The pair of Game 7’s on Wednesday inspired a few Maple Leafs-related tidbits on this off day before the Conference Finals begin.
The Washington Capitals were the pick of many experts to win the Stanley Cup with their loaded roster, but in the end their core group of Niklas Backstrom, Braden Holtby and Alex Ovechkin did not come through and could not get over the mental hurdle of beating the Pittsburgh Penguins.
There will be a great number of changes in Washington this summer, as four big names (Kevin Shattenkirk, Karl Alzner, Justin Williams and TJ Oshie) will be heading to unrestricted free agency, and defenseman Dmitri Orlov and center Evgeni Kuznetsov needing new deals.
It does not appear likely that Toronto will make a serious bid for Shattenkirk, who is from the New York area and reportedly wants to stay in the Northeast, but Alzner could be a target if his salary demand does not exceed Morgan Rielly’s $5 Million AAV.
Mitch Marner's check creates winning goal for Team Canada in a 3-2 win vs. France at the World Championships in Paris on Thursday.
Orlov is coming off a bridge deal and could be looking for something similar to Nikita Zaitsev’s seven-year, $31.5 Million contract, but can the Caps afford that and re-sign John Carlson next summer before he becomes a UFA. GM Brian MacLellan may have to make a difficult choice and trade one of the blueliners this summer.
If the Leafs decide to move James van Riemsdyk for a young defenseman, GM Lou Lamoriello may be looking for some veteran reinforcements on the wing and the 35-year-old Williams (a winner of three Stanley Cups from Cobourg, ON) might be a good fit.
Toronto may also be looking for a depth center if they cannot re-sign Brian Boyle and with Frederik Gauthier likely out until November. Could a third tour for Daniel Winnik be possible???
The Penguins continue to operate like a well-oiled machine in the post-season. It doesn’t seem to matter that Kris Letang is out for the season or that Matt Murray missed the first two rounds, they find new heroes like Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel to take up the slack.
One large contributing factor to Pittsburgh’s success is contributions from secondary players like Guentzel, Rust, Carl Hagelin and Conor Sheary, who are not exactly imposing physical specimens, but make up for it with speed and skill.
Toronto has a young group of small but similarly talented forwards playing in the AHL or CHL in Brendan Leipsic, Andreas Johnsson, Kasperi Kapanen, Carl Grundstrom, Jeremy Bracco and Martin Dzierkals, who will likely move up to the NHL within the next two years.
The concern that this group will not be big enough or strong enough to be effective in the NHL loses some of it’s weight when you see the Penguins success and players like Johnny Gaudreau, Mitch Marner and Brad Marchand achieving a high level of success.
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The Toronto Marlies evened their best-of-seven series with the Syracuse Crunch with a 3-2 victory at Ricoh Coliseum on Wednesday, thanks mostly to a strong first period.
Rich Clune, Kerby Rychel and Trevor Moore scored for Toronto and Kasimir Kaskisuo made 17 saves for the victory.
Adam Erne gave the Crunch an early lead at 4:45, but the Marlies responded just over a minute later as Clune converted the rebound of a Rychel shot past Syracuse goalie Mike McKenna for his first goal of the playoffs.
Toronto enjoyed a decided advantage on special teams, scoring on two first period power plays. Rychel scored on a backhand shot after being set up by Kasperi Kapanen and Moore banked a shot from behind the net off of McKenna and into the goal.
The series now moves to Syracuse for a critical Game 5 on Saturday and returns to Toronto for Game 6 on Monday.
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