With the World Cup of Hockey pool narrowing from eight teams to four, the Toronto Maple Leafs will be getting back six of the eight players that have been participating in the tournament.
GM Lou Lamoriello indicated Thursday at the opening of training camp that Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, Milan Michalek, Roman Polak, James van Riemsdyk and Leo Komarov would be given the weekend off and would join the club when they return from Nova Scotia early next week.
Only goalie Jhonas Enroth(Sweden) and defenseman Nikita Zaitsev(Russia) are still active and could remain unavailable until after the best-of-three final on October 1.
International competition may be in the future for Zaitsev, van Riemsdyk, Matthews, Enroth and Rielly, who could be selected by their respective countries for the 2018 Winter Olympics if the NHL chooses to go to South Korea, but this World Cup may be it for 30+ players like Michalek and Polak, as well as Komarov, who told Finnish reporters that he is likely done playing for the national team after this World Cup.
*******
The Maple Leafs minus the World Cup group and injured players took part in an inter squad scrimmage in Bedford, NS on Friday. Team Bower bested Team Kelly 4-2 thanks to shootout goals by Jeremy Bracco and Mitch Marner.
Mitch Marner with a vicious wrist-shot goal in shootout helps Team Kelly (blue) win 4-2 at training camp. #Leafs pic.twitter.com/f4rprF7qEu
— Toronto Marner Leafs (@MarnerLeafs) September 23, 2016
At the rookie tournament in London last weekend, it was revealed that Marner had changed his number from 84 to 16, which was wore by Nick Spaling and Connor Brown last season. Brown has switched to #12. Other number changes include William Nylander from 39 to 29 (possibly due to dad Michael wearing 92 for most of his NHL career), Kasperi Kapanen from 37 to 28 and Frederik Gauthier from 54 to 33.
Matt Martin wore 17 in Brooklyn but has switched to 15 (previously worn by P-A Parenteau, who was signed by the Islanders), while Kerby Rychel has taken 36 and PTO veteran Brandon Prust wears 82.
*******
The Leafs announced their 2016-17 broadcast schedule on Friday, which revealed that all 82 regular season games will be televised on Sportsnet, CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada or regionally by TSN. 56 games will be carried by Sportsnet or HNIC and 26 games by TSN (26 games).
The radio broadcast will remain the same since media conglomerates Bell and Rogers purchased majority holdings in MLSE, with Sportsnet FAN 590 and TSN1050 splitting the games down the middle (41 games each), with Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph handling the play-by-play and color commentating duties.
Sportsnet will broadcast three Leafs preseason games (Sept. 30 vs Buffalo (Sportsnet 360), Oct. 2 vs Montreal (Sportsnet One) and Oct. 7 vs Detroit (Sportsnet 360) in Hamilton, Ont and FAN 590 will have the radio broadcast of the Leafs wrap preseason finale in Detroit on October 8.
TSN will carry preseason games on Sept. 26 vs Ottawa (in Halifax) Sept. 29 vs Buffalo (in St. Catharines), Oct. 4 vs Ottawa in Saskatoon) Oct. 6 vs the Habs (in Montreal) and Oct. 8 vs the Red Wings (in Detroit). TSN 1050 will carry six preseason games beginning with the Sept 26 against the Senators. ******* Listen to my interview with former Leafs Assistant GM Bill Watters, as we discuss the World Cup of Hockey and the opening of training camp:
*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact… button at the top of the page.*******
Note : Continue to check back to my column on Hockeybuzz throughout the day for the latest Leafs updates or Follow @mikeinbuffalo on Twitter
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Maple Leafs Buzz, which includes a free-of-charge 14-day trial and is just 99 cents per month afterwards. For more information click here.