Toronto Maple Leafs

[Belexus75]

Saturday Leafs play Minny....

Thoughts on that game? Feels like a 50/50 split, both teams are rolling.

Leafs play Saturday/Sunday and Woll has been banged up and didn't back up Campbell on Wednesday. Hutch was called up to be his backup.

I think Woll's injury was minor so he could be ready but they also said that Mrazek could be ready by the weekend. We will see.

As for a game, i think 50/50 is right approach but Aves were also rolling, they got their best player back and they were favorites in many peoples eyes even on the road.....

only thing im worrying about is that the winning streak has been long so things need to slow down a bit...we will see if it happens this weekend or not...

[2014olympicgold]

I saw this tweet, is this true? lol It can't be true.

"Sheldon Keefe calls Paul Maurice a "F$cking loser" post game and mentions "He literally has the most losses in the NHL history" wow"

I'm only going to say the reffing yesterday was terrible and I'm also not surprised it's the Jets.

[2014olympicgold]

Marner - 3-4weeks with a Shoulder. Simmonds hit Marner in pre-season time, and likely has been nursing something since then. Would explain why a hit in practice did this.
Sandin - 2-3weeks with a LBI
Dermott - Shoulder injury, not as bad as Marner's apparently. Haven't seen a timeline for him yet.

[2014olympicgold]

Spezza suspended for 6 games. Has appealed.

I don't know if it's a legit fair amount of games for this, but when you take into account he's never been suspended (I'm pretty sure) and Marchand who is a repeat offender hasn't had a suspension over 5 games, this is odd.

I'm not disagreeing with the length of the suspension, but compared to others...the DOPS is a joke and don't know what they are really doing...shocker eh.

[skinnypete88]

Spezza suspended for 6 games. Has appealed.

I don't know if it's a legit fair amount of games for this, but when you take into account he's never been suspended (I'm pretty sure) and Marchand who is a repeat offender hasn't had a suspension over 5 games, this is odd.

I'm not disagreeing with the length of the suspension, but compared to others...the DOPS is a joke and don't know what they are really doing...shocker eh.

Elliotte Friedman had some interesting comments on this in his 32 Thoughts column from yesterday.

Basically the argument from the Leafs on the suspension are

A. Spezza has a clean record as you said
B. Spezza wouldn't have done what he did if the refs had done their jobs.

[2014olympicgold]

Elliotte Friedman had some interesting comments on this in his 32 Thoughts column from yesterday.

Basically the argument from the Leafs on the suspension are

A. Spezza has a clean record as you said
B. Spezza wouldn't have done what he did if the refs had done their jobs.

It's a bit ridiculous that a play that was suspension worthy in the Pionk knee on knee, that was in the action of play didn't have a penalty called yet there's no public penalty to the refs. The refs missed a terrible play that was bad enough where the league said it was worth a suspension and they don't have to answer for it. Yet the media asks players about it, and if they answer truthfully they get fined.

The whole situation around the Pionk suspension was worse to me than the Spezza one because the Leafs/Spezza will do their thing and it'll be reduced to 4 or 5 games. Which is in line with what the league says it's worth.

[skinnypete88]

It's a bit ridiculous that a play that was suspension worthy in the Pionk knee on knee, that was in the action of play didn't have a penalty called yet there's no public penalty to the refs. The refs missed a terrible play that was bad enough where the league said it was worth a suspension and they don't have to answer for it. Yet the media asks players about it, and if they answer truthfully they get fined.

The whole situation around the Pionk suspension was worse to me than the Spezza one because the Leafs/Spezza will do their thing and it'll be reduced to 4 or 5 games. Which is in line with what the league says it's worth.

Ya the league is so strict around ref criticism, fining Rod Brind'Amour aggressively for his comments. I get that you need to protect the integrity of the refs because otherwise it undermines their ability to enforce on the ice, but if you're not going to make them accountable for bad/missed calls then you should also not harshly punish players for their on ice reactions.

[Axeman33]

Sometimes I wonder how they come up with the number of games the throw at these guys. Did he deserve the six games? I think so. Did other plays which were probably worse get less games; yes.

[Axeman33]

Merry Christmas! Is this the first time Gary Bettman has ever reduced a suspension?

https://twitter.com/reporterchris/st...81028725878791

Jason Spezza's six-game kneeing supension has been reduced to four games by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. He's eligible to play tomorrow in Vancouver.

[lucafen4]

Merry Christmas! Is this the first time Gary Bettman has ever reduced a suspension?

https://twitter.com/reporterchris/st...81028725878791

1300 games of clean record. This is the right number IMO.

While eligible to play Sat... 50-50 if that game happens at this point.

[2014olympicgold]

Marner has met the terms for LTIR already and only missed 6 games. If you want to find a positive to these missed games.

[2014olympicgold]

Leafs COVID players as we inch closer to their next game (Dec27):
JT, Kerfoot, Spezza, Simmonds, Campbell, Brodie, Dermott, Kampf, Mikheyev, Mrazek, Sandin, Rielly, Keefe, Carbery, Briere, 2 medical staff, 3 staff.

[2014olympicgold]

It was weird watching the Leafs on Saturday. It felt like a new season lol. It was something like 23 days since their last name.

Leafs schedule coming up:
Monday Jan 3 vs Carolina - Postponed (In Canada vs USA Team)
Wed Jan 5 vs Edmonton - 7pm
Thur Jan 6 @ MTL - Postponed (MTL COVID Issues)
Sat Jan 8 @ Colorado - 7pm
Tue Jan 11 @ VGK - 10pm
Wed Jan 12 @ Ariz - 10pm
Sat Jan 15 @ STL - 7pm

So the Leafs have a decent road trip coming up, so there will at least be fans?

[2014olympicgold]

Matthews, Chynoweth (Assistant coach) were not at practice for precautionary reasons.

Leafs played Ottawa last and they placed like 4 players on COVID yesterday.

[2014olympicgold]

Matthews tests positive on his rapid test and is waiting results for his PCR test.