Leafs, Flames gear up for 'weird' one for Treliving

The Toronto Maple Leafs held an optional skate at Scotiabank Arena on Friday. The Calgary Flames held a full skate.

Leafs defenceman John Klingberg will miss Friday's game against the Calgary Flames.

"John Klingberg's been working through some injuries here the last little bit, so today's a chance for us to give him some time to work through that," revealed coach Sheldon Keefe. "We'll have a better sense of where he's at tomorrow."

Klingberg hasn't missed any practice time and was a full participant in Thursday's workout, but Keefe indicated the 31-year-old has been hampered for "quite a while." He has produced just five assists this season and is mired in a seven-game point drought. Klingberg's also been on the ice for a team-high 14 goals against in 5-on-5 play.

"It certainly hasn't helped him," Keefe said of Klingberg's health situation.

With Klingberg joining Timothy Liljegren and Conor Timmins on the sidelines, the Leafs have no right-shot defencemen available.

"There are some challenges playing the off side," Keefe acknowledged. "McCabe has done it at different times. He spent a good portion of his time in Chicago playing on the off side."

T.J. Brodie, who has played the right much of his career, remains beside Morgan Rielly on the top pair. William Lagesson will continue to play the right on the third pair with Simon Benoit.

"Lagesson has done it a bunch since he has been up here and he has done a good job of it," Keefe said.

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Friday's game will be one of the stranger ones in the long hockey career of Brad Treliving, who served as Flames general manager for nine seasons before taking on the same role with the Leafs.

"He develops very deep and close relationships with those whom he works with," noted Keefe. "He is still very much connected and cares a lot about the people who are still there in Calgary. I am sure this one is a challenging one for him here."

"A little bit weird, I'd imagine," said defenceman Mark Giordano, who served as Flames captain during Treliving's Calgary tenure.

Both the Leafs (6-5-2) and Flames (4-7-1) are looking to build momentum amid underwhelming starts.

"It hasn't been panic from him, which means it hasn't been panic in this room," said winger Ryan Reaves, who was signed to a three-year deal by Treliving in the summer. "Sometimes guys like that in that position can start panicking and come down and start screaming and yelling and throwing stuff, but he's been pretty even-keeled and I think it's keeping us even-keeled in here."

"He's an easy guy to talk to, communicate with," said Leafs centre Auston Matthews, who was signed to a four-year extension by Treliving in the summer. "We know what he expects from us and I think that message has always been very clear."

"He's a players' guy," said Flames centre Nazem Kadri, who was signed to a seven-year deal by Treliving in 2022. "He respects everybody's situation, which could be hard to come by in this league sometimes."

Treliving's big offseason signings in Toronto – Klingberg, Reaves, Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi – have struggled to get in a groove.

Meanwhile, Flames winger Jonathan Huberdeau was benched in Tuesday's game and is struggling to find his form. He's in the first year of an eight-year pact signed by Treliving.

"He knows what he's doing," Kadri said of Treliving. "It's too early to hop on anybody quite yet."

Calgary appears to be turning a corner with wins in their last two games.

"I was talking to Tree a little bit this morning, and he has done a pretty good job of building this team," Keefe said of the Flames. "It is deep down the middle and deep on defence, competitors all through the group. There are challenges there with the centre depth that they have and the defensive depth that they have. They have lots of guys that can move well and help on offence and also compete and do a good job defensively."

Players often get up to face an old team. Is there a revenge factor when it comes to the general manager?

"I'm sure this one means a little bit extra for Tree," said Giordano. "For us to get that win tonight playing the old squad, it's important."

"Probably he wants this one bad," said Huberdeau, "but we want it bad too."

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Jacob Markstrom, who did not take part in Wednesday's practice, skated on his own Friday.

"He's day to day is what we probably call him," coach Ryan Huska said.

Dan Vladar will start in Toronto.

Dustin Wolf, who has one NHL game under his belt, may get the call on Saturday in Ottawa.

"We're not afraid to start him," said Huska. "He's done some great things in the American League over the last number of years. He came in for exhibition this season and did the same thing."

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Huberdeau will look to snap an eight game goal drought.

"I'm excited," he said. "You want to redeem yourself and I want to help the team."

Huberdeau has just two goals and four assists through 12 games.

"My mentality is to keep it more simple," he said. "I think I try to overdo things and that's not working. Right now it's going to be more simple and try and make me feel better, easy passes, and stuff like that so I get the confidence back."

The message from Huska?

"The past is in the past," the coach said. "It's Jonathan being Jonathan and that means he's going to try to control the puck a lot when it's on his stick and make plays. That's what he does best so that's what we're expecting out of him tonight."

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Huberdeau draws inspiration from how Kadri navigated a slow start.

"It's all mental," Huberdeau said. "He doesn't let anybody get inside him and it's a big strength."

Kadri recorded just one assist in the first eight games this season. He arrives in Toronto on a four-game point streak.

"Just pucks are going in," the ex-Leaf said with a grin. "I felt like I've had that consistent play throughout the whole year, but you know how hockey works. It's a little bit of puck luck here and there and it's nice to see some results and more importantly some wins."

Kadri fired a season-high eight shots on net in Tuesday's win over Nashville.

"Now, he's starting to play like the real Naz," said Huberdeau.

Huska believes Kadri, 33, is feeding off younger linemates Connor Zary, 22, and Yegor Sharangovich, 25.

"Naz has been kind of reenergized a little bit," said Huska. "He's playing with a couple younger players. There's some guys with skill sets on his line and it feels like he's taking on a mentorship role and he's really embraced it. His level has been raised over the last number of games."

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Noah Hanifin is hoping to meet up with Matthews after tonight's tilt.

"I keep in touch with Auston, for sure," the Flames defenceman said. "We go back a while. I played with Auston since we were 10 years old at summer tournaments and then at the US National Team Development Program, he was my teammate."

"It's always fun," agreed Matthews. "We had a tight team there at the national program."

Matthews has scored 13 goals in 13 games this season.

"He's just got a real good sense around the net," said Hanifin. "He's just smart. He always puts himself in the right spots. Everybody sees the skill he has and the shot release, but his hockey sense is super high level and he just finds those areas to get good chances."

Hanifin is no slouch either. He's scored in consecutive games.

"He's fast," said Matthews. "He's very strong. He's always up in the rush offensively. He'll skate right by you. He's extremely powerful. Defensively, he's strong around the net as well. So, he's a guy you have to be aware of out there."

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Bertuzzi, who signed a one-year, $5.5-million deal in the summer, scored his first even-strength goal of the season during Wednesday's loss to the Senators.

"I think Bert is coming off of his best game," said Keefe.

Bertuzzi started the season on the top line, but never really clicked with Matthews and Mitch Marner. He seems to be more comfortable on the second line with John Tavares and William Nylander.

"Feeling better every game," the 28-year-old from Sudbury, Ont. said. "Made a little bit more plays. Getting in a groove of things now, yeah."

It helps when you're playing on a line with Nylander, who has produced a point in all 13 games so far.

"We've been getting better," Nylander said. "I mean, trying to find each other more and more and we connected a lot [Wednesday] and we'll keep building off of that. I liked his game and I liked our line's game."

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A picture of Nylander riding the subway to Wednesday's game went viral on social media.

"I've taken the subway every game except for one," Nylander told Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun. "It depends on traffic ... People come up and ask for pictures or say 'Hi' but they don't really bother me. Everybody's very nice."

Would Matthews ever do that?

"No," he said before breaking into a smile. "I usually like to give myself enough time to get to the rink and I don't know if he's in the same category there."

Nylander is usually among the last Leafs to arrive before a game.

"I think the weekday games, he'll find himself on the subway every once in a while," Matthews said. "I mean, I don't blame him. It's probably better than sitting in traffic for an extended period of time."

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 Projected Leafs lineup for Friday's game: 

Knies - Matthews - Marner

Bertuzzi - Tavares - Nylander

Robertson - Domi - Jarnkrok

Gregor - Kampf - Reaves

Rielly - Brodie

Giordano - McCabe

Benoit - Lagesson

Woll starts

Samsonov

Lines at Friday's Flames skate: 

Huberdeau - Lindholm - Mangiapane

Zary - Kadri - Sharangovich

Pospisil - Backlund - Coleman

Greer - Ruzicka - Dube

Andersson - Weegar

Hanifin - Tanev

Zadorov - De Simone / Gilbert

Vladar starts

Wolf