Kamis, 11 Maret 2021

Maple Leafs Notebook: Kenny Agostino makes long-awaited debut - Sportsnet.ca

TORONTO – After 705 long days, Kenny Agostino is an NHL player again.

Unsatisfied with the recent performance of his fourth line and looking for fresh legs, Sheldon Keefe is allowing the patient 28-year-old taxi-squad winger to make his Toronto Maple Leafs debut Thursday. Travis Boyd sits.

Agostino split the 2018-19 NHL season with the Canadiens and Devils, but since joining the Leafs organization, the veteran has been stuck starring for the AHL’s Marlies.

“As a player, it can be frustrating. I still believe I can play and have success in the NHL, but my big thing is you control what you can control in this game, and you just got to be ready for whenever that opportunity comes about. You never know what the next year and a half could bring,” Agostino told us in 2020, after not getting a call-up.

“If I felt like my ability or career was winding down and I could settle in and just be an American League player, that’s one thing. But I still feel that I’m capable of playing at that [NHL] level.

“I love to play. I want to compete at the highest level. This is my career. I want to keep pushing myself and I’m not satisfied until I can get back up there and play up there as long as I can.”

Agostino has been nearly a point-per-game threat for the Marlies, scoring 29 goals and 27 assists over 61 games.

“He's worked really hard and really waited for an opportunity to play,” Keefe said Thursday morning. “Has never complained, just continued to work. He’s been a real leader and one of, if not the best, and the most consistent players down with the Marlies.”

Just ‘a blip on the radar?’

Seeing their lead atop the Canadian division shrink to five points and facing two more contests this week against their hottest pursuers, how are the Toronto Maple Leafs approaching the longest losing streak of their season?

"The train of thought is, this is a blip on the radar. And we want to take care of it," Morgan Rielly asserted. “The one thing I’ve noticed just about every day is that if we're playing well, we don't get too high, and if we lose a game, we don't get too low. That's part of maturing together. That's a good sign for us.”

Another good sign?

The Leafs generated 24 high-danger chances to the Winnipeg Jets’ six (per NaturalStatTrick.com) in Tuesday’s 4-3 defeat.

Toronto could well have won all three of these past three games, and it held leads in the past two, but a few costly mistakes proved its undoing.

“I think we're in a good spot. All teams go through adversity. We want to bounce back, and we're not happy about it, obviously,” Zach Hyman said. “We have to be better. But all teams face adversity during a year, and it's a good thing to go through a little.”

Penalty killing exposed

We could dream up a bunch of complicated theories as to why the Maple Leafs have dug their first three-game regulation losing skid in the Sheldon Keefe era.

Or we could simply say that they’ve run headfirst into a pair of hot goalies, Thatcher Demko and Connor Hellebuyck, and have been skewered in four-on-five situations.

The Maple Leafs have killed off just one of their last four minor penalties and have surrendered at least one PK goal in each of these three losses.

“Obviously our PK. We got to clean that up,” Mitch Marner said.

Keefe noted that his club flew into Vancouver with the most efficient PK in the North, but there is a disturbing downward trend here:

“We have to get through kills and get them finished,” Keefe said. “We have had a number of them this season where in the last 20 seconds or so, after we had done a lot of good things, it ends up in our net.”

The Leafs’ kill has tumbled to 21st in the NHL, operating at a 76.6 per cent success rate.

“It just goes to show it can get away from you quickly,” Keefe said. “We will continue to clean up the details, but we can’t ignore the fact that there had been a number of positives that had been happening prior to the last three games.”

Bieber x Buds

Amassing 300,000-plus views in less than 24 hours and rocketing to No. 2 on YouTube’s “Trending” chart (below a juicy Prince Harry and Meghan Markle clip), is Justin Bieber’s “love letter” to his favourite hockey team.

Dropped along the hype train to his new album, Justice (March 19), the Stratford, Ont.–born pop star thanked the Leafs and the NHL for allowing him to soundtrack his song with footage of pal Auston Matthews and the boys.

“Biebs is a very special person and an incredibly talented artist,” Morgan Rielly said. “He’s eager to work with the team and spend time around the guys. I think that’s a pretty cool opportunity. We’re very fortunate to play for this organization, and I guess that’s just one of those things that kind of comes with it.”

Bieber memorably invited Matthews, Marner and Tyson Barrie to play shinny over the 2019 Christmas break, and Matthews can often be spotted dripped out in items from his FaceTime buddy’s Drew House clothing line.

“It’s cool,” Frederik Andersen said. “Obviously Auston’s relationship with him is pretty tight, so it’s fun to have a musical talent like him be a big fan of us. And I think likewise, a lot of us appreciate his music.”

Gettin’ goalied

Following Connor Hellebuyck’s 36-save gem, Jets coach Paul Maurice hopped on Lead Off Wednesday and said Hellebuyck is the best goaltender he’s ever coached — “and it’s not really all that close.”

While it would be difficult to describe any of the four goals Andersen allowed in Tuesday’s loss as “bad” — the Jets benefitted from tricky tips and Grade-A chances in close — Andersen is due to outduel the guy at the other end.

Toronto’s No. 1 is 1-2-0 with an .889 save percentage since returning from an undisclosed lower-body injury. Andersen may be pushing through at something less than 100 per cent health but says he’s feeling better with every game.

“I think I'm moving pretty well. Pretty much most of my game I like. Of course, the results lately haven't been there,” Andersen said.

“You want to go out and beat the guy at the other end, but as a goalie you know what happens at the other end doesn't really effect what's going on in my end. So, my focus is to try to be ready and make the saves I can.”

Dubois loves challenge of Toronto

“Somebody asked me earlier today: ‘Are you happy you don't have to answer the Laine-Matthews question?’” Maurice said, smiling Tuesday. “So, this is the new question.”

Pierre-Luc Dubois has not only given Winnipeg the one-two punch through middle ice that is so crucial for championship teams, he’s given Jets-Leafs a narrative.

While the former Blue Jacket was kept off the scoresheet Tuesday, he enjoyed a breakout series in the summer bubble at Scotiabank Arena.

“That was when everyone saw what he was made out of,” Mark Scheifele said. “That's a pretty special hockey player.”

Dubois says going head-to-head versus Matthews or John Tavares gets his competitive juices flowing.

“They’re just waiting for you to make that one mistake or one missed backcheck or missed assignment or something like that,” Dubois said, “so it forces you to bring your best game possible.”

Territorially, Toronto did an excellent job against the deadly Kyle Connor–Dubois–Nikolaj Ehlers trio Tuesday, limiting them to 38 per cent Corsi-for, but Dubois’s wingers converted on a pretty goal during an ugly Leafs line change.

It’s an opportunistic group.

“Skates really well through the neutral zone," Keefe noted of Dubois. “No matter how they use him or who they play him with, he's a lot to handle."

Circle the date

While we don’t anticipate big contract news this weekend, it is worth noting that Friday marks the day that players on one-year deals are permitted to sign a contract extension. (In a typical season, the date would be Jan. 1.)

The Leafs have a slew of useful players skating on one-year deals: Wayne Simmonds, Joe Thornton, Zach Bogosian, Travis Dermott, Jimmy Vesey, Travis Boyd, Alexander Barabanov and Mikko Lehtonen. All but Dermott (RFA) are scheduled to turn UFA in the off-season.

Yet with the Seattle expansion draft looming, we’d be surprised if any of these pending free agents re-up in-season.

Maple Leafs’ projected lines

Thornton - Matthews - Marner
Kerfoot - Tavares - Nylander
Mikheyev - Engvall - Hyman
Vesey - Spezza - Agostino

Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Holl
Dermott – Bogosian

Andersen

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2021-03-11 17:24:00Z
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