Leafs stick with scrapping morning skate

Mark Masters

SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes from Maple Leafs practices and game-day skates. The Florida Panthers held an optional morning skate at the BB&T Center. The Leafs canceled their morning skate.

- The Maple Leafs won on Saturday night in Raleigh after cancelling their morning skate. Following the victory over the Hurricanes, James van Riemsdyk was asked if that would mean no more morning skates moving forward. "We'll see," he said with a smile. "We'll definitely be petitioning for that." Consider the petition a success. Toronto once again cancelled its morning skate ahead of Tuesday's game in Florida. "At this time of year it's critical to make sure you're well-rested and recovered," JVR said post-game on Saturday. "I think the coaching staff and the training staff has done a good job of trying to find time to give us more rest so we're sharp and have that extra little jump in our step out there and I thought that was valuable to us tonight."

The Leafs also had Sunday off, allowing the players to enjoy the warmth and sunshine in Florida while temperatures dip back home

Head coach Mike Babcock said the trip is an important one, because he can give the players a little more rest than usual and a chance to soak up some vitamin D. The Leafs have a practice scheduled in Tampa on Wednesday with a game on Thursday against the Lightning. Starting Saturday, the Leafs will play 13 games in 23 days to wrap up the regular season.

- With Roberto Luongo still sidelined, James Reimer will once again start for the Panthers on Tuesday. He has lost seven straight games, which in his Toronto days would've led to a daily barrage of tough questions. But living in Florida has allowed the ex-Leafs goalie to fly under the radar. "It's a little more relaxed and, you know, I don't know if maybe fun is the right word, but it's a good atmosphere," he said. "You can go and get some sun and on your off days you kind of get away from the game a little more, so that's kind of a nice perk." Reimer starts laughing when asked what's the biggest difference between the stretch drive in Florida and the playoff race in Toronto. "Probably just the hype, I imagine. I mean, obviously, we all know what it's like [in Toronto] and all the hype and adrenaline around everything. Here, it's more you can just focus on your business."

The Panthers liked how Reimer dealt with adversity during his tumultuous tenure in Toronto. "What always impressed me was how he handled you guys," said Florida general manager and interim head coach Tom Rowe when questioned by a member of the Toronto media. "You guys put a lot of heat on him. [What stood out was] how professional he was with the questions you guys gave him and how he handled some of the disappointments and that was probably the biggest thing for me when we were looking for a goaltender, how much character he had." Rowe said Luongo will "probably" be out for at least another week, so Reimer remains his team's No. 1. Reimer's level of play has dipped a bit during the Panthers recent slide, but he has still posted a .911 save percentage during his personal seven-game skid. So, why has Florida faltered after returning from a hugely successful West Coast trip? "I don't know," said Reimer. "You don't want to say bounces or anything like that, because I think you need to work for your bounces. But, I mean, just a couple close games where they just didn't go our way at the end."

Rowe believes a lack of scoring and not poor play from Reimer is the main reason for his team's tumble down the standings. On Tuesday morning, he stressed a need for his group to go to the net more. "That's something that we've talked about and we have to drill into our guys on a regular basis. When we do it, we're good and we're tough to stop and when we don't do it, it makes it a little easier on the opposition." Rowe spoke with the players in the last few days and decided to reunite Jaromir Jagr, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau on a line in Tuesday's game. Jussi Jokinen, Vincent Trocheck and Reilly Smith will also play together. "Everybody's more comfortable with those combinations," he said.

- The Panthers have embraced advanced analytics this season so Rowe was asked by Harvey Fialkov of the Sun Sentinel if the team is aware of any analytics that measure rebounds and chances generated by going to the net. "Ah, come on [grin]. Here we go, Harvey. You haven't talked about analytics all year," Rowe said. "You just got to get bodies to the net. It's pretty simple. You guys with the analytics. It's a piece of the puzzle and we put part of the team together based on that, but in no way have we done 100 per cent of it [based on that]. At the end of the day it's getting to the dirty areas and taking a few sticks, I guess, to the areas you don't want to take sticks to. It's pretty simple. I mean, the teams that win are the teams that score a lot and that go to those areas and we've shown we can do it in a lot of opportunities like we did on the West Coast and we just got to get back to playing that way. So, I guess that answers your questions about analytics, eh Harvey?"

- Florida has fallen seven points behind Toronto in the playoff race. So, what’s the morale like around the Panthers these days? "It's a normal question," Rowe acknowledged. "I get it all the time from our ownership and obviously from Dale [Tallon]. It's been really good. Yesterday, if you saw our practice you would've thought we were on a 12-game winning streak … The attitude has been awesome."

* Projected Leafs lines for Tuesday's game:

Hyman-Matthews-Brown
Komarov-Kadri-Nylander
van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Marner
Martin-Boyle-Soshnikov

Rielly-Zaitsev
Gardiner-Marincin
Hunwick-Polak

Andersen starts
McElhinney

Scratches: Leivo, Fehr, Marchenko
Injured: Carrick