WHEN: Thursday, 7 p.m.
TV: TSN RADIO: Sportsnet 590
ODDS: Panthers -135, Leafs +114
UPDATE 5:06 p.m.: Leafs activate Chris Tanev from IR
Maybe it was catnip that has Chris Tanev ready to play for the Maple Leafs against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
About two hours before Thursday’s game time, Toronto activated its best defensive defenceman from injured reserve following a Feb. 25th injury in a game in Boston, believed to be an arm or shoulder issue.
Toronto coach Craig Berube had been unusually vague about Tanev the past two days of practice as the latter looked quite ready to return. After listing Tanev’s chances of starting at 50-50 Wednesday afternoon, an energetic effort at the morning optional skate apparently sealed the deal as Berube upgraded him to “a game-time” decision before Thursday afternoon’s news.
Tanev said the day before that the club medical staff had just a couple of boxes to tick on his timeline to return.
He’ll likely be with regular partner Jake McCabe, while the Panthers will be missing two of their most aggressive forwards, Matthew Tkachuk and Brad Marchand. With the additions of blueliner Brandon Carlo and centre Scott Laughton at the trade deadline, Thursday’s group would be very close to Toronto’s starting playoff lineup, pending Nick Robertson’s ability to get retain a job on the right side again and injured left winger Max Pacioretty’s condition next month.
After a couple of wins without Tanev, Toronto’s record fell to 1-2-1.
– Lance Hornby
Also from today in Leafs land:
Seth Jones on going from struggling Blackhawks to Cup champs
It wasn’t exactly a worst-to-first change of address, but Seth Jones now with the defending Stanley Cup champions is a long way up from the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks.
“The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind for sure,” Jones said Thursday morning at Scotiabank Arena before his new team took on the Leafs. “I’m just trying to take it a day at a time, learn a new system and get closer to everyone on and off the ice. And just play my game. Try and be aggressive, but again, play their system to the best of my ability.”
Only a few days after he expressed frustration at the lack of team progress with the Hawks — another season out of the playoffs despite him signing an eight-year, $76 million US deal three years ago as part of their planned revival – Jones got his wish to be traded. His hometown Dallas Stars had been mentioned, but the Panthers saw themselves short on productive blueliners and gave up a conditional first round pick next year and promising goalie Spencer Knight for Jones and a fourth, aided by salary retention by Chicago.
Florida general manager Bill Zito continued wheeling and dealing up to last Friday’s deadline, getting San Jose’s Vitek Vanacek as the new back-up for Sergei Bobrovsky, then Marchand from Boston.
Less than a week after playing the Leafs as a Hawk and looking rather flat, Jones went south, guaranteed his first playoff experience since 2020 with Columbus. He noticed the change in dressing room temperature right away and not one of Cup complacency.
“For sure. There’s a certain standard you have to set every day. Come in, do your job. First day I came to practice, you could tell no one was satisfied with last year.”
– Lance Hornby
Do ex-Panthers have useful intel on old team to offer Leafs?
Steven Lorentz has a good idea what was going on in the Florida Panthers’ den all day Thursday.
The winger senses his former team is getting in gear to defend their Stanley Cup, the trade deadline has passed and knows his new club just happens to be their opponent three times down the stretch starting Thursday night at Scotiabank Arena with first place in the Atlantic Division up for grabs. He also figures Panthers’ coach Paul Maurice will be pushing the right buttons.
“He knows how to handle each and every one of his guys,” said Lorentz, who came to Toronto a few days after Florida’s Cup parade with defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Thursday’s starting goalie, Anthony Stolarz.
“The last stretch after the deadline, that’s the team you’re rolling with. It’s up to the coaches and players to figure out the role they’re going to contribute at playoff time. It’s an exciting time, the hockey gets more fun, the intensity ramps up.
“On a personal level, (Maurice) knows what makes guys tick. He’s been around a long time, he’s got the experience and now he’s got his Cup. He knows what it takes.
“I know what he’ll be telling those guys tonight. If there’s any knowledge I can share with (the Leafs) with OEL and Stolie, we’re going to do that. Expect our best.”
The Leafs trail the Cats by two points with a game in hand. Toronto coach Craig Berube said he’s all ears for such intel, though he’s putting the onus on his assistant coaches and players to use the ex-Panthers as resources.
Game 1 of this ‘series’, with the other two April 2 and 8 at SBA and in Sunrise, respectively, will not have the injured Matthew Tkachuk in the Panthers’ lineup. With a groin injury New addition Brad Marchand is also out the next while with an upper body issue.
Berube was trying to keep Maurice guessing about his Thursday lineup, leaving a window open that banged-up defenceman Chris Tanev might yet play. From a 50-50 chance Wednesday, Berube upgraded Tanev to “a game-time decision” after he was was an enthusiastic participant in the optional morning skate.
Tanev has had a few practices to test a shoulder-arm injury from three weeks ago.
Maurice knows the value of seeing the Leafs, post-deadline, with Brandon Carlo now on their blue line and Scott Laughton as their third-line centre. Not just in the fight for first, but in a hypothetical playoff series down the road.
“You look league wide and the top three teams in each division pretty much did the same thing,” Maurice noted. “Bring in guys who’ve played playoff hockey or a playoff-style. That’s what we did. Those two are good at it. We’ve seen Carlo over the years in two great series, heavy and hard. It made sense to (acquire the duo).
“Big picture, we look at it like there’s 17 games left for us and 15 of them are teams fighting for something. We have three with Toronto, one with Tampa Bay (now third in the Atlantic), one with Washington, then a whole bunch against teams truly fighting for their lives every game.
“We know that in our history from two years ago, going four months in that life.”
Maurice would like to be top seed in the Atlantic again — beating Boston for it by a point last year created a draining seven-game Bruins – Leafs opening round that saw Florida then beat the B’s. But with a Cup under his belt, it’s not essential.
“You want to finish first because you can, but it doesn’t necessarily gain you an easier route
– Lance Hornby
THE NEWS
Florida defenceman Aaron Ekblad was suspended 20 games this week for violating the NHL/NHLPA performance-enhancing drugs policy … Toronto right winger Mitch Marner had a shootout winner Monday in Utah as stories swirled around him refusing to waive his no-trade clause when management informed him the Carolina Hurricanes wanted him in the Mikko Rantanen trade. The Canes eventually swapped with Dallas … The Cats took Wednesday off after losing 3-2 in Boston on Tuesday … Winger Mackie Samoskevich has 12 goals for the Panthers and ranks 10th in NHL rookie points (22) before Wednesday.
THE BUZZ
It’s the first of three games between now and April 8 between the current top two teams in the Atlantic Division … Home debut of two newest Leafs, defenceman Brandon Carlo and centre Scott Laughton … Florida will not have its aggressive star Matthew Tkachuk and its biggest trade deadline acquisition, former Boston captain Brad Marchand. Both are injured for the next few weeks, though the Cats used Tkachuk’s LTIR money to help themselves at the trade deadline … The Leafs have picked up their power play of late and face a team that leads the league in penalties taken … Toronto, anxious to get home after playing 11 of its past 13 on the road, will likely be missing top defensive defenceman Chris Tanev for the seventh straight game … Florida likely goes with Sergei Bobrovsky in net and Toronto counters with his backup from last year’s Stanley Cup season, Anthony Stolarz, the loser in a 5-1 decision at Sunrise last November in the first meeting of the two teams.
– Lance Hornby