MAPLE LEAFS NOTES: Injuries aren't excuse in playoffs, but lineup is leaner
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Never use injuries as an excuse for losing at playoff time in the National Hockey League.
It’s right up among hoary spring bromides for teams behind in a series with “there’s no tomorrow,” “take it one game at a time” and “we just need a bounce or two our way.”
So it’s for us to suggest the Maple Leafs ask the hockey gods what they possibly have against them in health and welfare. Toronto started this series without 98-point winger William Nylander and Bobby McMann, the latter a third-line winger who’d have been ideal against Boston, with a lower-body injury.
Nylander finally came back from an undisclosed injury — one report that has yet to be refuted says it was due to migraines — in the same Game 4 that 69-goal scorer Auston Matthews was labouring before being pulled by doctors after 40 minutes from his own mystery ailment.
Last year, it was starting goaltender Ilya Samsonov hurt in the series against Florida (though Toronto was already falling) and two years before, trade acquisition Nick Foligno went down after four games against Montreal, the series in which captain John Tavares played just a few minutes before getting stretchered off the ice.
On Monday, Tavares cut off a question about dealing with that bad luck before it could be completed.
“We’re focused on tomorrow (Game 5 in Boston), that’s where our minds are at,” he said. “We just have to come out and do our best.”
This is not to suggest the other teams have escaped the injury bug. Vancouver has lost two goaltenders in net as it attempts to finish off Nashville this week. Tampa bay defenceman Mikhail Sergachev astounded the hockey world by playing last week two and half months after breaking his left tibia and fibula. Many speculate Matthews is suffering from something far more serious than an upset stomach.
The Leafs have at least changed the narrative of personnel matters they can control. There are no suspensions so far, after losing Nazem Kadri in consecutive series against Boston and Michael Bunting last year against Tampa Bay.
KHL CUP CHAMP JOINS LEAFS
No matter what happens the rest of the playoffs, the Leafs now have a Cup champion on their roster.
Nikita Grebenkin’s departure from Gagarin Cup-winning Metallurg Magnitogorsk last week led him to sign a three-year entry level deal with Toronto on Monday. Thus, a year was immediately burned on the deal, which carries an AAV of $875,000 US.
Grebenkin was a 2022 fifth-round draft pick of Toronto who went on to have a role with the Kontinental Hockey League winners in their title last week.
Grebenkin totalled 47 points in 90 regular- and post-season games this year, though played less as the playoffs progressed. He is 6-foot-1, 191 pounds from Serov, Russia, a mining town in the Ural Mountains.
LOTTERY GIFT KEEPS GIVING
While he will be travelling to Boston with the Leafs, ailing Matthews could miss out playing on the date of an important anniversary.
It was eight years ago Tuesday at CBC headquarters in Toronto that the last-place Leafs held the right combination of lottery balls to confirm first pick overall in the 2016 draft. When 5-6-8-13 were revealed (the Winnipeg Jets were second), club president Brendan Shanahan was beaming ,Toronto controlled the pick and followed through that June to take Matthews over Finnish forward Patrik Laine.
Matthews has since compiled 368 goals, 281 assists and 649 points in 562 games. He’s 52 goals shy of Mats Sundin’s franchise record, one of many club and league marks that could fall in the next few seasons. This year’s draft lottery is May 7.
LOOSE LEAFS
Following a day off, the Leafs held a low-key practice on Monday before flying to Boston. Tavares was one of the last to leave the ice and asked were there any different words or deeds he could draw upon with the team in such a dire situation. “I don’t know if you want to change a whole lot, but just reiterate the opportunity (to stay alive), maximize that and the team sticking together. There are areas we have to be better in, but areas where we’ve done well. Just keep working until we break through” … One sector to sharpen up is the power play, where the Leafs are 1-for-14 in the series … Goaltender Samsonov’s wife Maria was at the rink in a denim jacket that had his last name on the back and a smiley face enhanced by a couple of Leaf logos, a take on her husband’s favourite comment about keeping spirits up in the dressing room. Assistant to the general manager Shane Doan has been scouting the Oshawa Generals playoff games including Sunday when they blanked North Bay 3-0 to lead their divisional final 2-0. Former Leafs boss and now Pittsburgh GM Kyle Dubas was also in attendance. The Gens were in North Bay Monday night and, along with PWHL Toronto, could be the last GTA team standing in May.
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