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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes on the Maple Leafs. who practised at Ford Performance Centre on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Washington Capitals. 

Tyson Barrie has gone 10 games without a point, his longest drought since 2013. 

"It's hard not to get a bit frustrated," the 28-year-old Leafs defenceman admitted. "I haven't had a start to a season like this any time that I can remember so it’s important to stay positive and just try to keep adjusting and find where I fit in here. I got to do a better job finding some holes and creating a little more offence, but I'm a defenceman and I got to focus on that first."

Barrie only has four assists, with all of them coming in the first three games. But his problems aren't confined to the offensive end. Barrie has been on the ice for 17 goals against in five-on-five play, most in the NHL per the website NaturalStatTrick. The transition from the grinding Western Conference to the more wide-open Eastern Conference may be a factor. 

"It seems like there's a lot of breakaways on this side," observed Barrie, who spent his previous eight NHL seasons in Colorado. "I mean, we get a bunch and we're giving a bunch so just being aware teams are blowing the zone or leaving a bit easier has been a bit of an adjustment ... I got to tighten it up a bit on the defensive side, maybe on the stretch passes and stuff."

On Saturday night, Barrie was caught too close to the side boards allowing Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin to score on a breakaway in the opening frame. In the third period, he misplayed the puck at the offensive blueline leading to a second Drouin breakaway tally. 

"The only points that matter in the game are the two the team gets," said coach Mike Babcock in response to a general question about defencemen scoring more this season. "Sometimes when we get carried away like we did the other night, we pay for it so there's a fine line there."

It feels like Barrie may be overthinking things right now. He was pasted by a big hit from Jeff Petry on Saturday night as he crossed the offensive blueline in the first period. 

"I had my head down," Barrie said. "I haven't seen it since, but it felt (like) he got me in the chest first. It's hockey, you're allowed to hit ... it was a clean hit. It didn’t feel great, but I just got to keep my head up."

Meanwhile, Jake Muzzin has become the scorer on the pairing of late with two goals in the last two games. And Muzzin even pulled off a little spin move at the offensive blueline on Friday night. That's something right out of Barrie's playbook. 

"I'm stoked to see it," said Barrie. "The more spin-o-ramas, the better. I think the fans like it and I’ll have to get back to it a little bit."

 

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Barrie is also adapting to a reduced role on the power play. He quarterbacked the top unit with the Avalanche logging more than four minutes a night last season. In Toronto, Morgan Rielly is the one defenceman on the first unit. 

"We just did the math," Babcock explained, "and we said, 'Mo's a 70-point guy.' Mo's one of the best players in hockey. You know, and I’m not trying to take anything away from anybody else, that's just the situation."

Rielly tied Mitch Marner for the team lead with 21 power-play points last season, good for eighth among all NHL defencemen. Barrie finished tied for fifth with 25 power-play points. 

"It’s a different role for me this year," said Barrie, who's averaging about two minutes a night on the man advantage with the Leafs, "and trying to feel that out a little bit. And when you're not on that first unit you're not getting as many touches as you would and not feeling the puck quite as much, so just trying to work around that and find out where I fit in."

Since John Tavares went down with a broken finger, William Nylander has moved to the top unit taking away one of the best weapons from the second group. Barrie's power-play unit now includes Trevor Moore, Kasperi Kapanen, Jason Spezza and Alexander Kerfoot.   

"The way we've been injury-wise this year, we haven’t had two units like we'd like to have," Babcock acknowledged. "We'd like to have one group that goes out there for a 1:10 or whatever and the other group comes and shoots it in the net anyways."

The Leafs power play is 1-for-13 over the last six games. Toronto is converting on 21.1 per cent of its chances this season, 16th in the NHL. 

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Rielly has missed three straight practices for maintenance. Is Babcock worried? 

"Nope," is all the coach would say. 

Travis Dermott, who underwent shoulder surgery in May, will make his season debut Tuesday against the Washington Capitals. 

"He has unbelievable edges," said Babcock, "can pass the puck, he's still a kid sorting it out in his own zone, figuring out how to play and he's been injured quite a bit and so that takes more time. The other thing is, we've seen guys jump into the regular season when they haven't been here and how it usually goes so he knows that. We talked about it today, he's got to play without the puck. The No. 1 job for a d-man is to keep it out of your net so that will be the challenge for him. But you also don't want to be careful with him, you want to get him in, he's a good player."

​Dermott, who skated alongside friend and former Marlies teammate Justin Holl at practice, averaged 17:18 of ice time last season. 

TSN's Kristen Shilton has more on Dermott's return here. 

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Auston Matthews was levelled by a high hit from Brenden Dillon on Friday night in Toronto. There was no penalty called and no Leafs player confronted the Sharks defenceman afterwards. Matthews was forced to the dressing room by the concussion spotter, but did return to the game after being cleared. 

"Stuff like that, we got to stay on top of that," said Kapanen. "I mean, Matty's one of our best players and I'd like to show a little bit more emotion. And, I'm not saying you got to fight the guy, but just to stand up for one another and be there. That’s in the past, but from here on out, I think we're family here, we're brothers and we're here for one another … we can take a step up in that area."

The Leafs are built for speed and skill, but Kapanen insists toughness is still necessary. 

"It's important because teams, for sure, try to come in and kind of bully us around and be heavy on us, because they know we're a talented team so if we show a lot of grit and effort like that it sends a message and it’s good in the long run, thinking playoff-wise, and it's always a good thing to have on your team."

"It's important to stick up for each other," Barrie agreed. "We have a skilled team, we're not the biggest team in the league, but we got to have each other's backs and if something goes sideways we have to have guys who will get in there for each other."

With Nazem Kadri traded, the Leafs lost one of their top agitators. Kapanen is trying to fill the void, but points out he's not the only one capable. 

"I still feel like I can be better at that, but it's not just me," Kapanen noted. "There's other guys on the team that are good at that like, (Andreas Johnsson) is a small guy, but he uses his body well and so does (Dmytro Timashov) and Mooresy and, obviously, you got a big body like Muzz and (Cody Ceci) so we got a lot of grit on this team and we just got to do a better job of that."

Babcock often credits Kerfoot for adding a lot of grease to the lineup. 

"I don’t think there is any issue that way," the coach said when asked about the need for edginess. 

Babcock also believes more emotion will come out as the players jell. 

"When you first get a group together and they haven't been together and everyone’s not comfortable you don’t maybe have the same looseness and energy you have when you’ve built over time so, to me, that's the process we’re in now," Babcock said.

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Toronto has had five road games so far and all have been one-night trips with three coming on the second half of a back-to-back set. 

Matthews is excited about the lengthy Western swing in the middle of November.  

"It will be nice to go on the road in a couple weeks," the 22-year-old centre said after the loss in Montreal, "something we kind of haven't had so far this season, spend time with the guys and mesh more and more."

There are a lot of new faces in the dressing room this season including Barrie, Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev, Nick Shore, Timashov, Spezza and Ceci. Even guys like Muzzin, Moore and back-up goalie Michael Hutchinson only spent part of last season with the Leafs. 

"When you get to know guys and when you start getting along and you become buddies and best friends in a lot of cases, you’ll find you’ll do a lot more for a guy on the ice when you really care about them," Barrie said. "It goes a long way."

From Nov. 10 to Nov. 30 the Leafs will play eight of 10 games on the road. The longest trip is Nov. 16-23 with games in Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Arizona and a homecoming game for Barrie and Kerfoot in Colorado. 

"It's nice to get away from everything," said Muzzin, "and just be on the road with the guys, go for dinners, lunches, movies, whatever it may be, to get away from the city, and just kind of be on our own and do our own thing is always nice."

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Toronto's early-season schedule has been hectic, but this week it finally slows down a bit with only two games on the docket. And Babcock believes the ability to hold three full practices (today, Wednesday and Friday) will be a huge boost. 

"This is a great week for us, because this is the first time we have a regular week," the coach said. "There's been a lot of hockey. I think we played 12 in 23 and five in eight and four back-to-backs and, you can say whatever you want, that's a lot of hockey for any human being. So, we should be fresher and better and it should show in our play coming up here. I'm not trying to make excuses for us, because that’s not what I do, but I just think it could really help us to get better." 

The Leafs have three back-to-back sets next month but, unlike in October, the opponent on the second night will also be playing on consecutive nights. 

"With a more balanced schedule we should be able to play harder," Babcock said. "I think we can play harder. We need more out of our guys and we can get more ... We haven't practised at all and so that's a huge thing for us. If you don't practise, you don't skate so we need to get out there and get practising ... get ourselves back on track."

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Tavares is working his way back, skating on his own, and today he started shooting pucks again, per The Athletic and TSN's Pierre LeBrun. 

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Lines at Monday's practice:

Forwards
Johnsson - Matthews - Nylander
Mikheyev - Kerfoot - Marner
Moore - Spezza - Kapanen
Timashov - Shore - Gauthier
Hyman, Petan 

Defencemen
Gravel - Ceci
Muzzin - Barrie
Dermott - Holl
Marincin 

Power play units at Monday's practice:

Dermott
Marner - Nylander - Matthews
Johnsson 

Barrie
Kapanen - Kerfoot - Spezza
Petan^

^ Placeholder for Moore, who was working with PK