2 weeks Ago By Kevin Nielsen
It has been 57 years since a Toronto Maple Leaf hoisted the Stanley Cup trophy at the end of an NHL season. That has been tough for Toronto fans to take, but has also meant decades of ribbing from archrival fans of the Montreal Canadiens. That said, it has been decades since any Habs saw their names engraved on hockey’s top trophy either — leaving the bragging from Montreal supporters hollow.
If oddsmakers are correct, the two sides appear unlikely to end their respective droughts next spring as Fanduel has the Leafs at +1500, while the Habs are priced at +23000 — placing Toronto as the 10th favourite and Montreal as the 5th worst. The two squads will kick off their NHL seasons by renewing their rivalry on Wednesday night, as they meet for the 769th time in Montreal at the Bell Centre. While many Maple Leafs’ fans were calling for a major shakeup of the team’ star forwards following another disastrous playoff exit, the team made changes elsewhere instead.
The Leafs’ new bench boss is Craig Berube, who was a heavyweight pugilist during his playing career and is expected to add a more no-nonsense approach as coach. Back in June, the new coach said he was excited to come to a Leafs team, which has a talented core that has flamed out in the playoffs. “The core player group is great here,” he said.
“They got some great players here and that was definitely one of the attractions to come and coach this team.” Berube comes to Toronto with the pedigree of having won a Stanley Cup in 2019 as coach of the Blues, his first year in St. Louis.
It will be his third stop as coach, having also served as coach in Philadelphia, compiling a 281-190-72 career record across eight seasons behind the bench. While Berube does have a ring to show for his troubles, his teams have also failed to make the playoffs twice, while also advancing past the first round twice. During Berube’s lengthy playing career, he spent 40 games as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs while also being a part of two of the biggest deals of the past 50 years.
He came to Toronto as part of a deal that saw Glen Anderson and Grant Fuhr arrive from Edmonton, and a half-season later he was sent to Calgary as part of a package that saw Doug Gilmour and Jamie Macoun join the Leafs. Those two deals in large part propelled the success a long-moribund franchise in the 1990s. There is always a whipping boy on the Toronto roster among Leafs fans, and currently that title belongs to one Mitchell Marner.
One only has to glance at Reddit, to quickly see a half dozen threads suggesting that Marner is “soft in the corners” and “afraid to get hit.” What Marner has done is appear in 576 games over eight seasons in Toronto while scoring 194 goals and adding another 445 assists. He has also recorded 50 in 57 games but the Leafs’ lack of playoff success during his time in Toronto has led to the questions of toughness.
It has also led many to expect him to end up in Berube’s doghouse, should he or the Leafs end up starting slow this season. Marner becomes an unrestricted free agent after the season, so it will be interesting to see if the Leafs attempt to sign him or deal him before the deadline, rather than risk losing him for nothing. While the Leafs changed coaches over the summer, they also changed their captains as John Tavares traded in his ‘C’ for an ‘A’ and handed over the captaincy to Auston Matthews.
Tavares, who is 34 years old and entering into the final year of his contract, said he was on board with the change, when it was announced back in August. The 26-year-old Matthews is now the 26th captain in franchise history. “I’m so honoured and humbled.
Since being drafted here eight years ago, you realize how special it is to play for the city of Toronto, to wear the maple leaf on your chest every single night,” Matthews said at the time. “It just means the world to me and I look forward to continuing our journey to obviously get to the top of the mountain and win the Stanley Cup and bring it back to Toronto.” He is not the most vocal player around but Tavares thinks his replacement will have no issues in leading the charge.
“It’s amazing how he pushes the team, I think a lot of times without ...
realizing it,” Matthews said in August. “And you can just tell by the way he inspires others, with his talent, his work ethic, and just being so level grounded, just being one of the guys every single day. “ While the front office chose not to move any of the big names up front — -0r Morgan Reilly, for that matter — they did add a trio of old newcomers to the blue line.
Fans have high hopes for Christopher Tanev, who will likely pair up with Reilly to form the team’s top defensive pairing. After spending years patrolling the blue line in Calgary and Vancouver, he spent the end of last season and the playoffs in Dallas, where he helped the Stars reach the Western Conference finals. He now returns home to Toronto, but the team is partially pinning its hopes on a man who will turn 35 in December.
The two other major defensive acquisitions along the blue line face similar questions as Oliver Ekman-Larsson is now 33 years old while Jani Hakanpaa is also 32 years old, with the latter set to begin the season on injured reserve (IR). He is joined on IR by Dakota Mermis. Ekman-Larsson is expected to begin the season with Jake McCabe, although the latter missed Saturday’s pre-season finale due to an upper-body injury.
As the Leafs added some fresh faces to the roster, it also said goodbye to Ilya Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson while reports suggest Timothy Liljegren has already entered into Craig Berube’s doghouse and is being shopped. The days of Ilya Samsonov being the No. 1 goaltender in Toronto have come to an end as he has moved on to Vegas where he will back up Adin Hill.
Toronto is set to hand over the keys to the crease to Joseph Woll, who has been working as Samsonov’s understudy for the past couple of seasons. While appearing in 25 NHL games last year, he recorded a .907 save percentage and 2.
94 goals-against average (GAA) while he finished with a 12-11-1 record. While Woll’s record may not have been that appealing, he was pretty strong in the short stint in the playoffs. The biggest question mark is about whether or not he can stay healthy as his season was somewhat derailed by injury last year.
He will share the crease with a new face as Anthony Stolar, was signed away from the Florida Panthers in the off-season to back him up. The journeyman netminder appears in 27 games for the Ducks last year, posting a 16-7-2 record with a 2.03 GAA and a .
925 save percentage..
