Recapping the 2-1 SOL to Colorado + JACKIE REDMOND drops by: Leafs Morning Take

As I stated in my post-game thoughts on Wednesday night, I loved how boring that game was.
It is so pivotal for the Leafs to find their game defensively again. And unequivocally, last night was a fantastic start.
We kicked off the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take by breaking down the Jordan Binnington/Marc-Andre Fleury almost fight. Personally, I’m so tired of Binnington’s “act.” Imagine being his teammate and/or coaches.
After that, we touched on Toronto’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche. The two big stories from the Leafs perspective: Ilya Samsonov was great, so was Morgan Rielly. Two fantastic developments if you ask me.
Meantime, powered by our friends over PointsBet Canada, the one and only Jackie Redmond (NHL NETWORK/TNT/WWE) dropped by for an all-encompassing chat about her beloved Toronto Maple Leafs.

 
Just a reminder: No show tomorrow. Join me on Monday at 11 AM ET as I recap a busy two-game weekend for the Maple Leafs. Also, Jay Rosehill will drop by for another instalment of 3 Hits With Rosey.
Don’t forget to subscribe, like, and leave us a review wherever you’re checking us out. …

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Author: Nick Alberga / The Leafs Nation

MacKinnon could return to Avalanche lineup on Saturday, no changes for Toronto: Leafs practice notes

MacKinnon could return to Avalanche lineup on Saturday, no changes for Toronto: Leafs practice notes

After a 6-3 loss to Arizona on Thursday night, the Maple Leafs got back to work with a practice in Denver before their game vs. the Avalanche on Saturday night.
It was a rough go versus the Coyotes on Thursday — especially for Matt Murray — who allowed four goals against for the fourth time this season. Toronto led 3-2 before Arizona came back, scoring four unanswered goals (two in an empty net).
“You could break it down a lot of different ways, and there’s a lot of different things that happened over 60 minutes. But, it really probably comes down to our inability to kill a penalty,” said Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe in Arizona on Thursday night.
But when it comes to their next game, on New Years Eve game in Colorado, it doesn’t look like any of the Maple Leafs’ lineup is changing.

#Leafs line rushes at practice Dec. 30/22
Bunting-Matthews-NylanderJarnkrok-Tavares-MarnerKerfoot-Kampf-EngvallAstonReese-Holmberg-Hunt Extra: Anderson, Simmonds
Giordano-HollRielly-LiljegrenBrodie-TimminsExtra: Sandin-Benn @BodogCA @RinkWideTOR
— David Alter (@dalter) December 30, 2022

Wayne Simmonds and Joey Anderson are the odd forwards out, as is Rasmus Sandin and Jordie Benn on the back-end.
At this point, there’s really no reason to change the defence pairings. Morgan Rielly is just getting back and needs to find his rhythm. Plus, none of the other defencemen have really offered up a reason to be taken out of the lineup.
I’d say the same goes with the forwards. Anderson did play well when he was in the lineup, but Toronto wants to see what they have with Dryden Hunt. The 27-year-old played pretty good on Thursday night, leading the Maple Leafs with six hits in the game.
There was no word after Friday’s practice about who would start in Toronto’s net on Saturday night.
Both Murray and Ilya Samsonov haven’t had the best showings in their last three games. In fac …

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Author: Nick Barden / The Leafs Nation

Goaltending keeping the Leafs afloat while their blueline deals with injuries

Goaltending keeping the Leafs afloat while their blueline deals with injuries

On Tuesday night the Leafs saw Victor Mete become the next in the series of Leafs defensemen to leave the game due to an injury and not return. With the Leafs presently without Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, Jake Muzzin, Jordie Benn and having additional depth injuries to Carl Dahlstrom and Filip Kral, the Leafs defensive depth chart is somewhat beyond ridiculous at the moment. Thankfully the return of Brodie seems to be imminent, and Mete won’t miss a ton of time, but it’s worth looking at how the Leafs have gotten through the past few games.

Sheldon Keefe says Victor Mete will be unavailable for rest of the week. They don’t think the injury is serious, though. But “he will miss some time.” @BodogCA @RinkWideTOR
— David Alter (@dalter) December 7, 2022

Morgan Rielly’s last game with the Leafs was on November 21st and the Leafs have played seven games since that point. That is the most significant run of games without Toronto’s top defense as Rielly, Brodie, and Muzzin were all out and Jordie Benn appeared in just eight minutes of that first game without Rielly before he too was injured. Here are the 5v5 on-ice numbers for the Leafs defensemen during that stretch (via Natural Stat Trick):
Player
GP
TOI/GP
CA/60
CF%
GA/60
GF%
xGA/60
xGF%
HDCA/60
HDCF%
PDO
Conor Timmins
1
13.45
31.23
68.18
0.00

1.82
65.89
13.38
57.14
1.000
Justin Holl
7
18.95
61.95
44.08
0.90
71.43
2.29
56.64
10.85
54.72
1.038
Rasmus Sandin
7
16.64
59.75
46.30
1.03
81.82
2.51
55.39
11.85
54.90
1.115
Mark Giordano
7
16.69
57.53
46.67
1.03
75.00
2.31
54.47
…

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Errors prove costly as Yankees defeat Jays 5-2, clinch division

Dan Shulman made one of the better points of the night. The Blue Jays can play with anyone, but they can’t be successful handing the opposition more opportunities. I’m paraphrasing, but that turned out to be the tone of the game tonight, as the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 5-2 to clinch the AL East.
The rollercoaster ride that has been Jose Berrios’ season looks like it is still at another low point, as the righty allowed five earned runs over 5.1 innings, despite registering his 1,000th career strikeout tonight. While the loud contact was way down, the Yankees gave him death by a thousand paper cuts, if you will, as seven of the nine hits he allowed were singles.
George Springer homered off of Yankees starter Jameson Taillon to lead off the game, but the offense struggled to produce much else until the later innings. The Yankees took a 2-1 lead in the 3rd inning, however, behind a couple of RBI singles from Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres.
Rain started to figuratively pour in the top of 5th, when Rizzo skied a ball into shallow center fiel …

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Author: Evan Stack / Blue Jays Nation

Pre-Series Notes: Jays turn to the pen for game one, Berrios looks to continue strong September

It was a tough night for the Jays on Thursday losing 11-0 to the Tampa Bay Rays. That said, they still took the five-game series 3-2 and sit atop the wild card standings with a record of 81-63. Since being swept by the Los Angeles Angels in late August they have now won their last five series, including four and five game sets against the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays.
The Orioles had the day off yesterday after completing a quick two game sweep of the Washington Nationals earlier in the week. They have fallen behind in the wild card race going just 7-6 so far in September. They are 4.5 games back of the Rays for the final playoff spot.
Things Worth Mentioning…
Tonight’s game will be broadcasted on AppleTVPlus.

#FridayNightBaseball is here.
Watch us face the Orioles live only on @AppleTVPlus tonight: https://t.co/WohVI5QL6d pic.twitter.com/x7QcD00Q4i
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 16, 2022

The game is free if you sign in to an Apple account. You don’t need to have a subscription.
Don’t forget to vote for Bo Bichette.

We’re proud to honour Bo Bichette as this year’s Roberto Clemente Award nominee
Vote for Bo at https://t.co/ziSBItXu6R pic.twitter.com/toGpO09G0x
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 15, 2022

Bo is this year’s nominee from the Blue Jays for the Roberto Clemente award. The Roberto Clemente award is an annual honour given to “the player who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.”
The head-to-head…
Trevor Richards vs. Jordan Lyles
It will be a bullpen day for the Blue Jays tonight with Trevor Richards being used as an opener. He threw 29 pitches in relief in yesterday’s loss so he will likely pitch one inning at most. This will be Richards’ third start this season (all in September). The Jays are 1-1 in games he has started.
Richards allowed five runs and recorded just two outs against the Tampa Bay Rays last night. He has given up nine run …

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Author: Scott Ony / Blue Jays Nation

Checking in on the Leafs cap situation a day before free agency

Last night the sky was very much falling as the Leafs overpaid on Matt Murray, who very much does not have a lot of value at the moment. The Leafs only getting 25% salary retention on Murray, and only receiving a 3rd and 7th round pick as compensation for the trouble isn’t going to sit particularly well, even though only taking on two years of term has to be considered a modest win, especially when those two years align with the expiration of the Leafs most critical contract in Auston Matthews.
Still, the Leafs very much need to be mindful of their cap budget, and just because everything looks rosy in the summer2024 doesn’t mean that things are rosy today. The Leafs still need to have a competitive enough team that Matthews is going to stay beyond his contract, and the question is, do the Leafs have much cap space to improve their roster now?

After the trade for Matt Murray the Leafs are left with approximately $7.1M dollars to find a backup goaltender, fill three forward vacancies (including Engvall), and sign Rasmus Sandin. That last one is the one that truly seems to be complicating things at the moment, but it is also the one that seems like it will need to be the next priority for the Leafs. Considering the Leafs can fill a couple of those forward vacancies easy with low cost Marlies like Joey Anderson and Alex Steeves, that should put things closer to $5.5M to deal with Sandin, Engvall, and the second part of the tandem. Still that seems somewhat doable if you want to live in the dream world where Sandin takes a deal similar to Liljegren’ …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation