A brief mash-up of the lessons we learned from the hockey this week, both serious and not so serious, and rolling four lines deep. Running around on a lot of Marcus Foligno energy out here.
1. Visualise.
When a hockey team makes three consecutive Stanley Cup final appearances and wins two of them, they are still allowed to use the underdog strategy in their first-round series the following spring.
On the morning of Game 5 in Toronto, Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper exuded confidence and sowed a seed by saying, “Most people picked the Leafs to beat us.” “Sitting there, people are saying, ‘Well, we told you so.’ They are up 3-1.
“We’ve accomplished a lot of what we set out to do, for the most part. We’ve put up enough goals, but not enough goals have been conceded. However, if I want to see this in its entirety and say, “We keep doing what we’re doing, we just do it two percent better, just two percent better,” then I believe some of these quote-unquote “breaks” that may not have gone our way can be made to go our way.
at Games 3 and 4 at Tampa, where Game 6 of the series will be played, the breaks favoured Toronto. The Maple Leafs were predicted by several analysts to finally win this week (*raised hand apologetically.
The surroundings are more abrasive and harsh. Tampa must be growing stale, exhausted, and depleted, right?
‘Don’t bet against the boys,’ I said before the start of the series. Cooper emphasised “not that group,” when his team’s lead in the series was reduced to 3-2. We’re looking forward to returning to the ice rink.
The Bolts need to win three games in a row to surprise Toronto at this point. Since its disastrous road trip to California in October, Toronto has not suffered three consecutive defeats.
Tampa must also avoid falling into the same mental trap that cost them the Stanley Cup in Game 6 in 2022. In Game 5, the Lightning prevented the Avalanche from lifting the chalice at home before, as Cooper freely admits, getting a little ahead of themselves emotionally.
They anticipated a rout in Game 6 at home and predicted a seven-game Cup Final.
Cooper was truly taken aback to witness Nathan MacKinnon and company having a good time on their home ice.
This time, he declares that “Game 7 is meaningless.” “Game 6 is the most important game.”
The Maple Leafs should take the same tack.
The Leafs’ nerves will be frayed like a mosquito lamp in the Muskoka wilderness if it takes three shots to defeat never-say-die Tampa.
We’re thrilled. brief memory. Turn the page,” the team’s captain John Tavares said. The Leafs set aside Friday for rest, recuperation, and travel.
“Today is a mindset day, making sure we’re in the right frame of mind,” coach Sheldon Keefe declared. “Excitement to resume travel.”
Because if this series is still running when they return home, God help them.
2. Through the first five games of the Tampa series, Toronto’s Justin Holl-Mark Giordano combination has been waterboarded. Both defenders had respectable regular seasons and offer fair value, but the eye test and some unfavourable underlying analytics concur that something urgently needs to change. (And would anyone be shocked if Giordano, the oldest skater in the NHL during the regular season, is injured?)
Timothy Liljegren and Erik Gustafsson, a fourth pairing capable of competing at the NHL level, are available for the Leafs. The coach has options, and he’s thinking about wearing seven D.
Although Keefe has been defending the core members of his lineup, things are about to change.
After being healthy scratched for two weeks, Liljegren tells me, “You just have to try and stay positive.” Of course you want to triumph. You simply try to help in every manner you can because the team is doing well. Be joyful while at the rink and other places. Try to be as prepared as you can to respond if something were to happen. Just handle each one separately.
It will be Liljegren’s first appearance in 16 days if he is selected for the starting lineup for Game 6 on Saturday (and he should). He was last seen skating 21:42 and scoring a goal against the New York Rangers in the Leafs’ final regular-season game to become Toronto’s highest-scoring defenseman.
Keefe claims that due to some minor injuries that have occurred in his team, he would alter his lineup in Tampa.
“We’re looking at everything,” Keefe said on Friday.
How much of Keefe’s waiting-time conversation has been with Liljegren?
“Not a lot. We had a brief conversation. Simply try to remain prepared, advises Liljegren. He is not whining. “If you have a lengthy Cup run, you probably will need to deploy a lot of bodies. So, observe how it goes and take each day as it comes.
However, Liljegren can move the puck and the breakouts aren’t working out too well.
3. After Tampa defeated Toronto in Game 5, Keefe praised his opponents for playing “a perfect road game.”
In his press conference following his victory, Jon Cooper declared 2023 to be the “Year of the Road Team.”
He is correct.
Through Thursday, road teams were dominating, going 25-15, the most road wins through 40 games in any single NHL postseason.
From last Saturday through the Islanders’ surprise victory in Carolina on Tuesday night, the road warriors won 12 straight games.
Cooper proposed that there would be 16 clubs remaining with respectable road records after the 16 inferior teams in the league are eliminated. In postseason series, everyone adheres to the same schedule, reducing the likelihood of “calendar losses,” in which a rested home team takes advantage of a visiting who is coming off a back-to-back trip.
There was also the following gem:
“There can be occasions when playing in front of your own audience puts you at a slight disadvantage. You can sometimes feel the energy of the crowd, which I have also experienced in recent playoff games, according to Cooper.
“You can feel it working against you or for you. That might occasionally enter players’ minds.
Sounds like a player whose team needs to win three away games to move on to the second round.
4. As part of the league’s cross-ocean Global Series, the Maple Leafs, Senators, Red Wings, and Wild are all travelling to Stockholm in November.
It’s interesting to note that neither of Toronto’s work vacation dates will be deemed home games, preventing the Leafs and Sens from engaging in a Battle of Ontario from six time zones away. There is no reason to deduct the revenue from a simple sellout of Scotiabank Arena.
Swedish player William Nylander for the Leafs adds, “Obviously that would be lots of fun, playing in Sweden in front of friends and family,” but he is careful not to talk too much about the occasion because of the current work at hand.
The close-knit Swedish group of the team was informed of the good news by Toronto GM Kyle Dubas before it was made public on Tuesday, when the team had just arrived from Tampa.
“It will be enjoyable. You want to perform for all of your loved ones and friends who might not be able to watch you perform here. There might be more opportunities for them to see a game, speculates Timothy Liljegren, who grew up idolising Swedish hero Erik Karlsson when he played in Ottawa.
Having fun. Anytime you have the chance to visit Sweden, take it. Therefore, it will be expensive for the Swedes who want to watch the game with their family and friends.
5. The Week’s Quote.
Hockey poetry was written by Paul Maurice about Matthew Tkachuk after the Panthers MVP’s overtime game-winning goal in Game 5 calmed a rowdy TD Garden:
“That guy is a gamer,” you say, followed by a stream of foul words. He’s a gamer, is he not? I am not sure how many times he did that to us in Winnipeg in Calgary. I find it infuriating how easily he can pull a puck. I don’t know, how many other guys are there in the league? Six hundred forty of them try to force that object through the net as quickly as they can and fail. He then drags it across. He is merely a gamer. Just Xs; use your own words.
Extra quotation!
Even Maurice’s details of his injury are priceless. The coach of Florida describes Brandon Montour’s illness from that same game as “contusion of the testicular variety.”
While we’re on the subject of Tkachuk, Brad Marchand was given the opportunity to confront his enmity Round 1 rival in a between-whistles chirp fest that was captured on the hot microphones of the American broadcast thanks to a between-the-benches setup:
A forthright Marchand blamed the announcer for airing some offensive sounds in Game 4 rather than engaging in a verbal battle with his first-round rival.
Marchand started by saying, “I had no issues with what Tkachuk stated, but more with the between-the-benches mic staying hot for four minutes. “By allowing such mics, the NHL and the media organisations cross the line.
“There’s a reason why men don’t want microphones on the bench; they’re going to abuse it eventually, and they did. No matter what Tkachuk or the other men say, there should never be a situation where the mic picks up any of that.
Unsurprisingly, the footage of a yapping Tkachuk who was teasing Tomas Nosek went viral.
I really prefer mic’d-up moments and any behind-the-scenes video that shows fans a real-world look of what life is like in the NHL. (Hell, at age 12, I was listening to 2 Live Crew, for better or worse.) The degree of sensitivity differs among viewers, though.)
The question that must be asked is if Marchand has brought this subject up for debate between the league, the players’ union, and their television partners.
The fact that the media outlets permitted that to occur, according to Marchand, “is extremely disrespectful to the (broadcast) agreement we have in place.”
It will land the guys in hot water. There are many remarks made throughout the course of the game and over the years that are similar to what he said, but you cannot hear them over the microphones. Mics shouldn’t be present in that circumstance. It’s an element of the game.
Playoff 7. Leon joined the conversation.
The first 14 goals scored by the Edmonton Oilers in the postseason all involved Draisaitl.
A player has never accomplished this in the past.
8. Jake Muzzin of Toronto is in a peculiar circumstance.
Muzzin, whose long-term playing health is in question but who is still under contract, has been a noticeable, regular presence around the Maple Leafs for more than six months at this point, both at home and away.
Despite the fact that his season has been ruled over, he still travels with the squad, hangs out with the players, and continues to train.
Muzzin is seen as a priceless asset and a link between the players and the management.
A big brother figure who is still close to the action and wise and accomplished enough to see the larger picture.
Consider the most recent suspension of Michael Bunting.
Bunting is a passionate and intense athlete who might use some of Muzzin’s no-nonsense advice. Over the last four games, the teammates have been hanging out and watching the series from the press box.
He has been by my side the entire time, adds Bunting. The voice in my head has been his. I can’t express my gratitude to him enough for the way he has been talking me through it.
9. Tye Kartye was designed to be read in April.
None of the 13 goal scorers for the win-by-committee Seattle Kraken’s inaugural series, a shocker against the No. 1-seed Avalanche, is more unlikely than Kartye, who scored the game-winning goal in game five.
The forward, 21, texted his mother, Richelle, with the word “playing,” nine and a half hours before his sensational NHL debut on Wednesday.
When their son’s message buzzed, Kartye’s parents were both at work in Kingston, Ontario. Todd is a high school chemistry teacher, and Mom is a nurse.
Richelle answered, “Omg. “Ok. Bring us tickets.
Tye’s parents sped to Pearson International, boarded a plane to Denver, then took a connecting aircraft to Seattle. They hurried into Climate Pledge Arena three minutes after the opening faceoff, but they arrived in time to see their child, a training camp invitee, score the game-winning goal in his first appearance.
Nick Cotsonika was all over it. Touching stuff.
10. With his team’s season on the line and Tanner Jeannot, the Lightning’s big-swing deadline acquisition, being acquired by his general manager for five draught picks, Coach Cooper did the unthinkable Thursday in Toronto.
He substituted Mikey Eyssimont for Jeannot, who had been wounded in Game 1 by a tick from Jake McCabe and who you may have looked up this week.
Although the Bolts had lost all three games this series with Jeannot in the lineup, it takes courage to scratch such an expensive item.
Eyssimont’s only contributions were a crucial goal that gave the Lightning the lead and a crucial assist on the Lightning’s third line throughout the whole series.
Cooper gave the following reasons for his choice after the game:
“Every series is one game when you’re in the playoffs. That is what you coach, then. Even though the series consists of seven games, you still want to win one of them. He possesses qualities that we thought may benefit the line in addition to us.
“I think we had become a little boring. Jeannot had previously visited there and had helped us greatly. He’s had some significant moments in this series based on the way he played, but every game is a unique conflict.
Tonight, Mikey was in charge. And that’s what helps a team win when you have a group, you’re comfortable bringing guys in and out, you have acts of selflessness like Jeannot did tonight, and perhaps another player will do it in the future.
It would be comparable to (Zach) Bogosian filling in for (the hurt Erik) Cernak. When necessary, you have to be a man and step up, and these guys have done that.
11. The weekly goal.
Zachary Hyman takes a punch to the chin without quivering:
12. Giannis Antetokounmpo earned a tonne of praise for his thoughtful response to the topic of whether the Milwaukee Bucks’ season was a failure because they promptly upset the East’s best regular-season club once the games had ramifications.
It’s possible to adore both the inquiry and the response.
The question, in my opinion, is forthright and somewhat harsh, but it’s also fair. And it encourages conversation.
One of the best in the world at what he does is here. He has climbed the peak.
That doesn’t mean he won’t go there again, and it doesn’t guarantee a return trip either.
However, the fact that he occasionally isn’t even able to scramble out of base camp shouldn’t excuse him from criticism.
In my opinion, any inquiry that elicits a response this genuine, if divisive, is a worthy question.
