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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Kristen Shilton checks in daily with news and notes on the Maple Leafs. The team held a 12:05 p.m. practice Monday at Ford Performance Centre ahead of Tuesday’s New Year’s Eve game against the Minnesota Wild in Minneapolis.

It’s not always the case that two top offensive players can mesh well on the same line, but Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe saw potential in Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to succeed together. And he was onto something – the new duo has already combined for 11 points (five goals, six assists) in the three games since Keefe made the switch. 

“I'm pleased for sure,” Keefe said after the Leafs practice on Monday. “Production has been really good, the energy between the two of them has been really good. [Marner] looks confident to me as the guy that's going out there to make a difference, which I think is to say really that he's been himself. And obviously the guys around him [including left winger Zach Hyman] have played well also. It's been a good match for both five-on-five and on the power play.”

While the fear is there won't be enough puck to go around for two high-scoring players on the same unit, sharing hasn’t been a problem for Matthews (who was just named to his fourth consecutive NHL All-Star Game on Monday) and Marner.

“I think we play a lot alike,” Marner said. “We try and find open areas. I think we both know if it's a one-on-one kind of situation, we can leave each other and trust each other to make the play and kind of beat their guy. I don't think we're missing many chances around the net right now. And we also recognize if we can't [get a shot], we got Hyman down low and can give it to him and release pressure. [Matthews and I] both work off each other, we both want the puck but at the same time, we both know when each other have it, just to find open space and if the play is there then we can make it.”

Marner has been playing some of his best hockey of the season since Keefe took over Toronto’s bench last month, amassing 18 points in his last 11 games. Matthews has played with Marner in short spurts previously, but this extended opportunity alongside him when Marner is succeeding the way he is has only underscored for Matthews just how good his new linemate is.

“He's a special player, I think everybody sees that,” Matthews said. “But I think playing with him is different. You really have an appreciation for what he can do out there and the plays that he can make and the attention that he draws to himself and the way that he's able to move the puck.”

The key difference for Marner, at least according to those frequently sharing the ice with him, is the way in which the 22-year-old is carrying himself.

“I think just his confidence [is up],” said Morgan Rielly. “It has to do with his skating; he plays with a lot of speed. His passing is obviously a very impressive aspect of his game. When he's playing with Auston and he's able to find the open guy, they create a lot of chances. The way he moves around the offensive zone with speed and he's having fun, he's enjoying it out there and it's nice to see.”

Under Keefe, Marner has also seen an uptick in minutes, and averages the third-most ice time among NHL forwards at 22:27 per game since Toronto's coaching change. Matthews, meanwhile, is clocking in at 20:18 per game, and the increased workload has been encouraging for both of them.

“You want to have the coach's trust, you want to be out there a lot of [the] time,” Marner said. “For us, it's making sure on the days off and when we're getting home from practice days that we're taking care of ourselves, we're getting the rest we need. I thought we've done a good job with that so far. I think we both feel good with it right now, it’s fun getting out there. You're competitive, you want to be on the ice, want to make a difference. So I think we both enjoy it.”

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Almost as soon as Keefe took over the Leafs, he made it clear playing better defensively would be a priority for the club. That goal still remains a work in progress for Toronto, which has allowed 15 goals against in its last three games alone, and Keefe can plainly see where the changes need to come from.

“A lot of our issues that have come up that have cost us, it's easy to say their defensive issues because it's going into our net, but we think they're offensive issues,” Keefe said. “They're turning the puck over in a bad spot; you can't have any structure defensively when you turn the puck over in a bad spot. We think it's overdoing it a little bit on offence, and then you leave yourself exposed. Any time we've actually been in our structure defensively, we think we've done a good job.”

Keefe noted the Leafs haven’t really played too much in their own end over the last five games, and Marner concurred that “we're playing with the puck a lot, so I think that's annoying teams and that's something that makes us feel better.” But that doesn’t mean the Leafs aren’t aware of how improvements can be made.

“I think off the rush, those are the chances we're kind of giving up," Marner said. "With how active we're being right now in the o-zone, as forwards we have to realize that we've got to get back and play that defensive position sometimes. It's not always going to be perfect with our guys back and I think as forwards you've just got to realize and make sure you're playing the right position and playing the right way.”

The silver lining for Keefe is that the Leafs have been consistently scoring over this last stretch too, averaging over five goals per game through their previous seven outings.

“I'm much happier to be in that position of just having to fix [defensive issues] than being someone that's in here every day trying to figure out how the heck are we going to score a goal?” Keefe said. “We think they're easy [defensive] adjustments, in terms of just being more conscious and more aware of it.”

In a way, Keefe sees the Leafs’ greatest strength – offensive ability and output – as a detriment at times in getting defensive principles to stick.

“The difficult part of it is when you've got such offensive players that are really feeling it and they feel like they can make a difference and they can score goals at any time, that they push a little extra,” he said. “So that would be the harder part. But in terms of the adjustments that we need to make, we think it's pretty simple; it's just the mindset and the mentality, but then actually going out and actually making it happen is different.”

Matthews, for one, has no doubt Toronto’s crop of talented forwards will get the hang of being sound defensively as well.

“I think that's something that we've embraced,” he said. “But it's obviously something that we have to continue to work on, make sure that we're making good decisions away from the puck and in the offensive zone. When we’ve got movement going on, make sure that we're covering for one another so we don't give up quality chances for the other team.”

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Frederik Andersen was named to his first NHL All-Star Game on Monday, a reflection of just how good the Leafs’ starting goaltender has been all season long. Through 31 starts, Andersen is tied for the most wins among NHL goalies with 19, and boasts a .914 save percentage with 2.72 goals-against.

In his last four starts though, Andersen’s numbers have dipped, to a 4.25 goals-against and .869 save percentage. Toronto is still 3-0-1 in those games, but it’s enough to remind the team it can’t always rely on Andersen to make every miraculous save.

“For a while there, it seemed like he could stop everything,” Keefe said. “And he's come back to being human here I think recently. It's just highlighting the fact that we need to protect him better. When we protect him and we limit what we give up, he's a very, very difficult guy to beat, and it gives us a lot of confidence.”

Marner can see, too, how the Leafs should be helping out Andersen going forward if they want to see him back at his best.

“Freddie makes a lot of big saves every single night, he bails us out a lot of time,” he said. “We hate giving up stuff on the rush because it's hardest for the goalie, with those cross-ice passes for one-timers. It's hard for him to track those through traffic and I think as a unit on the ice you’ve got to make sure that doesn't happen. You want to make sure that all the shots on Fred are manageable.”

Prior to the news that Andersen had made the Atlantic Division All-Star team, Matthews said being recognized in that way would mean something special to his good friend and teammate, who has carried the Leafs’ heavy load in net since first arriving with the club in 2016.

“He wants to be the best goalie that he can be and he wants to be considered one of the best goalies in the world,” Matthews said. “It's kind of in the back of your mind [to be named], and it's something that you want to accomplish, and that's something I know for him, with how competitive he is, he wants to be in that category and to be selected to stuff like that.”

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Keefe revealed that the Leafs won’t be taking an extra forward on their upcoming two-game road trip through Minneapolis and Winnipeg. Instead, they’ll take 12 forwards and seven defencemen, including Teemu Kivihalme. The 24-year-old was recalled from the AHL Toronto Marlies on Monday morning, along with Timothy Liljegren, who has since been returned to the Marlies.

A left-shot blueliner, Kivihalme is in his first season with Toronto’s organization after signing as a free agent last summer. Through 28 games this year, Kivihalme has seven points (three goals, four assists) and a plus-4 rating, showing progress all along that’s impressed Keefe. 

Kivihalme was also born in Cloquet, Minn., about two hours from Minneapolis, and his ties to the area were a factor Keefe considered in deciding to bring Kivihlame up ahead of Toronto’s game against the Wild on Tuesday.

“That was part of it,” Keefe said. “And we only wanted to bring one guy. The Marlies play tomorrow, so it's a chance for Timothy to stay in the lineup and keep playing. We're expecting our other six [defencemen] to be healthy [but] we thought given how Kivihalme has played [he deserved the recall]. When I was down there with the Marlies, he had played very well, was really starting to pick up on the things that we want him to be good at in terms of his skating and his defending. So it's a bit of an acknowledgement for that and for the development and then just the experience of being around here as we've given some other guys. It just works out that it happens to be home for him [as well].”

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Maple Leafs lines at practice Monday:

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Kerfoot-Tavares-Nylander
Engvall-Spezza-Kapanen
Timashov-Brooks-Gauthier

Rielly-Barrie
Muzzin-Holl
Dermott-Ceci
Kivihalme-Liljegren

Andersen
Hutchinson