Rare is the team that plays a back-to-back, travels to a different time zone, but doesn’t make at least one lineup change among skaters.
But with the Maple Leafs getting nearly a two-week break in games because of the 4 Nations Face-off and playing a fairly solid 60 minutes on Saturday versus Carolina, coach Craig Berube didn’t make a move in Chicago on Sunday, other than his planned switch of Joseph Woll in net for Anthony Stolarz.
“When you’re playing, playing, playing, then get to shut it off for a little bit and recharge the batteries, I think guys are rested,” defenceman Jake McCabe told media in Chicago before the game. “(Consecutive games) shouldn’t be an issue.”
Berube acknowledged that winger Connor Dewar is ready to return from an upper body injury, but he sat a ninth straight game, while winger Ryan Reaves also was spared and extra defenceman Philippe Myers remained an extra.
Forward Calle Jarnkrok is also close to returning after autumn sports hernia surgery, but that would likely require a roster move when things might already be in state of flux as the March 7 trade deadline approaches.
The game every Leaf would want in on is Tuesday in Boston, the only Atlantic Division game Toronto has on the books until mid-March.
FAREWELL, FRANK
Beloved Blackhawks organist Frank Pellico pumped his last note on Sunday, choosing his retirement game against an Original Six team.
For more than 30 years, he was part of the game experience on Madison Ave., going back to the Hawks playing across the street at the Stadium, the NHL’s loudest rink Long-time in its day until the United Centre opened in 1995. He chose the Original Six Leafs for his depature, who also were the team the Hawks met in the Stadium’s last game.
Pellico and former anthem singer Wayne Messmer were known for whipping the crowd up for O Canada, who then wildly cheered and clapped through the Star Spangled Banner, with the low roof almost raised by the time they reached “home of the brave”.
At the emotional 1991 all-star game during the Gulf War, players at ice level saw the plexiglass shake.
If anyone ever doubted the value of an anthem, the Hawks plugged into the Stadium vibe and came out hitting during the first five minutes of any home game.
In the Norris Division days, Pellico’s playlist included the theme of the old TV series Dennis The Menace, anytime Denis Savard was buzzing.
DON’T MESS AROUND WITH JIM
Scotiabank Arena organist Jimmy Holmstrom joined Leafs Nation in mourning this month’s passing of P.A. man Paul Morris, marked by a video tribute on Saturday.
“Paul gave me a new first name,” laughed Holmstrom, who goes back to the Gardens era with Morris. “I was known as James my whole life, to my family, friends and the school I taught at. When I started playing at the Gardens, Paul stuck his head in one night and said: ‘What’s your name, again?’. I said: ‘James Holmstrom.’ B
“But he announced: ‘We now present Jimmy Holmstrom at the organ’. I’ve been Jimmy ever since.”
Mike Ross, the current P.A. announcer following Morris’ first heir, Andy Frost , narrated the tribute to Morris on Saturday and keeps a picture of he and Paul in his own booth.
KIDS’ STUFF
John Tavares was glad he could celebrate Canada’s win with his young children Jace, Axton and Rae, who are big fans of Mitch Marner.
“They were very excited to see Mitchy make a great play (to Connor McDavid),” Tavares said. “They always ask about him. I come home from a road trip, they ask me about the guys in the room and always want to say hi to Mitchy.”
LOOSE LEAFS
Winger Stephen Lorentz attributed Toronto’s post-break, four-goal rush in the first period on Saturday to having “just the right amount time to be away that we were itching to come back.” Lorentz went south for some sun, only to return to three consecutive GTA snowstorms. “I did a lot of shovelling and got my workout in there,” he noted … Saturday’s pre-game warmup was a good time for Carolina’s Frederik Andersen to slide closer to centre ice and catch up with Joseph Woll. The latter’s first camps were when Andersen was still Toronto’s No. 1 goalie and they maintained a good teacher-student relationship … Tavares went into Sunday’s game needing two points to pass Theo Fleury for 69th in NHL history. Tavares was at 1,087.
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