal with the man advantage in their last 37 opportunities.

Tavares scored the winning goal from long range beating Hutton at 1:45 of overtime.
"My first shot, I think I surprised him," Tavares said of the final play of the game. "Then when I got a little bit of separation again, I got a little bit of a screen and tested him again. I was at the end of my shift, so I wanted to be sure with it and I was able to get some good wood on it and time it right."