Brad Marchand figures a few of us should update our resumes.
The Florida Panthers forward, one of the few National Hockey League players who consistently has no trouble speaking his mind, on Monday took aim at those who are doubting the Maple Leafs.
“If people are thinking they are out of a playoff spot for the season (giggles), they got to find a new job,” Marchand told media in Florida after Panthers practice, chuckling as he did so.
“What are we, 25 games in? If you think that your playoff dreams are done 25 games in, you have bigger problems. I know they don’t think that in the room.
“With the media attention and the fan support they have in Toronto, things get blown way out of proportion up there. What are they, four points out of a playoff spot?”
Yes, Brad, as far as the Atlantic Division goes. The Leafs are four points behind the Montreal Canadiens for third in the division and six points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the second wildcard in the Eastern Conference.
The Leafs and Panthers clash on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla., squaring off for the first time since Florida eliminated Toronto in seven games in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring.
As we thought should happen, Leafs coach Craig Berube wasn’t planning to make changes to his forward lines following Toronto’s most lopsided win of the season, a 7-2 thrashing of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
At practice in Fort Lauderdale, Matias Maccelli and Calle Jarnkrok, both scratched for the game in Pittsburgh, were the extra forwards.
Berube can’t afford to play around with line experiments right now, but what has to happen is the confidence from the win in Pittsburgh must carry forward into Tuesday night. Maccelli and Jarnkrok can wait.
Defence corps updates
There was some positive news regarding the Leafs’ defence corps. Oliver Ekman-Larsson will play after he departed in the third period on Saturday with an upper-body injury, telling media on Monday that the issue was “nothing major.”
And Simon Benoit was back after he took some time away to attend a funeral.
One sour note: Brandon Carlo, out since Nov. 13 because of a lower-body injury, had a setback in his recovery and returned to Toronto to be evaluated.
Troy Stecher has stepped into the Leafs lineup since he was claimed off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 15 and performed well, making the loss of Carlo (as well as Chris Tanev) a little easier to digest. In six games with Toronto, Stecher has averaged 17 minutes 27 seconds in ice time, nearly four minutes more (13 minutes 37 seconds) than he was playing in Edmonton.
Ekman-Larsson has been the Leafs’ best defenceman and he is on the cusp of tying a team record. He has a point in nine consecutive games, one short of the franchise mark for D-men. The late Tom Kurvers owns the record with a 10-game run for the Leafs during the 1989-90 season.
“I didn’t know that, thanks for telling me,” Ekman-Larsson told media. “No pressure.”
Back to Marchand. He’s right — on paper, it’s not a big gap separating the Leafs from a post-season berth.
The challenge to move up in the standings is greater because the Leafs have to move past seven teams to get a playoffs sniff. They’ve won two of their past three games but fell back into the conference basement on Monday night when Buffalo beat Winnipeg to move a point past Toronto.
More proof required
All due respect to Marchand, we need a lot more convincing from the Leafs through their play that they’re capable of roaring back and claiming a playoff spot for the 10th year in a row. To this point, playing smart hockey with any consistency has proven to be too slippery for the Leafs to grasp to this point.
The Panthers aren’t much better off than the Leafs. Like Toronto, Florida has 25 points, though it has played one fewer game.
And unlike the Leafs, there’s the experience of being the defending two-time Cup champions to fall back on. The Leafs have nothing comparable.
In no way was this predicted at the start of the season, that the Leafs and Panthers would be fighting each other to stay out of the East basement as the calendar turned to December.
“I guess there’s two ways to look at it,” Panthers defenceman Aaron Ekblad told media on Monday. “It doesn’t bother us because we feel like we can turn this around at any time, (but) it should bother us a little bit to give us some juice to bring to games for the next little while.
“Bothered and unbothered at the same time I think is a good way to approach it. Get to our mojo — we know we have it.”
As for losing Game 7 at home by a 6-1 score to the Panthers, do the Leafs use that crash (thanks in part to a terrible effort) as any source of motivation?
“We want to keep it going here,” Berube said. “We got a win in Pitt and that’s our focus. We have to do things a certain way to be successful.
“I don’t know if bringing up Game 7 of last year does a whole lot to our group right now.”
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