TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in with news and notes ahead of the Maple Leafs' meeting with the Buffalo Sabres Saturday night.
* During a recent road trip to Nashville, Jack Eichel met a young fan who has built a tower of pucks – The Eichel Tower – in his honour. It was inspired by a goal call from Sabres play-by-play voice Dan Dunleavy and a puck is added to the tower each time Eichel scores. "Yeah, that was pretty cool, obviously a really nice, generous idea that a family had down there in Nashville," Eichel said.
Adding to the tower on Saturday night will not be easy. Last month, Auston Matthews was matched against Eichel scoring a key goal in a Leafs win while holding his friend off the scoresheet. That game on Jan. 17 marked the first ever NHL meeting between the pair of rising stars. "He's really strong on the puck," Eichel said. "He's a big kid. He's hard to take it from. He's got good hands and he's pretty crafty. He's good around the net and he gets to the right areas." Matthews and Eichel have been teammates with US National Development Team, at the World Juniors and with Team North America at the World Cup.
"It doesn't look like he's skating fast when he starts going," Matthews said, "and then you look away and he's already three steps ahead of you so he's got that long powerful stride where it doesn't look like he's moving fast, but once he gets going it's tough to stop him."
Eichel stays in touch with Matthews throughout the season although he noted they spoke more last year when the Boston University product was advising the Arizona native about how to handle his draft year. "It's nice to see him having a good year," Eichel said. "I wish him the best except when we play him. We'll take it to him tonight."
Both Americans have been remarkably consistent this season. Eichel averages the most shots per game (four) in the league while Matthews is the only NHL player who has at least one shot in each game his team has played. "That's my game," Matthews said when asked about his shot total of 182, which was sixth in NHL before Saturday's games. "I want to score goals. I want to create offence, be responsible in my own zone, play a 200-foot game and I guess that's just allowed us to create opportunities and that leads to shots on net."
Mike Babcock was asked why Matthews has been able to generate so many shots in his rookie campaign. "Well, he works, he competes, he wants to be good, he wants to be the best and then he's got two guys (linemates Zach Hyman and Connor Brown) that are like a dog on a bone playing with him and getting him the puck all the time. They have the puck a lot, those guys. They work hard. They play with pace. And he likes shooting it and he gets open to shoot it. He's a player that gets better each and every week. Sometimes it doesn't show in the numbers, but it definitely shows in his effort and commitment to doing things right."
* Matthews isn't the only Leafs rookie Eichel has a connection with. In 2006, he played alongside William Nylander on the Triple A Junior Bruins. "He was really skilled back then just like he is now," Eichel recalled before breaking into a huge smile. "He did a lot of the same stuff, a lot of toe drags from him. That's where I got the toe drag from: William Nylander when we were young."
Nylander's skill level has never been in doubt, but Babcock has constantly prodded the 20-year-old Swede to raise his compete level and be more responsible when the puck isn't on his stick. On Saturday morning, Babcock lauded Nylander for the progress he's made. "Willy's come a million miles this year just in his compete level and his willingness to get the puck back. When there's tons of space he always has the skill-set, but you have to learn to play without space and he's doing that." Early in Thursday's game, Babcock put Nylander with Matthews shifting Brown to the Nazem Kadri line, which he matched against Vladimir Tarasenko and the Blues top unit. Babcock admitted the move, designed to make the shutdown line better defensively, didn't work so he moved Nylander back in the second period. Babcock believes the rookie is benefitting from playing alongside Leo Komarov, the left winger on Kadri's line. "Leo and him talk a different language," Babcock said with a grin. "I don't know what they're talking about, but I know Leo's probably on him like a rash to do things right and I don't think that hurts Willy one bit."
* Saturday's game has big playoff implications, especially for the Sabres, who are seven points behind the Leafs and have lost both previous meetings with their Atlantic Division rivals. "We were just talking on the ice after the morning skate about tonight," defenceman Jake McCabe said. "We win and we're five points back and we lose it's nine so we have to bear down here. It's a tight race and we need every single point we can get."
Babcock believes the difference between teams isn't as wide as the current standings seem to indicate. "They got lots of players. It's not like they don't have players. They have real players and the goalie's five-on-five save percentage is at the top of the league so we got to concern ourselves with that too," Babcock pointed out. "People talk about you real positively when you have six more points and when you're on the other side of that they don't talk about you as good, but there's hardly anything between you. There's a fine line here and we just got to keep treading water on the right side of that line." Robin Lehner starts for the Sabres on Saturday. His .931 even-strength save percentage is tied for seventh in the NHL among goalies who have played at least 20 game.
* James van Riemsdyk will play the 500th game of his NHL career on Saturday. "It speaks to some longevity and it's definitely a cool feather in the cap," the left winger said. "But I certainly think I got a lot of good hockey left in front of me." Asked about his favourite moments so far, JVR lists making the Stanley Cup Final in his first year with the Flyers and representing the USA at the 2014 Olympics.
* Maple Leafs president and alternate governor Brendan Shanahan held a rare media session to talk about his relationship with Mike Ilitch and the impact the Red Wings owner had on the NHL and city of Detroit. A glassy-eyed Babcock also shared some memories of Ilitch, who passed away on Friday.
* Nikita Soshnikov was the extra forward during the line rushes on Saturday morning. The winger is expected to miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury.
* Lines at Leafs morning skate:
Hyman-Matthews-Brown
van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Marner
Komarov-Kadri-Nylander
Martin-Smith-Leivo
Soshnikov
Rielly-Zaitsev
Gardiner-Carrick
Hunwick-Polak
Marincin-Marchenko
Andersen
McElhinney
* Power play units at Leafs morning skate:
Gardiner
Matthews-Leivo-Nylander
Komarov
Zaitsev
Marner-Kadri-Bozak
JVR
* Per usual, the Leafs worked on shootout moves against Curtis McElhinney at the end of the morning skate.
SCORED: van Riemsdyk, Kadri, Nylander, Leivo, Matthews, Marner
STOPPED: Soshnikov, Brown
Toronto is 1-6 in shootouts this season.