The Maple Leafs needed to haul back another Toronto Marlie from the farm team’s California road trip.
Fourth line forward Connor Dewar was the latest forward moved to injured reserve after getting hurt Monday, an upper body injury, with the club sending for winger Nikita Grebenkin as insurance for the game Saturday against Ottawa. Dewar’s IR stint is retroactive to Jan. 20.
Grebenkin and the Marlies were in San Jose preparing for a Saturday tilt on the club’s first ever road trip to the AHL’s most remote division, but the Russian made it back East in time for Saturday’s optional skate.
On Friday the Leafs recalled goalie Matt Murray after a win over the Bakersfield Condors, switching him with struggling rookie substitute Dennis Hildeby. Forward Jacob Quillan was summoned Wednesday when the Leafs moved left winger Max Pacioretty to IR and was to start on the fourth line in Ottawa.
John Tavares is on IR with a lower body injury, Matthew Knies is day-to-day.
BATTLE BANTER
There’s a lot of noise about crowd noise around the Leafs these days and head coach Craig Berube made it part of his pre-game comments.
“We have to be emotionally invested, that’s the biggest thing,” Berube told media after practice Friday in Toronto. “They (the Senators) are going to be invested for sure.
“We’ve got a lot of fans there that are going to be cheering for us and we’ve got to give them something to cheer about.”
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Auston Matthews, whose comments on the lack of noise at Scotiabank Arena at a key moment in the Columbus game earlier this week received plenty of attention, added he looked forward to “a lot of blue and white in the stands”.
“I expect it’s going to be rowdy,” he said. “It’s going to be an intense game.”
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Matthews’s earlier remarks continue to strike a chord around the NHL from those who can’t fathom why game nights, especially in the lower bowl, are so reserved in such a big hockey market.
“It’s not the first time it has been said, I can’t stand the lower bowl in Toronto,” said NHL Network analyst and league veteran Jason Demers this week. “It’s corporate, it’s not loud, there’s no heartbeat there. And this team has been good for years. Yeah, they haven’t performed in the playoffs, but maybe do something, yell a little bit.
“Toronto, be better in corporate, or at least let people come down from the nosebleeds and cheer, because they’re loud up there. Those (preferred seats) are two grand a pop, so maybe they need a (spirited) student section.”
Former Leaf player, NHL coach and TSN commentator Bruce Boudreau felt the new captain’s comments were in part to protect teammates from booing in what was an admittedly sub-par effort versus the Blue Jackets.
“It’s his first comments that I’ve heard, about fans or anything,” Boudreau said. “He was trying to take a bit of pressure off about the way they played and put it somewhere else.
“On a Wednesday night, I’ll bet 50% of people weren’t even there yet (when Ryan Reaves fought Mathieu Olivier at 1:32). And it was Reaves’ first fight. If this had been Montreal and their tough guy (Arber Xhekaj)… I don’t think people knew how tough Olivier is. I think it got Columbus more excited than Toronto. They could’ve used that fan noise, like when it’s playoffs. But you don’t get that every day.
“I like what (Matthews) did, right or wrong. He stood up for his team.”
There won’t be much chance for fans to be heard at all at SBA in coming weeks. After Wednesday’s home game against Minnesota, the Leafs are on the road for four games in Western Canada and don’t return until after the 4 Nations Face-off, a Feb. 22 match against Mikko Rantanen and the Carolina Hurricanes.
MOURNING DAN MCCOURT
Linesman Dan McCourt, who worked more than 1,600 NHL games, later scouted young officials for the league and made sure to sustain the memory of his uncle, Leaf great George Armstrong, died earlier this week at age 70 after a long illness.
The Sudbury native was hired with an expanded group of officials after the NHL–World Hockey Association merger in 1979 and stayed until 2004. McCourt was a good junior player, though not as well-known as brother Dale, a first overall pick of Detroit in 1977 and future Leaf.
Dan was a familiar face at NHL, AHL and junior press boxes, delighting with one-liners and a treasure trove of tales about Armstrong. ‘The Chief’ passed in January of 2021.
“He used to joke the only reason the Leafs kept him around (as a scout into the 2000s) was that he could still remember the Stanley Cup parade route,” McCourt would quip.
A service for McCourt, who is survived by wife Betty, two children and three grandchildren, will be Sunday in Sudbury with a celebration of the life after at the Gerge Armstrong Arena in Garson.
DON’S A DOG’S BEST FRIEND
Don Meehan, whose long list of NHL clients at Newport Sports Management in the past 40-plus years includes several prominent Leafs, has made a $500,000 (Cdn.) donation to the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides to support its transformative The Difference Campaign.
Oakville resident Meehan is familiar with the LFCDG’s work and his huge contribution will directly fund the atrium of their state-of-the-art national dog guides training facility now being built in the city. It will welcome clients, families, volunteers, and visitors as the Foundation seeks to double its capacity to train and match Dog Guides with Canadians living with disabilities.
LFCDG, which fully covers costs for all its recipients, has provided more than 3,200 guide dogs through seven programs to support those with vision, hearing, autism, seizure response, diabetes, service, and facility needs.
X: @sunhornby