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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes on the Leafs. The Maple Leafs and Hurricanes skated at PNC Arena ahead of Wednesday night’s game in Raleigh.

Frederik Andersen always seems to be calm in the net and a big reason for that is he’s also calm on the inside. An important aspect of the goalie’s strong start has been his improved mental game.

"The last two games showed that pretty well," Andersen noted. "Sometimes you got to reset and trust you’re going to make that next save instead of losing the focus on what’s important."

Last week in San Jose, a bad bounce off the end boards led to an easy Sharks goal in the first period, but Andersen didn't get flustered. He ended up making 42 saves to post his first-ever win at the Shark Tank. 

Then on Monday, the Leafs came out flat and Columbus scored a goal late in the first period to go up 2-0. From that point on Andersen was a wall. He finished with 37 saves to win his sixth straight start.

"I like to do some breathing [exercises] and I do that before every game as well," Andersen said. "It’s pretty personal what kind of resets you, but I’ve found some things that work with me and that’s something I like to do."

This evolution didn’t happen overnight. Andersen has been working on this for years with his high-performance coach Scot Prohaska. 

"The earlier years it was all about getting out of his head," Prohaska explained in an interview last week in California, "stop worrying so much, stop thinking so deeply inside, talk about it or let it go. Let's focus on the things that matter and stop worrying about the things that don't. Well, this year he came with this unbelievable confidence. It’s like, 'I want to win. This other stuff is out of me now.' He’s mature."

Andersen is a big reason why the Leafs have been able to not just survive, but thrive without the injured Auston Matthews (shoulder), winning seven of 10 games in the absence of the superstar centre. 

"He's won us a couple games that without him in the net who knows what happens," said Mitch Marner, who calls Andersen the team MVP. "He comes every single night, comes ready to play and he's been a beast since the start of the season."

"The biggest thing is to trust the guys," Andersen said, "and trust we got enough offensive power to score goals and just kind of reset if the first period hasn't gone as well as you hoped."

 Andersen and the Leafs will be facing an old teammate on Wednesday as Curtis McElhinney gets the start for Carolina. Toronto placed the 35-year-old on waivers after training camp, opting to go with 25-year-old Garret Sparks as Andersen's understudy. 

"Just a lot of good memories," said McElhinney of his time in Toronto. "Obviously, a lot of good things happened there and it was an enjoyable time in my career. Pretty special moment and something, when all is said and done, I'll reflect back on and say that was probably one of the highlights, getting the chance to play in Toronto."

McElhinney got into 32 games for the Leafs after being picked up off waivers from Columbus in January of 2017. What did he enjoy most about playing in Toronto?  

"Just the attention," the London, Ont. native said. "It's a huge market and a fun place to play. There are a lot of people who care about it. [It’s] just a good atmosphere, overall, to play in."

Despite bouncing between teams during his career (Carolina is his seventh NHL stop), McElhinney admits Toronto’s decision to part ways still stung. 

"I think there is always disappointment when you're pushed out the door, but that's just the nature of the game," he said. "They had a younger, more viable option with Garret and I think he has done a tremendous job so far to start the season so it was the right decision. But there is certainly frustration with it. But you move on and I have another opportunity here. It has been nice. I get to see the sun on a daily basis, so you don’t complain about that."

McElhinney leads the Hurricanes in wins with a 4-2-0 record and a .903 save percentage so far. Sparks, meanwhile, is 3-1-0 with a .906 save percentage. 

McElhinney is hoping his experience practising against the Leafs will help him tonight. Although it won’t be easy to slow down someone like Marner, who leads the NHL with 20 primary assists. 

"When most guys have one or two options, he's got three or five," McElhinney said. "They have so many weapons. It’s tough to say one thing or another so it'll certainly be a challenge. Primary [thing] is stay out of the penalty box."

The Leafs power play is certainly due to break out soon having gone just 3-for-19 over the last seven games. All three goals in that span came against the woeful Los Angeles Kings.

Tonight will be the 77th NHL game for Kasperi Kapanen, but his first one in Raleigh, where his dad spent most of his NHL career. 

"It's going to be special, for sure," the Finn said. "I haven’t been in here in close to 16 years now and it’s pretty weird, but it’s nostalgic. It’s going to be good night."

Sami Kapanen suited up in 520 games with the Whalers/Hurricanes franchise from 1995 to 2003. 

"I remember a little bit," Kapanen said. "Being in the wives’ room and playing mini-sticks and being in the crowd and watching my dad play."

One of the players Kapanen recalls running into while hanging out in the dressing room is Rod Brind’Amour, now the head coach of the Hurricanes. 

"He used to be running around out here with his dad in the good old days," Brind’Amour said with a smile. "It makes you feel old, that's for sure. He’s a high-talent player getting his opportunity and he’s cashing in."

Kapanen, who is in the final year of his entry-level deal, has eight goals and seven assists since being elevated in lineup in the season’s third game. He made another big play on Monday against Columbus, springing Marner with a long pass leading to the tying goal by John Tavares. 

But he’s still pushing to be better. 

"I'm not happy to just stay where I am right now," he said. "I feel like I can get better and I feel like me, [Nazem Kadri and Patrick Marleau] can get better."

Head coach Mike Babcock met with Kapanen this week to go over areas where the speedster can improve. 

"Just holding on to pucks," he said. "Using my body a bit more. I’m a decently big-sized body and I got to hold on to pucks … just all-around be a bit better and I think I can do that."

Brind’Amour sees a lot of similarities between father and son. 

“He doesn’t quite skate like Sami, no one really does, but it’s the same concept,” Brind'Amour said. “I mean, you can play and you have some skill, but you can skate and that’s a huge advantage."

The elder Kapanen twice won the fastest skater competition at the NHL all-star game. So, who would win a race: Sami in his prime or Kasperi right now?

"Good question," the 22-year-old Kapanen said. "I'd like to find out, but I don’t think that’s possible these days. Me and my dad talk about it, we joke around about it. I think if we skated from goal line to goal line, he says I’d be faster there. But if we were skating around the rink, he has smaller legs and quicker legs, so I think he’d be faster in the corners. It'd be interesting to see."

Carolina is averaging the most shots on net per game (40.3) in the NHL, but the team ranks last in the Eastern Conference in goals per game (2.6). The Hurricanes shooting percentage (5.72) ranks​ 30th in the league.  

"There are teams with good shooting percentages and there's a reason, because they get high-quality chances and they have high-quality scorers, who can put the puck in the net," said Hurricanes captain Justin Williams. "We don't have the luxury of having a 50-goal scorer on our team, so we work our butts off for every opportunity we get and we need to work on getting seconds and thirds."

That said, you can certainly understand why the Hurricanes would be interested in someone like William Nylander, Toronto's restricted free agent. While Nylander recorded 61 points in each of his first two full seasons in the NHL, the Hurricanes only have two players (Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen) on pace to reach 60 points this season. 

How is the Nylander trade speculation playing in Carolina’s room? 

"It hasn’t dominated attention in this area," Williams said with a chuckle. "This is the first time anyone's asked me about it. We live in an area here where we don't have as much media as we have in the room today. Obviously, it’s a big story in the NHL, absolutely, and one that will rectify itself, I’m imagining, soon. But I don’t really have a comment on it."

 Zach Hyman won an offensive-zone faceoff late in the third period on Monday and seconds later tapped in a Morgan Rielly pass for the game-winning goal.

The start of the play was just as important as the end for the 26-year-old. Usually a master at winning battles and getting the puck to his teammates, Hyman struggled early in his career on face-offs. The gritty winger won just 42.9 per cent of draws last season. 

"I've been working on it a lot in the off-season and then I think I started off pretty poorly on the draws and I’ve battled back up to around 50 per cent now," Hyman said. "It’s important, especially on the PK, when I’m trusted to win it on the right side, so it's something I’ve been working on."

Hyman is certainly plugged into the numbers. After Monday’s game, he’s up to 15-15 on penalty-kill draws and 29-29 in all situations. But that only tells part of the story. Hyman started the season 5-13 on faceoffs (27.8 per cent) but in the last 12 games, Hyman actually leads the Leafs in faceoff percentage going 24-16 (60 per cent). 

Some work with Frederik Gauthier and Par Lindholm before practice last month may have played a role in the rise. 

What has been the biggest challenge for Hyman in improving on faceoffs? 

"Well, on the PK you're going against their top guys on the draws," he pointed out.

Other than that? 

"Just using your body and your strength and timing it properly."

Lines at Wednesday’s Leafs skate: 

Hyman-Tavares-Marner 
Marleau-Kadri-Kapanen 
Johnsson-Lindholm-Brown 
Ennis-Gauthier-Leivo
Matthews 

Rielly-Hainsey 
Gardiner-Zaitsev 
Dermott-Ozhiganov 
Marincin-Holl

Andersen starts
Sparks 

Lines at Wednesday’s Hurricanes skate: 

McGinn-Staal-Williams
Ferland-Aho-Teravainen
Svechnikov-Wallmark-Martinook
Foegele-Rask-Di Giuseppe

Slavin-Hamilton
de Haan-Faulk
Fleury-van Riemsdyk

McElhinney starts
Darling