Columnist image

SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

| Archive

The Maple Leafs practiced in San Jose on Monday ahead of their Tuesday night date with the Sharks.

* On Monday, Mitch Marner completed a full practice with the Leafs for the first time since sustaining a suspected right shoulder injury on Feb. 15 in Columbus. Will he play on Tuesday against the Sharks? "I feel fine," Marner said. "Obviously, it still goes through the trainers, they're the ones who call it, but, as I stand here now, I feel perfectly fine to be in the game (Tuesday)." Marner felt the same way on Saturday. "Yeah, I thought I could've (played). It's always a lively debate between trainers and players. They're just doing their part, trying to keep you healthy for a longer part of hockey. There's nothing you can do about it. They're the ones who make the last call." Marner practiced in his usual spot alongside Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk and was also in his usual spot on the power play during special teams drills. "It's huge, obviously," said Bozak. "He's just a spark that you can't really replace." Bozak and van Riemsdyk didn't score with Marner sidelined although they combined for five assists.

Head coach Mike Babcock, who said on Saturday that he wasn't sure why Marner wasn't cleared to play against the Canadiens, joked that the 19-year-old needed to pass one last fitness test before returning to practice. "Mitch leg wrestled (director of rehabilitation) Ryan (Morrison) and it sounds like he's in the lineup," Babcock said with a smile. "He had to win the match, though, and he got that done."

Monday marked the first time Marner addressed the media since sliding into the boards hard following an awkward collision with Boone Jenner. How did he feel at the time? "Nothing actually too bad," he insisted. "I felt fine after the contact. A little bit weak. I got up and felt I still could play. Then throughout the game it got weaker and weaker so we decided to call it quits." It has not been easy for Marner, who led the Leafs in scoring when he got hurt, to wait. He worked on strengthening his lower body and studied how plays developed during his five-game absence. He believes both those things will help him upon his return to the lineup. "It obviously sucks watching your team play without you and you just want to be out there helping them. I'm excited to be back out on the ice with the guys and be in the room, it kind of gets your emotions back up and your joy back in you."

* With Marner poised to play on Tuesday, who will be the odd winger out? Well, at Monday's practice Josh Leivo rotated in while Nikita Soshnikov maintained his position on the fourth line. "Leivs played real good, but a lot of it depends on the penalty kill too," Babcock explained. "We only got so many penalty killers so that gives the nod to Sosh." The coach noted he hasn't made a final call on who will sit. Leivo has eight points in the last seven games overall, but has been held off the scoresheet in the last two outings.

* When Marner got hurt, Babcock reunited Auston Matthews with William Nylander. The rookies started the year together, but the coach soon decided he preferred playing them on separate lines, because both liked to have the puck on their stick and be the shooter on the line. He challenged Nylander to prove he should stick with Matthews and it appears they 20-year-old has succeeded. Nylander remained with the first overall pick at Monday's skate. "I think he's been good," Babcock said. "He's just got to keep being competitive and play well without the puck." Babcock warned that if Nylander falters on the road when Matthews usually gets the toughest match-up then he won't hesitate to flip Connor Brown back onto that line. Nylander has five points in the five games since being placed on right wing with Matthews and has been a plus player during that stretch. Matthews, for his part, believes Nylander's chemistry with him and Zach Hyman has evolved nicely. "It's come a long way," Matthews said. "When all of us are skating and working we're definitely able to control the play more. We have the puck in our hands much more."

* Bozak returned to practice on Monday and afterwards explained what kept him out of Saturday's pivotal game against Montreal. "It was brutal," the veteran centre said. "I got (my hand) slashed in Carolina (on Feb. 19) and got a cut on my finger and just every time we went on the ice after that it kept re-opening and your gloves are obviously pretty dirty and it got infected. So (after the game Thursday) I was kind of sitting at home and my hand kind of blew up and I had to go to the hospital. It was a little scary, but we got it taken care of and it's feeling a lot better now." Bozak said the swelling went all the way up to his wrist and that he was treated with antibiotics and IVs. "It was pretty painful. I was actually surprised how much it hurt." Did the injury affect Bozak, Toronto's top face-off man, during Monday's practice? "A little bit, but it's been improving so much every day that I expect tomorrow will be even better so I should be fine." Bozak wears just one pair of gloves in each game and he changes them every two to three weeks. "I'll probably try and keep them cleaner than I have (moving forward)," he said with a chuckle. This was the first time Bozak has experienced this type of injury. "It was a weird one for me," he said. "I'm just happy it's over with."

* Monday's practice ran almost an hour, which is long by Babcock standards. The coach also seemed to be more vocal than usual, especially early in the workout. "I don't know if you noticed, but we had a few guys who were still napping so we had to get that fixed," the coach explained. "I thought we had a real good practice today and the guys had good jump." There's definitely a sense of urgency around the team these days even though Toronto has picked up a point in four straight games. The last two games, however, were losses and Thursday's point was a direct result of a strong effort by Frederik Andersen. Any prolonged skid at this time of year can be fatal to a team's playoff hopes and now Toronto is embarking on a stretch of three games in four nights against the California clubs. "These teams are typically physical," Matthews said. "They like to play down low with the puck, they got big bodies so for us it's going to be a good challenge going from teams that play with a lot of speed to teams that play well down low." The Leafs lost to the Sharks (3-2 SO, Dec. 13), Ducks (3-2, Dec. 19) and Kings (7-0, Nov. 8) earlier this season at the Air Canada Centre. "These kinds of teams are smart," Matthews said. "They got older, veteran players, who can definitely do some damage."

* The top two defence pairings had a different look at Monday's practice. Morgan Rielly skated with newcomer Alexey Marchenko while Jake Gardiner was paired with Nikita Zaitsev. What has Babcock liked about Marchenko so far? "He's been steady for us, big body, passes the puck and did a lot of good things."

* The Leafs acquired Brian Boyle from the Lightning in a trade on Monday. Kristen Shilton has a full recap on the move and Boyle's outlook here.


Lines at Monday's Leafs practice:

Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Komarov-Kadri-Brown
van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Marner
Martin-Gauthier-Soshnikov
Smith, Leivo

Rielly-Marchenko
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Hunwick-Polak
Marincin

Andersen
McElhinney

* Power play units at Monday's Leafs practice:

Zaitsev
Bozak-Kadri-Marner
JVR

Gardiner
Nylander-Leivo^-Matthews
Martin^

^ Leivo, Martin placeholders for Brown, Komarov who work on the PK