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Jon Cooper has surprising take on Maple Leafs

NHL.com

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning are set to renew their postseason rivalry with their second straight first round matchup that officially begins tonight. 

Last season, it was the Lightning overcoming a 3-2 series deficit thanks to Brayden Point’s overtime winner in Game 6 followed by Nick Paul playing the role of hero in Game 7, sending Toronto home for an early summer yet again. It goes without saying that this year is huge for Toronto, who are facing a summer of radical changes if they fail to win a postseason series yet again. 

Thank to their superior regular season record, the Leafs once again clinched home ice advantage for their series against the Lightning. And head coach Jon Cooper had nothing but good things to say about them, acknowledging their defensive improvements. 

“The Leafs, to me, keep making positive strides every year. They’re a dynamic offensive team with dynamic players. But they’ve really grown into like a bit of a defensive juggernaut as well,” Cooper told reports in Tampa. “That’s the recipe you need to win in this league.”

The Maple Leafs made several key additions to their team this year, including 2019 Conn Smythe Trophy winner Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari from the St. Louis Blues, swapping Rasmus Sandin for Erik Gustafsson, and bringing back former 1st round draft pick Luke Schenn – all moves that they hope will finally put them over the top. 

“It’s a shame one of these teams has to be out, but it seems like every year you have one of these marquee matchups that hopefully you’d see down the line,” Cooper added. “With only eight teams in each conference making the playoffs, a lot of these matchups happen in the first-round matchups. But they’re good for hockey and a lot of fun.”

Tonight’s Game 1 begins at 7:30 PM EST from Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto. 

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Brad Marchand makes Bruins history in Game 1 win

Mass Live

As expected, the Boston Bruins took care of business against the visiting Florida Panthers in Game 1 of their opening round postseason series. Their 3-1 victory gave them the 1-0 series advantage, and they’re now only 15 wins away from their first Stanley Cup since 2011. 

And it was the usual suspects coming through in the clutch for Boston, with David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk lighting the lamp; Linus Ullmark made 31 saves.

And Marchand’s goal, which happened to be the 50th of his postseason career, also made Bruins history.

Per ESPN Stats and Info: 

“Brad Marchand has 50th career playoff goal, joining Cam Neely (55) as the only players to score at least 50 playoff goals with Bruins. Marchand’s streak of 6 straight home playoff games with a goal is the longest in Bruins’ franchise history.”

The Bruins and Panthers will get back at it tomorrow night from TD Garden. 

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NHL changes rules so that Leafs can call up extra goalie tonight

Zuma Press

This just in, the Toronto Maple Leafs have made an emergency recall from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies this morning, calling up goaltender Erik Kallgren to serve as the team’s 3rd string goalie tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It’s expected that Kallgren will act as the team’s 3rd man in goal behind Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll for the duration of the playoffs. There’s no timeline yet for Matt Murray’s return but… even if he were healthy enough to play, would you want him in goal over Samsonov or Woll? Unlikely…

According to TSN insider Chris Johnston, the NHL made a change to their rules, allowing the Leafs to call up Kallgren.

Check it out:

So… while we’re making up new rules, can the Bolts get some sort of freebie too?

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Wayne Gretzky goes above and beyond for family that lost son in 9/11.

They call #99 “The Great One” for his outstanding play out on the ice, but we may soon have to change that name to “The Greatest One” thanks not to Wayne Gretzky the player, but Wayne Gretzky the man.

Over the weekend Gretzky joined the Spittin Chiclets crew during their broadcast of the FDNY vs NYPD hockey game, no doubt in an effort to help promote an event that puts the spotlight right on first responders. Being that the event was between a pair of teams based out of New York, Wayne Gretzky was asked to retell a famous story related to a family that lost their son during the tragic events of 9/11.

Gretzky would go on to share a story about how he met a family one day by the pool, a chance meeting that would forever change the contents of his wallet.

“Janet and I happened to be in Vegas for a charity event and they were sitting by the pool… sort of a family get together,” revealed Gretzky over the weekend. “I kinda walked by and they said ‘Are you Wayne?’ and I said yeah and they said ‘We had a son that tragically passed in 9/11 and here’s his picture,’ and they gave me his card and I said I’ll keep it in my wallet for life.”

It was a very nice thing for Gretzky to do and say, but surely no one would hold him to the impossible standard of keeping a photograph of a man he had never met, and would never meet, in his wallet forever?

Well according to Gretzky, a full decade later, he ran into friends of that very same family when he was once again in Las Vegas and what happened when they met will leave you in awe of Wayne Gretzky the man.

“10 years later I was in Vegas again for another event,” continued Gretzky “and friend’s of their family said ‘Can we ask you a question, do you still have that picture of our friend? Their family told us you were gonna have it in your wallet.’ I said yeah, and I pulled my wallet out and I still had the picture. I said I promised the family I would never lose it, I would keep it forever.”

Perhaps even more impressive than Gretzky’s unbelievable act of kindness was the completely humble and matter-of-fact matter in which he repeated the story. It was clear that Wayne did not want any kind of recognition for the gesture, although he certainly deserves it.

“You know what? Everyone went through a hard time,” said Gretzky. “For me to keep a little keepsake like that is special to me.”

The Great One ladies and gentlemen.

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Don Sweeney shares a concerning update on Patrice Bergeron.

If you have paid any attention to the chatter regarding the Boston Bruins on social media over the last few days, you’ve probably seen quite a bit of concern and criticism surrounding the status of Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron.

After being out for a while and dealing with some injuries, Bergeron would make his return to the ice on the 13th of April for a meaningless game against the Montreal Canadiens. Bergeron accumulate just 5 minutes and 36 seconds of ice time before leaving the game early, and since exiting that game he has been notably absent from all of the Bruins’ skates.

On Sunday, Don Sweeney addressed Bergeron’s status ahead of the Bruins’ first game in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, and his comments were not at all reassuring.

“He’s taken another extra day today again obviously,” began Sweeney on Sunday. “It’s to be decided tomorrow if he feels well enough he’ll play.”

It sounds like Bergeron is dealing with both nagging injuries as well as an illness, so there will be quite a bit up in the air as the Bruins set to face off against the Florida Panthers on Monday night. The good news here is, as Sweeney pointed out, it’s not like missing a few practices is going to somehow diminish the quality of player that Bergeron is on a nightly basis.

“Patrice doesn’t need extra days of practice,” said Sweeney. “If he feels better he’ll play.”

Somewhat concerning was the fact that Sweeney confirmed Jeremy Swayman is also dealing with an illness of his own, and you have to hope that there isn’t some kind of bug going around the Bruins locker room just before the Stanley Cup playoffs.

For Sweeney’s full comments, check out the video below:

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Maple Leafs rival ready to put ‘full court press’ on Kyle Dubas.

Christopher Katasarov/Canadian Press.

The Toronto Maple Leafs made an interesting decision before the start of the 2022-23 NHL regular season when they allowed general manager Kyle Dubas to enter the season in the final year of his contract with the team.

From the outside looking in the move appeared designed to put more pressure on Dubas to produce results on the ice, notably advancing beyond the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but it may have been a move with some unintended consequences.

Since the conclusion of the regular season there have been rumblings that Dubas may be drawing interest from rival teams around the league, potentially even teams within the Eastern Conference. On Friday, Mike Stephens of The Hockey News revealed that at least one team is prepared to put the “full court press” on Dubas should he become available, with that team being none other than the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“The rumblings that I’ve heard at least are that Fenway Sports Group is ready to put the full court press on Kyle Dubas if he leaves Toronto,” wrote Stephens.

It’s not hard to see how this could cause problems for the Maple Leafs, especially if Dubas were to take his talents to another team and find success there. Even in the event that Dubas doesn’t leave the Leafs though this could still have a negative impact on the team, with this likely greatly increasing Dubas’ negotiating leverage in any contract talks.

If we’re hearing rumblings that other teams are interested in Dubas, you can bet his representatives have already heard them as well. The decision to not re-sign Dubas sooner could end up costing the Leafs significantly more money later down the line.

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Rumor: NHL-ready arena development to be announced on Monday.

Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

Although the National Hockey League has only just recently added the Seattle Kraken to their ever growing number of member teams and although the NHL finally finds itself balanced with 32 teams across the league, the rumors of NHL expansion continue to persist.

The latest on that front comes to us courtesy of former NHL goaltender turned NHL insider Kevin Weekes, and his report is a spicy one. Weekes is reporting that an arena development project, one large enough to house a hockey team, is set to be announced on Monday.

What makes this report from Weekes even more interesting though is the market involved in this rumor, one that has repeatedly been one of two markets in the United States heavily rumored to be potential NHL destinations. According to Weekes the market in question is that of the state of Georgia, with the city of Atlanta having been a rumored destination for the NHL almost since the moment the Atlanta Thrashers were relocated to Winnipeg.

Weekes even goes to ask “If you build it, will they come ?” clearly hinting at the possibility of NHL expansion here in the future. It’s still too early to say anything definitive about this as-of-yet to be announced project, but there’s a little smoke here at the very least.

Could this be the location of the next NHL franchise? Hockey fans in Quebec City, Quebec or Houston, Texas might not be too happy at the thought of that possibility.

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Sheldon Keefe appears to give Matthew Knies some bad news on Sunday.

There will be tremendous pressure on the Toronto Maple Leafs as they head into their first round Stanley Cup playoff matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning, pressure that will be felt at all levels of the Maple Leafs organization.

Keeping that in mind, it will fall to head coach Sheldon Keefe to field the lineup that he feels will give the Maple Leafs the best possible chance of emerging victorious in Game 1 of this series, and that means making some tough decisions when it comes to personnel.

That appears to include giving some bad news to newcomer rookie forward Matthew Knies, who on Sunday was spotted wearing a grey jersey out on the ice. That color is usually reserved for players that will be extras and that appears to indicate that Knies will not be in the lineup for Game 1, although of course things can change quickly at this time of year.

There’s a good case to be made for not using Knies, including giving the opportunity to players that have grinded all year to showcase their compete factor in the playoffs. Knies is also relatively inexperienced at the NHL level, having played only 3 regular season games and having just 1 assist to his name thus far, but that doesn’t mean that the 20 year old winger couldn’t slot in later in this series or even further down the line.

Although as I’ve mentioned things could change, Sheldon Keefe and the Maple Leafs may have given us a preview of their Game 1 lineup with their lines in practice on Sunday.

Forwards:
Bunting — Matthews — Marner
Tavares — O’Reilly — Nylander
Aston-Reese — Kämpf — Lafferty
Kerfoot — Acciari — Järnkrok

Defensemen:
McCabe — Brodie
Giordano — Holl
Rielly — Schenn

Presumably it will be Ilya Samsonov who gets the start in goal, but no official confirmation on that front just yet either.

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Grand Rapids Griffins announce major changes

Grand Rapids Griffins

Both the Detroit Red Wings and their American Hockey League affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins have concluded their seasons, and the latter has made the choice to undergo some big time changes in team personnel. 

This afternoon, the Griffins announced on Twitter that they are parting ways with several members of the coaching staff, including head coach Ben Simon, assistant coaches Matt Macdonald, Todd Krygier and goaltending development coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson.

“Grand Rapids Griffins general manager and Detroit Red Wings assistant general manager Shawn Horcoff announced today that the Red Wings will not renew the contracts of Griffins head coach Ben Simon, assistant coaches Matt MacDonald and Todd Krygier, and goaltending development coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson.” 

Simon took over as the 11th head coach in Griffins history in 2018 after having already served three years as an assistant coach under Todd Nelson. 

Grand Rapids finished with a record of 28-36-4-4 this season. 

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Butch Goring roasts Biznasty, P.K. Subban, and Ryan Callahan.

A couple of young fellas have been taken to school this morning, and the teacher handing out the lessons isn’t exactly the kind of teacher you’re going to be inclined to give any back talk to.

On Monday morning, New York Islanders legend Butch Goring woke up and chose violence when he decided to roast a number of his fellow NHL alumni over opinions they had expressed over the course of the season. Specifically, Goring called out Paul “Biznasty” Bissonnette, P.K. Subban and Ryan Callahan for a variety of reasons.

It was Biz who got the worst of the 4-time Stanley Cup winner’s ire, with Goring sending out a tweet just for him.

“Hey Biz, just wondering what time that exciting and entertaining Sabres playoff game starts,” taunted the Islanders legend.

If you’re not familiar with the context, don’t worry I’ve got you covered. Back in February of this year, Goring and Biz butted heads a little over comments Biz made regarding the style employed by the Islanders.

“I would love to see the Buffalo Sabres in the playoffs,” said Biz back in February. “They are way more exciting to watch than the Islanders. The Islanders are the most boring team in the NHL, I do not want them to make the playoffs, I don’t care if all of Long Island hates my guts. They are a snoozefest. Snoozefest!”

As mentioned Goring also took aim at Subban and Callahan on Monday morning, with another tweet reserved for that pair.

“I am guessing Subban and Callahan will be going to bed early given the Isles are playing tonight. No big deal , no one will miss them,” taunted Goring yet again on social media.

I’ve gotta be honest with you I’m not even sure what Subban or Callahan said to draw the ire of the 73 year old former NHLer, but I suspect they likely made comments similar to the ones from Biz for Goring to respond in such a manner.