Columnist image

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

| Archive

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs reporter Kristen Shilton checks in with news and notes from the team ahead of Wednesday night's season opener against the Ottawa Senators. The team practiced at the Ford Performance Centre on Tuesday.

In one calendar year, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ roster has undergone enormous change, starting with the 13 different players who will be on Wednesday’s opening night roster against the Ottawa Senators that didn’t play on opening night for Toronto last season.

But there’s more that’s different about this Leafs team than just who’s going out on the ice.

“I think there’s a belief,” said head coach Mike Babcock after the Leafs’ practice at Ford Performance Centre on Tuesday. “There’s a belief that…eventually it’s got to be your time, right? But you have to work to make it your time and you have to keep going. There’s 31 teams having the same conversation with their media today, but the season goes on and it’s a grind and you have to show up.”

While the page may only officially turn to the 2019-20 season on Wednesday, in some ways John Tavares is already forcing himself not to look months ahead into the future. When he decided to sign with the Leafs as an unrestricted free agent last summer, Tavares did so with the hope that Toronto would continually be a playoff contender, and getting to that time of year is where the true measure of this season will be made.

“It’s hard making the playoffs,” he said. “The first step is we have to play as best we can every day for 82 games and give ourselves the best opportunity to give ourselves a chance. It’s a lot to think about every day, so [take it] one day at a time. It’s been a long off-season and we obviously have high expectations for ourselves. I think this group is evidence of that, with all the changes this year, we got some of our young players that continue to grow [and] that I think give us a very deep hockey team.”

The way last season ended for Toronto, in another Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, has weighed heavily on the team since last spring. But even mounting pressure to write a better ending this time around hasn’t stopped the Leafs from embracing their fresh start.

“We’re excited. This is that time of year,” said Morgan Rielly. “You have an opportunity, a clean slate, so we just want to get off on the right foot tomorrow night, play well, put our best foot forward and take it from there.”

Forget the normal physical difficulties associated with challenging NHL training camps. The Leafs have spent the last three weeks dealing with a number of off-ice distractions as well, where everything from Mitch Marner’s contract status to Auston Matthews’ legal trouble to the constant speculation surrounding the captaincy pulled players’ concentration from the ice.

But fending off that adversity may prove beneficial for the Leafs and help them become even more bonded as a unit.

“There is always going to be stress, there’s always going to be other things going on in your life, so it’s important to stay focused,” Rielly said. “I think with this group we have, we’re all pretty close. We have a good support system and we take care of one another. That’s a good feeling to have. I thought training camp was good, we did a good job of handling things, and now we’re ready to get going.”

Tavares has noticed in particular how the Leafs’ young players have managed the increased scrutiny surrounding them, without allowing it to impact their preparation for the season.

“There’s always a lot of attention on our group and our team,” he said. “I’ve been impressed [seeing] how well these young guys handle themselves, how talented they are and how they keep their focus on the ice and just playing the game. That’s just what we try to do, to have fun with one another and just enjoy the support we get, because it’s very special to be a Maple Leaf.”

Marner says he's just happy to be back on the ice.

"The off-ice stuff [negotiating a six-year contract] over the summer was new to me," admitted Marner, who missed the first two days of training camp before agreeing to a new deal on September 13. "It was a little weird, a little difficult. But being here with the guys, I think everyone is just happy to be back in this locker room and ready to get this thing rolling here. We have a great opportunity ahead of us, we just have to make sure we come ready to work every day."

From a coaching perspective, Babcock has said repeatedly that a lack of familiarity with players in this camp made maximizing their skill sets more difficult during games. But reflecting on what's happened to this point, Babcock is cautiously optimistic about how much the Leafs accomplished.

“We really think we made progress in training camp,” he said. “That’s really easy to say right now. The measure is coming up, the real test. I think our guys have really…worked hard, they’ve been in tune with what we’ve got done. Because we had a couple new coaches [in Paul McFarland and Dave Hakstol], we had lots of changes as well that way structurally. I think it’s been good for the guys; it’s been fun.”

As far as the captaincy goes, Babcock told TSN's James Duthie on Tuesday that the Leafs will name the 19th captain in team history before their regular season begins.

During an appearance on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast that came out last November, Rielly was asked whether he was a true No. 1 defenceman in the NHL. At the time, Rielly said he "didn't feel like" he was there yet, but that it was a place he’d like to be at soon.

The night before a new NHL season begins, Rielly claims he still isn’t sure where exactly he stands in that No. 1 conversation.

“I don’t know. It is what it is,” Rielly said, after a pause and a shrug. “You play with your partner; you try to be the best that you can be. That’s all I’m worried about; I don’t really put a lot into the rest.”

The 25-year-old is coming off the best season of his career in 2018-19, where his 72 points (20 goals, 52 assists) ranked third among NHL defencemen and put Rielly firmly in the Norris Trophy conversation for much of the season (although he failed to ultimately secure a nomination). 

But Rielly didn’t need that validation to feel good about where his game is at, or where he believes the Leafs can go this season.

“We’re all confident,” he said. “When you look around the room, there’s no reason not to be. We think we had a good camp, I think we’re ready to. There’s no shortage of confidence around here.”

Something new for Rielly to tackle during training camp though was working with Hakstol, who's focused on the Leafs' defence. A former minor-league blueliner, Hakstol has been assessing the Leafs' d-corps with fresh eyes and spying ways for Rielly to continue his development.

“With Farley and Hack coming here, they’ve seen a lot of good players and they come here and they see your players and they haven’t seen [Rielly’s] growth [from before],” Babcock said. “They just see what they see now and [where he can go] and it’s evident he’s a real good player, real good man.”

All four of the players Toronto placed on waivers Monday - Kenny Agostino, Kevin Gravel, Nic Petan and Garret Wilson – to reach its initial 23-man roster cleared on Tuesday, which was music to Babcock’s ears.

“That’s good news for us,” he said. “As much as we’d like to be sure and know what we’re doing and be clear with the decisions we made, we weren’t 100 per cent on some of those. Now you get 10 games to figure this thing out and end up with the right people and sometimes at the start you don’t.”

Maple Leafs lines at practice:

Kapanen-Tavares-Marner
Johnsson-Matthews-Nylander
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Moore
Timashov-Spezza-Gauthier
Shore

Rielly-Ceci
Muzzin-Barrie
Sandin-Marincin
Liljegren-Holl


Andersen
Hutchinson