A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep.
1. Now 77 games into this offensively charmed Toronto Maple Leafs season, six Leafs have already potted at least 20 goals and a seventh, Kasperi Kapanen, is one red light away from joining them.
Not among that group, surprisingly?
Nazem Kadri.
The longest-tenured Leaf is coming off back-to-back 32-goal campaigns but had been stuck on 15 for a dozen outings until he finally snapped his latest slump Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Unless he gets on a roll here, there’s a chance Kadri finishes with the fewest goals of any full NHL season in his career.
It’s confounding.
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He plays in the middle of the top power-play unit, and has always been a point producer.
Yes, he did miss eight games with a concussion this winter, but his average ice time has only dropped 30 seconds per game, to 16:16, since the arrival of John Tavares, who dropped him down to third-line pivot.
The match-ups were supposed to be so much more favourable down there, right?
Kadri’s shooting percentage is down significantly, from 15.2 per cent in 2017-18 to 9.2 per cent in 2018-19, but it’s more than that.
While the coach’s priority has been solidifying a top six, Kadri has been turnstyling wingers all season, seemingly settling in now with Patrick Marleau and Kapanen.
“Naz is an important player for us,” coach Mike Babcock said.
“I think you’re lucky on this team. You’ve got real good wingers. No matter who you get, they’re really good. I don’t think there’s much wrong with Marleau and Kapanen, but I never asked Naz if he liked them or not, to tell you the truth. He’s just gotta bring it every night.”
Especially from April 11 onward.
He must be engaged, but not reckless. Feisty but disciplined. Kadri needs to matter.
What good is centre depth if it doesn’t pay off in the playoffs?
And with the Bruins and Leafs’ stacked top six trying to cancel each other out, the Kadri line — better on paper than the Charlie Coyle line — could well be the key to victory over Boston.
While the numbers aren’t there, the good news is, Kadri’s confidence hasn’t been shaken.
“He’s the same every day,” Auston Matthews observes. “His whole demeanour is what he is. It doesn’t change, doesn’t matter what happens. He’s very mentally strong. Whether he’s going through a scoring slump or he’s scored 10 games in a row, his attitude, his persona, just the way he is, it doesn’t change. I think that’s a pretty good thing to have.”
That must be such a blessing for a professional athlete.
“That guy’s blessed,” Matthews smiles.
“Everyone would love to see more production. I’d love to see me produce more; he’d love to see himself produce more. That’s all part of it, but he plays hard every night, and no matter what’s going on he stays levelheaded.”
Kadri says each year he chooses an aspect of his game to improve. This season it’s been face-offs, which he’s raised to a 54.9 per cent — the best of his career and the best on the team.
“That’s one thing I’ve been focusing on,” Kadri says. “I’ve really improved in that area this year. Little things like that.”
The shooting percentage, the pinged crossbars and posts? Those big things called goals?
Maybe he’s saving them up for when they count.
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2. Despite Sergei Bobrovsky and Carey Price attempting to drag their respective clubs into the dance, the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs are shaping up to be the Spring of the Goalie Tandem.
Blame injuries, a lack of true No. 1s, or the increased focus on load management, but it’s incredible how many of this season’s playoff teams have leaned on more than one goaltender for success.
Last season, only Colorado and New Jersey — both their conference’s bottom seed, both swiftly eliminated — entered the Cup tournament with two goalies who had at least 30 starts apiece.
This season, nearly half the projected field — seven teams — are already in that situation. Conventional wisdom says one workhorse goalie (Andrei Vasilevskiy, Marc-Andre Fleury, Braden Holtby, Frederik Andersen) is the way to go, but here are my power rankings of the playoff tandems.
These teams will be less hesitant to make a quick pull and more comfortable should they lose a starter to injury. (Just ask Mike Babcock or John Tortorella how they’d feel if their No. 1 went down in April.)
Dallas Stars: Ben Bishop (26-15-2, .933) and Anton Khudobin (15-16-4, .925)
New York Islanders: Robin Lehner (23-12-5, .926) and Thomas Greiss (22-14-2, .926)
Pittsburgh Penguins: Matt Murray (27-12-5, .919) and Casey DeSmith (15-11-5, .916)
Boston Bruins: Tuukka Rask (26-11-5, .915 and Jaroslav Halak (21-10-4, .923)
Carolina Hurricanes: Curtis McElhinney (19-10-2, .913) and Petr Mrazek (20-14-3, .910)
Colorado Avalanche: Semyon Varlamov (19-18-9, .910) and Philipp Grubauer (16-9-4, .914)
Calgary Flames: David Rittich (26-8-5, .911) and Mike Smith (21-15-2, .899)
3. A game within a game was being waged Wednesday night as Toronto’s Masterton candidate, Tyler Ennis, charged in for a shootout attempt on Flyers rookie Carter Hart.
Ennis says he snapped pucks on Hart every day this past summer as part of their training sessions in Edmonton.
“He knows a lot of stuff I do, so I tried to switch it up on him,” Ennis says.
Ultimately, Hart turned the veteran away, and the Flyers got the win — Hart’s 16th since being called up in last December.
“He’s a great goalie,” says Ennis, who believed Hart was ready for the bigs back in August.
“For sure. We would say how patient he is for a young guy. Usually young guys swim around in the net,” Ennis says.
“Carter, first of all, works super hard. He’s a great kid, and he wants to be great. I’m happy he’s doing well. He’s going to be a good goalie for a long time.”
4. No NHLer has scored more empty-net goals this season than Zach Hyman (six), and teammate Auston Matthews smiled as he pointed to that fact off the bat when asked about his teammate’s first 20-goal campaign (the forechecker’s previous best was 15).
“He’s unreal when the goalie’s out of the net, too. He’s good at that 6-on-5,” Matthews smiled coyly, before giving the winger credit for the effort he invests in complementing linemates Mitch Marner and John Tavares.
All three of them are enjoying career years.
“They’re so skilled, and Hymie, he works so hard, he competes and battles in front of the net and in the corners. He’s not afraid to go to those dirty areas and capitalize on opportunities and loose pucks. He’s got some pretty good players,” Matthews said, flashing another grin.
“Like I said, he’s been lights out on that 6-on-5.”
Patrick Marleau took a little grief in some corner last season, when his five empty-netters padded his goal total to 27.
Still, we’d argue that simply being on the ice in 6-on-5 situations means you’ve earned the coach’s trust to play solid defence with the game on the line.
Right behind Hyman in the ol’ ENG category this season, with five apiece, are Patrice Bergeron and Sebastien Aho. Pretty good players.
Long knocked for not having the hands to match his work ethic, Hyman shrugs off his offensive surge, saying he’s not taking a lot of pride in hitting 20.
“I kinda put in the work every summer,” he says. “I’m fortunate to play with two really good players who make it easy on me. I try to get open for them, and try to get them the puck as much as I can.”
5. Impending UFA Jeff Skinner has been targeting a massive payday, which felt inevitable at Christmastime.
But Buffalo — tanking hard, but not on purpose — hasn’t strung together consecutive wins since mid-December, and Skinner himself has gone just as icy. He has found the net just once in the past 20 games.
He’s only 26 and the free agent class isn’t flush with scoring wings, but GM Jason Botterill is looking wise for letting this one play out and letting the hot stick cool off.
6. It was Florida teammate Jamie McGinn who first spotted the cluster of San Jose fans holding the gigantic banner honouring Mike Hoffman’s droplet of coffee with the Sharks.
“Look up in the corner,” McGinn said to Hoffman as The Star-Spangled Banner rang out through SAP Center.
So he peeked up.
“It was pretty big, almost the size of a retired jersey number that would be hanging from the rafters,” Hoffman says. “The guys got a great chuckle out of it.”
The Teal City Crew, a Sharks support group, crafted a banner honouring the hours Hoffman had spent as a Shark on June 19, prior to being flipped to the Panthers.
Hoffman later reached out to Teal City, posed with the banner and asked if he could keep it, sending a signed sweater the guys’ way as a thank-you.
“I’ll put it up in the gym that I work out at,” Hoffman says.
“As long as it’s in a positive manner, making fun of the fact that you’re only there a few hours is good. We get a laugh out of it; they get a laugh. There’s a social media presence to it that doesn’t hurt at all.”
Hoffman says when the Sharks acquired him from Ottawa, he had no idea he’d be traded again so quickly.
“I knew a trade was coming and it was just a matter of time,” Hoffman says. “You just go with the flow. I was in Italy on vacation at the time, and the six-hour time difference didn’t really help. It was in the middle of the night. The transition here has been awesome. Everyone’s been nothing but welcoming and open arms.
“Once I got comfortable, I started playing better.”
Despite the Panthers’ rough season, the winger’s offensive numbers have never been better, a testament to the NHL’s second-best power play.
Hoffman’s 35 goals and 69 points this season have crushed his Sens stats.
How come?
“A little bit better players on the front end,” Hoffman says. “You look at the forwards we got here. We’ve got good players here, so that helps. And the power play has done so well, it’s helped everyone get more points than we have before. That’s where so many of the points come from nowadays.”
7. If there is a silver lining to the Maple Leafs’ inevitable cap crunch forcing some difficult decisions regarding the futures of RFAs Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen, it’s that, offensively at least, prospect Jeremy Bracco looks over-ready for the NHL.
While the winger’s 200-foot game remains a work in progress, Bracco is on fire on the fun side of the red line, racking up 14 points during a nine-game streak.
The playmaker — another smallish, drive-his-line-from-the-wing type — is now leading the entire AHL in assists (53) and points (73), snapping the Marlies’ all-time scoring in a 76-game season in the process.
“It’s been fun to watch him establish himself as a premier player in the league offensively, so it’s a great accomplishment,” coach Sheldon Keefe said.
“He’s a guy who his entire life has made other people look good, so for him to just be able continue to do that at this level is very good to see.”
Congrats to Jeremy Bracco @jbracco97 I knew you had it! Keep up the good work.
— Marietta Dubas (@grammadubie) March 30, 2019
8. Another shoutout to Jim Rutherford (or shaming of the player’s agent, depending on your point of view) for locking up Jake Guentzel at a $6-million AAV through 2024.
On the list of the NHL’s deadliest pairs — defined as players who score of each other’s assists — Guentzel and Sidney Crosby rank third, behind only McDavid-Draisaitl and Tavares-Marner, and ahead of Stamkos-Kucherov, Gaudreau-Monahan, and MacKinnon-Rantanen.
Of any skater making up the league’s top-10 offensive duos, Guentzel will be the cheapest by summer’s end — and he’s only 24.
9. The Arizona Coyotes (81 points) announced the sale of their playoff tickets Tuesday, three days before the Presidents’ Trophy–clinching Tampa Bay Lightning (122 points) announced theirs.
I recall the Boston Bruins announcing their playoff sales early in both 2015 and 2016, before they’d clinched a spot, and they got roasted on social media with folks retweeting the ticket-sale announcement after they’d been eliminated.
The Coyotes are running a similar risk, as they’re in a dogfight with Colorado for the West’s final wild-card slot.
On the flip side, it will cost fans as little as $34(!) to attend a post-season game in Glendale.
10. Henrik Lundqvist may never play the Toronto Maple Leafs again.
Lundqvist’s career .897 save percentage versus Toronto is the living legend’s worst among all Eastern Conference opponents, so in consecutive meetings, Rangers coach David Quinn has tapped backup Alexandar Georgiev.
In those two busy outings this season, Georgiev faced a combined 101 shots from the Leafs and turned away 99 of them, for a pair of victories and gaudy save percentages of .982 and .978 — the best non-shutout performances of his young career.
“That goalie’s just got our number,” laments Auston Matthews.
11. Adam Fox is the noncommittal college prospect the Calgary Flames flipped to Carolina as part of last summer’s blockbuster. Despite reports that the defenceman has decided to return for a fourth year at Harvard to get his degree and become an NCAA free agent, Fox said publicly this week that no official decision will be made until his season is over.
The 21-year-old right shot is lighting it up from the back end, putting up nine goals, 48 points and a plus-26 rating over 32 games.
Brad Treliving knew Fox would rather stay in school than sign with Calgary, which is why he tossed him into the Dougie Hamilton deal in the first place.
How nervous is Don Waddell right now, especially considering his Hurricanes are not a cap team and have a recent history of being hesitant to shell out big bucks to young players?
12. Since captain Justin Williams called off the highly popular and slightly controversial Storm Surge, the Hurricanes are 0-1. I totally get not wanting to brainstorm up a game of British bulldog or pin the tail on the donkey when you’re embroiled in a playoff series, but why not ride out this fun new tradition until a post-season berth is secured?
by winning games and playing for eachother. Huge games are coming up for us. See you out there #TakeWarning pic.twitter.com/rMpPADaW1Z
— Justin Williams (@JustinWilliams) March 28, 2019
I’ve also wondered if the Storm Surge actually played a small psychological role in inspiring the Canes to victory: Hey, boys! We have to win tonight so Trevor van Riemsdyk can do the dunk stunt. It’ll be hilarious!
