The Toronto Maple Leafs have sent forward Carter Ashton to the Toronto Marlies of the AHL for conditioning purposes. The 23-year-old has not played since early November due to a 20 game suspension for violating the league's performance enhancing substance policy.
Ashton can play with Toronto's AHL affiliate for up to two weeks, giving the forward a chance to get back up to speed and Leafs management an opportunity to evaluate whether he fits better as a spare part with the NHL club or playing consistently in the AHL.
Ashton has no points in three regular season games with Toronto this season and has three assists in 50 career NHL games.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the game against the Carolina Hurricanes winners of six in a row, brimming with confidence, near the top of the NHL in scoring and with a chance of moving into top spot in the Atlantic Division. The last place Canes were losers of six straight, averaging one goal per game throughout the streak and were without top forwards Jordan Staal and Alexander Semin.
With most teams aspiring to be in the top echelon of the NHL, the match at the PNC Center on Thursday would be an occasion to pad their statistics and put another notch in the win column, but in the alternate universe that the Maple Leafs live in, it manifested itself as a 4-1 loss to the league’s worst offense, who registered 37 shots and posted their highest goal total in December.
In spite of nearly a month of doing nothing but winning, the loss to Carolina again raises questions about the attention span and true character of the club. Many labeled the game in Raleigh as a “trap… game, one that the Leafs might take for granted in the wake of recent victories against top echelon clubs in Detroit, Los Angeles and Anaheim.
But walking into a “trap… suggests a lack of awareness of the situation you are entering, which is not the case with Toronto, who were called on the carpet by head coach Randy Carlyle following the Ducks victory for slipping back into bad habits, allowing over 40 shots on goal and playing without energy for long stretches.
“I don’t think we were mentally ready to go out and play the type of game that was required.… The Leafs coach said following the loss.
Stephane Robidas hit on Canes forward Zach Boychuk. One of the few Leafs positives in a 4-1 loss to Carolina on Thursday.
The Leafs were never able to fully recover from a sleepy opening 20 minutes, with Carolina registering 16 shots and establishing a 2-0 lead on goals from Chris Terry and Justin Faulk. Dion Phaneuf narrowed the lead to 2-1 late in the middle frame with his second goal of the season and Toronto pressed for the tying goal early in the third, but Cody Franson’s shove of Canes forward Nathan Gerbe washed out a Toronto power play midway through the third and resulted in Andrej Sekera’s power play goal that stopped the Toronto comeback in it’s tracks.
“We got outworked.… Carlyle said following the game. “We didn’t do enough to give ourselves a chance and then we finally got ourselves back into the hockey game(and) we took ourselves out of it with some undisciplined acts.…
One loss to a bad team is a fluke, twice is a trend, but five losses to teams near the bottom of the NHL standings(Buffalo, Arizona, Colorado, New Jersey and Carolina) is a character flaw.
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News and Notes
The next opponent for the Leafs is against Philadelphia on Saturday, their final game at ACC prior to the seven-game, nearly three-week road trip because of the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship. The Flyers may be without starting goalie Steve Mason, who fell at practice on Friday and could not get off the ice on his own.
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Injured winger Leo Komarov took to the ice for the first time in over two weeks, working with strength and conditioning coach Anthony Belza before practice on Friday. Komarov has been out since November 29 with concussion symptoms and was shut down after skating with the team on December 4.
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The eyes of Leafs fans will be transfixed on 2014 top pick William Nylander, who will be playing most of his games in Toronto as a member of Team Sweden for the upcoming WJC. The 18-year-old is having an excellent season in the SHL, but hints that he is still disappointed to have not been kept in North America by the Leafs.
“For me it’s hard to say." Nylander said to the Toronto Sun's Mike Zeisberger, "Who knows what would have happened if I had stayed over here? Hard to answer that question.…
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The Leafs shifted their lines at practice on Friday. Joffrey Lupul took the LW spot on the top line with Tyler Bozak and Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk took Lupul's spot on the line with Nazem Kadri and Mike Santorelli and Peter Holland skated with Daniel Winnik and David Clarkson.
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