TSN Toronto Reporter Mark Masters reports on the Maple Leafs, who practised at the Ford Performance Centre on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks.
Before starting a special teams drill on Wednesday, the Leafs players were called over to the bench where a big-screen television had been set up. Video and coaching co-ordinator Sam Kim had clips of the Vancouver Canucks power play ready to roll.
"I haven't seen a TV put on the bench during practice in my career so that was a nice first for pretty much everyone on the ice," said defenceman Travis Dermott.
Assistant coach Dave Hakstol, who oversees the penalty kill, took the remote control and started the video, which featured plays from a recent Canucks game against the Ottawa Senators. Hakstol used his stick as a pointer. Mitch Marner got into the act as well using his stick to point something out.
"It is good sometimes to get a visual," said defenceman Jake Muzzin, who's on the top penalty-kill unit. "I know myself and a lot of guys, we learn visually so watching and seeing stuff helps."
"It's always good to review and watch video," added Marner, "that's how you really get to see what this team's about and what they're going to do."
The Leafs, like all teams, do plenty of video work off the ice, but this was the first time we've seen it done during practice. So, why the wrinkle?
"We had a couple things we wanted to cover on the penalty kill and it was easier to do it on the ice and sort of save the team from having to go through another meeting or a longer meeting off the ice," explained head coach Sheldon Keefe. "It was just a little more efficient that way."
"Sometimes you forget stuff, stuff slips your mind once you get out on the the ice," said Dermott. "Your mindset kind of changes a little bit so it's easy to forget things. It was nice to have that refresh out there."
Dermott was so happy with how things worked that he predicted every team will have a television on the bench during practices within the next few years. Keefe, who also meshed video and on-ice work when he served as Marlies coach, pointed out one reason why this likely won't become a staple in Toronto.
"Something we would certainly do a lot more frequently here perhaps if all you media folks agreed to turn your cameras off," Keefe said with a grin, "but I don't think that's going to happen so you probably won't see a great deal of the TV."
The Leafs’ penalty kill is 23rd in the NHL heading into Wednesday's games.
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Keefe felt like the team hit its stride on Wednesday after looking a bit sluggish during Tuesday's practice. He pointed out that the time change and late arrival back home from Alberta on Saturday night aren't easy to recover from.
"Takes some time to get out of that fog," Keefe said. "Today's practice, though, was excellent. We pushed the guys again today and they were skating, working and the execution was good. The energy around the team was good so that's very positive."
The main Leafs practice lasted 55 minutes on Wednesday and was preceded by about 30 minutes of skill development work. Tuesday's practice ran an hour and was also preceded by skill development work. It's rare that Keefe gets this much practice time between games.
"We fully expect our team to take a step here now having time to recover and rest a little bit, but also address some things in practice," Keefe said. "We're expecting to be a better team."
The Leafs opened the season with 10 games in 18 days, posting a 7-2-1 record.
Much of the focus this week has been on generating more offence at even strength.
"We got to work to get to the inside of the rink and get the pucks off the walls," said winger Wayne Simmonds, who once again skated alongside John Tavares and William Nylander. "We had an optional [practice] on Monday and a lot of the guys came in for the skills component of the day and the last two days we've kept that theme going. It's tough to get practice days in to work on those things, but when we have a four-day break like this you got to take advantage of it and I think we have."
Simmonds scored three goals during the recent four-game trip and believes the Leafs skill-development sessions have boosted his game.
"Any time you can get on the ice and get more touches and feel your edges and feel the puck it just makes things much easier in the game," the 32-year-old said. "When you're in practice you don't normally have time to do things like that just because of the nature of the beast. We're mostly doing systems and working on team skills ... Since Day 1 I've taken every opportunity I can to get on the ice and take one-on-one lessons whether it's with [consultant] Nik Antropov or Denver [Manderson]."
Starting on Thursday, Toronto will play 11 games over the next 21 days.