Post Media (Toronto SUN) made a great case for the Phoenix Coyotes to remain in the NHL and in Arizona. Even though their plan is to move to the 5000 seat Arizona State hockey facility for the next couple of years, they are hopeful for a full-on Major League rink in Tempe in the years to come. Forbes Magazine has the franchise valued at $400 million (low by league standards) but that’s still nothing to sneeze at. GM Bill Armstrong points out the excellent lifestyle of living/playing in the desert and he’s not wrong. Now, if they can stick to a rebuild plan and survive the lower gate receipts, maybe they can earn what has been theirs since the move from Winnipeg way back in 1996.
The Toronto Maple Leafs began a stretch of 9 games in the next 18 nights with the news that Jack Campbell would not dress for tonight’s game due to a mysterious rib ailment. 25 year old Eric Kellgren would be the backup. Another pre-game announcement had John Tavares to centre Ondre Kase and Nick Robertson with William Nylander moving to the third/fourth line.
Two minutes in, ex Leaf Alex Galchenyuk put one in over an ill-positioned Petr Mrazek. If that wasn’t ugly enough, trade bait d-man Jacob Chychrun fanned on a Marzek rebound that still slid into the net for the 2 zip lead. After a 13:22 seconds of continuous play incurred, LEAFS Nation screamed in unison, “Guys, we’re playing the Arizona Coyotes, a team 40 points below us with only 17 wins”!
One has to guess that plea was not heard as the Leafs were swarmed from the get go resulting in another weak goal to start the second. Pierre Engvall tried to stop some of the bleeding but after another wave at a shot, Mzarek’s night was done and the Leafs were down 4-1. Now give them credit, the Coyotes have won 3 in a row, 4 of their last 5 and even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, but – c’mon !
OK, something was said or not said between the second and third. The Leafs came out flying starting with Alex Kerfoot pinning one upstairs over Wedgewood’s ear at 3:38. It was time for Austin Mathews to show up and he did just that with his (delayed review) 44th. Nylander tied at 4’s with a nice feed from Kerfoot :10 seconds later. That was Kerfoot’s 3rd point of the night and earned him a promotion to his rightful place on the second line with the Captain and Nylander for the rest of the game. Wayne Simmonds, Ondre Kase and Nick Roberston rode the pine for the rest of the game. The short bench led to 17 shots by the Leafs before the final buzzer and overtime.
You are going to hear a great many opinions over the next 24 hours about whether Mathews was hooked, mugged, held, jumped or interfered with on the eventual game winning goal. I guess that’s why they play the games.
HOPPER NOTES: Guys I wish I had on my team: Jakob Chycrun…2 goals, always tough to play against…but his $4.6m is just too rich for the Leafs at this time…looking forward to Sunday in the ‘Hammer’…of all the things I would have thought about in reviewing Phil Kessel’s career, a 958 game iron man streak would not have been one of them…has Petr Mrazek played one meaningful, winning game ?
CHEERS, enjoy your life and stay healthy !
The Leafs can complain about the non call in overtime all they want.
It didn’t cost them the game.
The beer league hockey they played in the first period cost them the game.
This team won’t be successful until they balance the lineup.
That means trading a big salary and shoring up that defense.
Even the worst teams in the league have a field day in the Leafs end.
Boston right up their behinds,missed opportunity to take second place, little more urgency please
Got to look in the rear view mirror !