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Joined: 08 Jul 2019
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 Posted: 23-08-2019 07:49:28 Post subject: to the face from Mason Plumlee. Calderon didnt return, and |
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| PHILADELPHIA – Joffrey Lupul scored the fifth Maple Leaf goal that night in front of more than 19,000 at the ACC. It was the fifth win in six games for the Leafs, who sat (seemingly secure) as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference with 29 games left to go. Nine increasingly painstaking losses followed in the next 10 games. Ron Wilson was fired, Randy Carlyle was hired and the 18-wheeler ran off the cliff as then-president and GM Brian Burke described it mournfully. Changes to the core of the roster were marginal in the summer that followed; Luke Schenn was the most notable name punted, dealt here to the state of Pennsylvania for the Flyers former second-overall pick, James van Riemsdyk. That was the first collapse. Nearly three years later, amid three more meltdowns of varying order, change isn’t likely to be so minimal for the heart of the Leafs roster. And they know it. Lupul remembers his excitement when the Leafs returned from the three-day Christmas break this past December. His team was just a few points back of Montreal and Tampa for a share of the division lead and the East, in his view at least, was “wide open”. A lot was on the line for the core in the second half. This would be their chance to prove to Shanahan that major changes weren’t needed, that the core deserved another shot. Lupul acknowledged as much on the eve of the New Year. “If you’re not having success and you’re not showing that growth there’s going to be changes,” said Lupul before a December 31 tilt in Boston. “We’ve got to be better and we’ve got to show ourselves and coaches and management that this team is growing…” Lupul got hurt that night against the Bruins – Milan Lucic fell on his knee – returning a month later to find the group felled in yet another disturbing unraveling, losing for the 17th time in 20 games on Saturday. He and Toronto’s core – the likes of Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf and Tyler Bozak among others – are unlikely to get another chance. Shanahan warned as much in the days after Carlyle was fired, wanting to “make it very clear to them that we’re watching and that we’re on it.” “How they’re going to be defined is really up to them at this point,” Shanahan said at the official midway point of the season. “It’s going to be a big challenge and we’re going to learn a lot of things about our core in the coming weeks.” Shanahan made a rare address to the team that morning. They responded with a quality win that night over Columbus, only to lose each and every one of the nine games that followed in some fashion or another. The results have been evident enough. This core has failed and failed repeatedly. And they understand that change is coming, that the referendum on their tenure is all but over. “For sure,” Lupul acknowledged ahead of a 1-0 loss to the Flyers, their ninth straight. “Your highest-paid guys are always going to be the guys that get the most praise when you’re winning and the most criticism when you’re losing. We haven’t got the job done. It’s frustrating for me because I haven’t been playing during this – for myself that’s been the case too often.” Carrying an annual cap hit of $5.25 million for the three seasons that follow, Lupul is one among those main pieces who could find himself elsewhere in the offseason, if not sooner. He remains a productive player when healthy – 17 points in 28 games – but is unlikely to be a fit for the Leafs murky future given his age (31) and checkered history in Toronto. Bigger and more difficult questions for Shanahan and his front office team to debate are those of the Leafs two highest-paid players: Kessel and Phaneuf. It’s difficult to envision a scenario where both return next season given all that’s taken place in their respective tenures, not to mention the as yet unknown direction of the team moving forward. “I’m not management,” Kessel said when questioned on the subject. “I’m a player. I just play the game.” How deep the cuts run will be up to Shanahan. Will he opt for a complete teardown, perhaps parting with both Phaneuf and Kessel, or tinker around the edges with those like Lupul and Bozak, if not one or Phaneuf or Kessel? So many questions remain, not the least of which pertains to restricted free agents, Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Bernier, or the future of impending unrestricted free agents such as Cody Franson, Mike Santorelli and Daniel Winnik – all of whom could be dealt ahead of the March 2 deadline. The referendum on the core, though, is over. What’s to be done about it is all that remains. “We’ve got to take the brunt of the criticism,” Lupul said. “Obviously, the coach took some already and lost his job and then it falls on your highest-paid guys. We’ve got to be better and we all realize that there’s a lot more that we could’ve done throughout this year, especially through this losing streak, but it just kind of went the way it did. And all you can do now is keep positive in trying to get better as a group, and individually, and get out of this.” Five Points 1. Forgotten How to Score? The Leafs averaged 3.3 goals from October until the end of December and scored one or less a mere six times. In January alone, they managed one or less an astounding 10 times in 13 games, scoring 1.2 goals nightly in the process. “It’s weird, at the start of the year we were scoring four goals a game and now we’re fighting to get two,” Bozak said. “We’re a little unlucky right now too,” added Kessel, who has just three goals in the past 20 games. “I don’t think we’re playing as bad as our record. We go from one of the highest scoring teams to one of the lowest scoring teams. That’s a pretty bad run.” Toronto has fallen to 14th in league scoring, struck by an unthinkable spell of bad luck among other things. They peppered Steve Mason with 30 shots on Saturday, but couldnt get to fall. “We were questioning whether we’ve forgotten how to score,” Peter Holland said afterward, “but I don’t think that’s the case. I think if we’re creating the chances they’re going to come eventually. We keep saying it and it’s been eight or nine games now, but we just need to stick with it and I think we’ll get paid off in the end.” 2. Cold Peter Horachek said he’d never seen a stretch quite like this in his career. “But it doesn’t mean that’s it’s not a good experience that we’re going to learn something from,” he said. “As a group we’re going to learn what kind of resiliency we have, what kind of mental toughness and resolve we have, and we’re going to get through this. We’re going to work our way through this by playing playoff-type hockey, by putting more pucks to the net and getting those kind of goals rather the goals you score in October.” 3. Among the Cold... Bozak is one among the many cold Leafs. Fueled by the power-play (on which he scored six times) and a fiery 20 per-cent shooting mark, the 28-year-old wrung up 11 goals and 22 points in the first 23 games this season. A dip was predictable and it’s come with a thud. Bozak has scored only three goals in the past 28 games - only one on the power-play – while shooting a cool six per cent. He finished January with only three points in 13 games. “It’s been kind of a crazy stretch,” he said before Saturday’s game. “At the start of the year, the pucks were going in and we were getting a few more bounces in good areas. Things have changed.” Bozak is tied for fifth on the Leafs with 19 even-strength points, equal to David Clarkson with 1.29 points per 60 minutes at even-strength (entering Saturday’s play.) Last season, he posted 2.32 points per 60 under such circumstance – amongst the league leaders – aided by one of the highest on-ice shooting percentages in the league. 4. Bernier Out Jonathan Bernier didn’t get the chance to bounce back from his meltdown Thursday against the Coyotes. The Leafs instead went with James Reimer against the Flyers, an odd choice to be sure. “It’s not my decision,” Bernier said, informed of the decision on Friday night, “but obviously as a goalie you want to be in every night. But they felt that they wanted to go with [Reimer].” It was an awkward choice given how Bernier’s night ended against the Coyotes; he stopped the first 32 shots he faced before Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s shot from the opposing blue-line found its way in; another one from just above the goal-line slid through just a few minutes later. It stood to reason that the 26-year-old would get an opportunity to redeem himself as soon as possible, but evidently Toronto’s coaching staff thought differently. “Other than those two goals he played pretty solid,” Peter Horachek said of Bernier’s 42-save performance versus Arizona, “but it’s the first time he’s played back to back [this season] and this would’ve been three in four nights so I think it was a good time for Reims to go in.” Bernier, a restricted free agent at season’s end, is slogging through his roughest patch as a Leaf. In 10 starts before the All-Star break, he compiled an unseemly .891 save percentage, yielding a late game-tying goal to the Devils in his first game back. Reimer, meanwhile, stopped 17 of 18 against the Flyers, Michael Del Zotto beating him with a shot over the glove. “I felt that I could’ve had that first one,” he said afterward. “My job’s not to score goals. My job isn’t to put the puck in the net, it’s our team’s job, my job’s to keep it out. We lost 1-0 and I see that as I didn’t do my job well enough.” 5. Moral Support Stepping onto the Wells Fargo Center ice just before 11am Saturday morning was an unexpected figure. Dion Phaneuf didn’t return from the All-Star break, sidelined with a right hand injury. But there was Phaneuf back on the ice, back with his teammates in Philadelphia for moral support apparently. “When you go through tough times,” said Horachek, “when you’re not winning games when you think you should’ve or you’re going through a tough stretch, you need your leadership. You need those people in the room to be able to step up.” Phaneuf, who wore a black support of some sort on that injured right hand, was expected to sit at least another week or so, according to Horachek. Stats-Pack 16 – Goals scored by the Leafs in January. 10 – Number of times in January that the Leafs scored one goal or less. 6 – Number of times from October to December that the Leafs scored one goal or less. 26-7 – Margin by which the Leafs have been outscored during nine-game losing streak. 3 – Goals in the past 28 games for Tyler Bozak, who had 11 in the first 23 games. Special Teams Capsule PP: 0-1 Season: 18.6% (15th) PK: 2-2 Season: 83.4% (8th) Quote of the Night “I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but we are doing things better. But we have to find ways to get pucks in the net.” -Peter Horachek after the Leafs ninth straight loss. Quote of the Night II “We don’t like it, but I don’t think this is cancer. This isn’t something that’s real life-threatening. This is something that we have to learn from and we have to get better.” -Horachek trying to find some perspective in light of the team’s failings. Up Next The Leafs play in Nashville on Tuesday night. Custom Wales Soccer Jerseys .ca presents its latest weekly power rankings for the 2013-14 Barclays Premier League season. Aaron Ramsey Wales Jersey . Both sides came closest to scoring in the first half, when Roma had a goal from Mattia Destro waved off for offside and Inters Rodrigo Palacio headed high. "A draw was a fair result. Neither squad had many chances," Roma midfielder Miralem Pjanic said. http://www.soccerwalesstore.com/ashley-williams-wales-UEFA-EURO-jersey/ . The match, billed as a "next-gen" encounter between two of the sports rising stars, lasted two and a half hours. The loss kept Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., from reaching a third fourth-round spot in Melbourne over the past four years. Ashley Williams Wales Jersey . - Whether its because of her improved play or the reason for it, Michelle Wie appears as comfortable on and off the golf course as at any time in her career. Joe Allen Wales Jersey . The 26-year-old Regina native teamed up with Denny Morrison and Mathieu Giroux to win gold in 2010. Makowsky also was 13th in the 5,000 metres and 19th in the 1,500m in Vancouver. He also represented Canada at the 2014 Games in Sochi, helping the pursuit team finish fourth and finishing 28th in the 1,500.DALLAS - The Brooklyn Nets waited until they got to the locker room to dump ice water on coach Jason Kidd after his victorious return to Dallas. They presumably didnt want to make a mess of the court where he was essentially a coach between the lines for the Mavericks when they won the franchises only title in 2011. Joe Johnson scored 22 points, including the tying layup in regulation and the go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime, to lead the Nets past the Mavericks 107-104 Sunday night in Kidds first game as a coach in the city where his career started in 1994 and reached its peak in his second stint 17 years later. The Nets swept the two-game season series with Dallas in their first year under Kidd, who was also celebrating his 41st birthday. "Its a little wet in there," Kidd said, warning of the pile of ice surrounded by towels in the middle of the locker room floor. "You guys be careful. I dont want any media getting hurt." Marcus Thornton had 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter for the Nets, who won their fourth straight game and beat a Western Conference team for the fifth straight time. Monta Ellis led Dallas with 32 points, but Dirk Nowitzki finished with 10 on one of his toughest shooting nights of the season. Nowitzki hit his first shot of overtime after going 1-of-10 in regulation, but the Mavericks couldnt make any shots until it was too late in overtime. Nowitzki was 2-of-12 from the field, finishing below 42 per cent for the third time in four games as the Mavericks dropped to 2-2 on a franchise-record eight-game homestand. Both losses have been in overtime, and now Dallas faces back-to-back games against teams with much more secure playoff futures in Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers. "This is not the time to panic," said Ellis, who had four assists and four turnovers. "We still have four more home games. We are going to try to get these four." After a layup that tied the score with 9 seconds left in regulation, Johnson put the Nets up 96-93 early in overtime with a 3-pointer and answered a pair of free throws from Nowitzki with a jumper. After another miss by Nowitzki, Shaun Livingston stepped in front of a pass fromm Shawn Marion and went the distance for a layup and Brooklyns biggest lead at 100-95.dddddddddddd Deron Williams and Paul Pierce had 15 points apiece for the Nets. The Mavericks, who led by 14 points after the first quarter and midway through the third, were up four with 44 seconds left in the regulation when Pierce hit two free throws after getting fouled by Marion. After Nowitzki shot an airball on a fadeway, Johnson drove for a layup and a 91-all tie. Ellis missed a long 3-pointer at the buzzer in regulation. Sam Dalembert had season highs of 15 rebounds and seven blocks, and he had two huge plays that werent rebounds when he was fouled trying to get the ball and made three of four free throws in the last 1:11. Dalembert scored 12 points. The Mavericks led by 14 after the first quarter and again midway through the third before the Nets made a charge with a 14-0 run to a 73-72 lead on two free throws from Williams. Thornton had consecutive 3-pointers to get Brooklyn within a point. "We just had too many lapses tonight," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "A lot of them were on innocent plays when we had a lead, but, you know, in a one-possession game, those things come back to you." Devin Harris, who was traded to the Nets when Kidd returned to Dallas in 2008, came off the bench much earlier than usual after Jose Calderon was knocked out of the game just 45 seconds in by an inadvertent elbow to the face from Mason Plumlee. Calderon didnt return, and Carlisle said his status is uncertain. Harris hit three 3-pointers in the first 6 minutes and led the Mavericks with nine points in the first half. He finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists in a season-high 40 minutes. NOTES: Nets F Andrei Kirilenko left in the first half with a mild left ankle sprain and didnt return. ... The Mavericks showed a clever "Shawn Marion training video" making light of an unconventional shooting style where he short-arms the ball with his right hand. Marion was laughing when he came off the bench after the timeout. ... Nets F Mirza Teletovic had nine points after getting a career-high 34 in 107-106 win at Brooklyn in late January. ' ' ' |
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