Quick Shifts: Connor McDavid's Oilers offer Auston Matthews' Maple Leafs rare playoff test

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Bruno Caboclo is two years away from being two years away, Mitch Marner is day to day from being day to day, and the Arizona Coyotes have a plan to make a plan.

1. When you glance at the remaining 14 dates on the Toronto Maple Leafs' schedule, not many will carry the weight of Saturday's showdown at home against the Edmonton Oilers.

The Florida Panthers, executioners of Toronto's 2022-23 campaign, roll into town on April Fool's Day. That'll be a biggie. But our hopes are not so high for the Leafs' season-ending back-to-back at Florida and Tampa because by that time, all three teams should be tucked in their playoff spots and firmly in rest-the-stars-and-don't-get-hurt mode.

Raking points in 11 of their past 12, the Oilers are a legit and humming Stanley Cup contender. Connor McDavid always gets amped up for these too-rare trips to Scotiabank Arena, and now he's chasing 100 assists the way he chased 50 goals. Oh, looky here, Leafs castoff Zach Hyman is hunting 50 goals this season himself.

"One of the hottest teams in the league this year since they made the coaching change," Leafs centre Auston Matthews told reporters at practice Friday. 

"It'll be a really good test for us."

The test features four of the NHL's top nine point-getters, two of the league's top three goal-scorers and three recent Hart Trophy champs.

(What the night won't feature, however, is Mitch Marner. The All-Star wing is "making progress," according to coach Sheldon Keefe, but set to miss his sixth and seventh consecutive games this weekend as he heals a high-ankle sprain.)

"Brings out the best in everyone," promised Leafs forward Max Domi, filling in for Marner on Matthews' top line. "A little extra motivation for someone like Tone."

"Tone" is Matthews, whose bid for 70 goals is alive and well.

But Matthews rightly downplays the individual pursuits just as he downplays any rivalry with McDavid, with whom he shares an agent and has occasionally trained in the off-season.

"It's been good. I've got a lot of respect for him as a player, as a person, as a guy that takes on a lot of responsibility with who he is," said Matthews, whose Leafs lost in Edmonton last time the superstars went head-to-head.

"I mean, we see these guys twice a year, so I'm not sure there's much of a rivalry there. It's two pretty good teams, two Canadian teams, and there's obviously a lot of pride there with the organizations, the fans. I think it's more so a media thing; you guys like to obviously push it and stuff."

Yes, we'll push it — shamelessly.

Because the stories around this era of Oilers and Maple Leafs have unfolded in near-perfect parallel. Two star-studded groups racking up records and trophies but not the big one. Yet.

Because the long, 82-game schedule is lousy with forgettable nights, and the Saturday spotlight is shining on the perfect teams and the perfect time.

And because the Leafs and Oilers meet only twice a year, it is a big deal. Even to the players in the game.

"For sure. A lot of us are fans of the game as well. It's always fun to watch the best players go at it," Leafs forward Noah Gregor said. 

"At times, you're in awe of the plays they're making. You gotta catch yourself."

2. In a silo, scratching a two-time 30-goal, 75-point centreman who doesn't have two goals to rub together over a 27-game span can be justified. 

Same with benching a highly respected defensive forward who has finished just one game as a plus over his past 23 and is a dash-18 over that span.

It can be a wakeup call, a reset, a chance to get his and other players' attention. 

It can be about accountability and raising the bar of performance.

The issue we see with coach John Tortorella sitting Sean Couturier at the most important time of the Philadelphia Flyers' season is twofold, however.

First: Why name him captain in the first place?

Management had circled the 2020 Selke champ as a strong candidate for the 'C,' but with Couturier missing 2022-23 due to back rehab, Tortorella wanted to work with the player closely before signing off.

The Flyers named Couturier captain with an oddly timed February press release on the road, then held his first availability after a morning skate in Toronto — not at home, with some Philly fanfare and where more local media could cover. (He didn't so much as have a Flyers backdrop behind him when he spoke of the honour. That's not wrong, but it is strange.) 

Then, mere weeks after being told he's the leader of the room and conduit to the coach, he's on the outside saying he has no more insight as to why he's sitting than the fans do.

Second: If this is about accountability and showing up, why didn't Tortorella make himself available to reporters (by extension, to the curious fans) the day of the decision and refuse multiple times post-game and in the days following to say anything of insight or encouragement to a guy who worked his butt off to rebound from surgery?

The scratch is one thing; the ego and disdain is another.

And with Couturier signed through 2030 — yes, 2030 — how severely has the coach-captain relationship been damaged?

3. The NHL standings watch is a tale of two conferences. And we've got predictions for both.

In the West, we can't see a world in which the Blues or Wild catch the spendy Golden Knights or steaming-hot Predators for a wild-card slot. 

Up top in the Central Division, however, the Avalanche and Stars came out of Friday's action with 95 points, the Jets 93.

No Western club faces a more difficult strength of schedule down the stretch than Winnipeg, so we're picking Colorado to finish first, followed by Dallas and the Peg.

Switching to the East, both division crowns feel like tossups between two teams. (Give us Carolina over New York, and Florida over Boston at the wire.) The real intrigue rests in the scramble for seed Nos. 7 and 8.

It says here that Philadelphia (barely) hangs onto the Metro's 3-seed, while the Atlantic Division gets five playoff teams.

Tampa Bay's experience wins out, and with Dylan Larkin back in the fold, a re-energized Detroit busts its seven years of bad luck.

Playoff hockey will finally grace Little Caesars Arena.

The Islanders are a mess, and Washington has been getting lucky with goaltending. Further, Tom Wilson's suspension hurts. The Caps don't have enough forwards to weather his absence.

4. Video coaches, sharpen your eyes and update your resumes.

With puck-over-glass and high-sticking penalties susceptible to a coach's challenge next season, even more pressure will fall upon the eyes in the back room to spot the truth in these bang-bang plays. Then rapidly relay the right info to the bench.

Smart of the league to punish a failed coach's challenge on one of these reviewed calls with a 5-on-3 penalty.

That will keep fans from having their time wasted and ensure the video coaches stay on point.

A byproduct of these newly implemented rules for 2024-25 could be more jobs for video coaches. 

Some teams already have two on staff racking up in-game screentime. But those that employ only one should consider a second set of eyes.

5. I don't know much. But having hung around minor hockey rinks the past seven years, I do know the youth don't suffer from a swagger deficiency.

Check out U-13 showman Henry Harrington, who scored during an exhibition intermission shootout at Monday's Flames game, then proceeded the bust out The Worm to the fans' delight like he was Scotty 2 Hotty.

"I've been practising on my ODR," Harrington toId Calgary's in-game host after wriggling off the ice. 

"I tried it in a game once, and it worked, so it's been my celly for a while."

6. The Behind the B teaser of a mic'd-up Brad Marchand getting knocked down by Jake McCabe and verbally taking a run at Mitch Marner during the Leafs-Bruins tilt on March 7 got some play this week.

But it's worth watching all the behind-the-scenes footage Boston released from that game, particularly with the probability these rivals could meet in a best-of-seven next month.

Whether it's Marchand trying to channel his anger productively, former coach Claude Julien dipping into the B's room to deliver the pre-game pep talk, or current coach Jim Montgomery telling his captain that he's leaving the intermission speech to him, there's plenty of gold here:

7. The notion of expanding mic'd-up moments and raw glimpses into the game's characters and emotions into a full-blown, athlete-based reality series in the mold of Drive to Survive and Full Swing is enticing.

As reported by The Athletic's Chris Johnston, the league has linked with Amazon for such a series, due this fall and featuring about a dozen players. (And we hope the show receives a lighter edit than 2021's All or Nothing: Maple Leafs, which had a few spicy scenes but was a little too vanilla for our liking.)

In no particular order, here's our wish list of candidates: Brent Burns, Matthew Tkachuk, Matt Rempe, Joe Pavelski, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Nikita Zadorov, David Pastrnak, Jacob Trouba, Alex Lyon, Drew Doughty, Thatcher Demko, Artemi Panarin and Jack Hughes.

8. Even when he was four teams removed from the Flyers, there was something special about each time Wayne Simmonds returned to Philadelphia.

During the tough-as-nails power forward's final seasons with the Maple Leafs, we observed how warmly Simmonds was greeted by everyone at Wells Fargo Center.

Ex-teammates and trainers, sure. But everyone from the ushers to elevator operators. (The best comparable homecomings I've seen would be Mark Giordano's Calgary returns.)

We dare you to find someone to say a negative word about this guy.

"I enjoyed everything about playing with Wayne. He's a great teammate. He plays a hard brand of hockey," Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly said. "Playing against him for all those years when he was in Philly, it was very difficult. But having him here in our room for a couple years was just a pleasure the entire time."

The NHL is worse off without a guy so brave with his actions and his words. 

Perfect that Simmonds will sign a one-day contract with Philly and have his 1,037-game career celebrated inside his home away from home.

"Just a competitor. One of the toughest guys I've ever coached. Simmer was a good guy to have around, good energy about him," Keefe said.

"Going back, I thought it was a shame his first year with us here was played at a time when there were no fans in the building. But he had a terrific career, and obviously his best years (were) in Philadelphia. So, fitting that he gets to retire as a Flyer."

9. Timothy Liljegren's critical post-deadline stretch run to establish himself as one of Toronto's top six for the playoffs got off to a shaky start in Montreal. But in the four games since, the defenceman has averaged comfortably more than 20 minutes a night, posted a plus-6, registered four points and nine shots, and is getting another look on the power-play.

Most telling: When Keefe opted to make a healthy scratch Wednesday in Washington, it was T.J. Brodie, not Liljegren, who sat.

Liljegren is trending in the right direction. Now, he must keep it up — to avoid a similar fate as friend Rasmus Sandin.

"The last couple years, he's been limited," Sandin told reporters. "I think sky's the limit a little bit for him. He has a lot of potential. He's a great skater. He defends well, and he has great puck skills, and he has a rocket of a shot too. Give him a little bit more time with this role, and he's going to grow into it even more."

That's what the Leafs are hoping.

10. Quote of the Week.

"Guess we're going to have to cover those one-timers in the pre-scout." —Sheldon Keefe, tongue in cheek, after Alex Ovechkin ripped two goals from his office against the Maple Leafs

11. Spencer Carbery has done a fine job keeping the Capitals in the race, yet the coach's meetings against his former club have been lopsided.

Toronto has outscored the Caps 11-4 in its two wins in D.C. and will welcome its former assistant back Thursday. 

"It helped me a tonne, just being able to be in that environment," Carbery said. "Even to hear [Leafs vice president of media relations] Steve Keogh and Sheldon interact from a media perspective and all the different things you need to be prepared for as a head coach. Yeah, that was really helpful. 

"And then the pressure — I love that part of it. But you knew that if the power play struggled, I was going to hear about it behind the scenes. But that's good. That's pressure. And being in that environment gives you more preparation for moments like this and opportunities like this."

The 42-year-old Carbery is the youngest bench boss in the league. He carried a book's worth of lessons from his two-year stint in the mecca back to D.C. From Brendan Shanahan and Kyle Dubas. Most of all from Keefe. 

Specifically, the nuances of bench management.

"There's some unique things that he does a little differently than some other coaches, and I picked some of those up. I could name 100 different things that I still think about to this day that I've incorporated in my coaching style," Carbery said. 

For example? 

Carbery took note of how Keefe will form "superlines" toward the end of periods or after TV timeouts or a killed penalty. How he'll look for opportunities to throw multiple centres on the ice at the same time. 

Tinkering in search of a slight edge or mismatch.

In Wednesday's head-to-head match, Keefe used seven different forward lines. Carbery used eight.

"Being creative," Carbery said. "I feel like this is something he does every year, because it was Will [Nylander] playing the middle [at training camp] and Mitch Marner was playing on defence last year in training camp. Little things like that, maybe you use it, maybe you don't. But it's always trying to push the envelope.

"He's trying to create an advantage for his hockey team. As a head coach, that's what you're trying to do. So, you can roll out all your lines and do that, and that's our responsibility. But you also can find little ways to create advantages in a 60-minute game. And he's as good as anybody that I've met at doing that. And there's ways that we can do that, aside from just calling out Line 2, Line 3, Line 4, to try to create those advantages."

12. Nathan MacKinnon's kick-to-blade-to-backhand-feed-to-buzzer-beating-OT-goal by Artturi Lehkonen is poetry ...