Courtesy of the new collective bargaining agreement, the Maple Leafs and rest of the NHL have an extra day’s respite before resuming their hectic Olympic year schedule. The Air Canada Center was still busy on Thursday, as the AHL affiliate Toronto Marlies hosted the Hamilton Bulldogs in their third annual Boxing Day contest. The parent club earned single points in shootout losses to Detroit and the New York Rangers before the Christmas break and have matches against the Buffalo Sabres on Friday and Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday before heading to Michigan in preparation for the January 1 Winter Classic against the Red Wings.
Leafs coach Randy Carlyle continued to tinker with his lineup in New York on Monday, as winger Colton Orr returned from the injured list taking Troy Bodie’s spot on the fourth line, while veteran Paul Ranger replaced John-Michael Liles on the bottom defensive pairing with rookie Morgan Rielly. The pair were on the ice when JT Miller scored the Rangers only goal early in the third period.
With Tyler Bozak potentially returning to the lineup on Sunday, the Leafs will be close to having a full lineup available, as only center Dave Bolland remains on the injured list. This will undoubtedly result in some line shuffling, as Bozak will replace Nazem Kadri between Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk. Carlyle has been getting solid play out of the Joffrey Lupul-Peter Holland-Mason Raymond line and the checking unit of Nikolai Kulemin-Jay McClement-David Clarkson, but needs to bolster a fourth line that continues to play around limited minutes.
Only winger Jerry D’Amigo played in excess of five minutes against New York and that was mostly due to his responsibilities as a penalty killer. Ideally the Leafs need a fourth line to play closer to 10 minutes per night, so that difference makers like Kessel, Lupul and van Riemsdyk have some gas left in the tank come crunch time.
On defense, Toronto continues to rotate three veterans in the hope that one of them will lock down a spot, but Liles adds another offense-first blueliner to a defensive corps already playing Rielly, Cody Franson and Jake Gardiner, Ranger has been positionally challenged and prone to giveaways in his comeback attempt and Fraser has struggled to keep pace after suffering a knee injury early in the season.
With the Holiday trade freeze ending at Midnight on December 27, Leafs GM Dave Nonis may be willing to shake things up a bit on his club that has gone 8-12-5 since the end of October.
Rumors of Toronto’s interest in Carolina defenseman Tim Gleason, who has two more years remaining at $4 Million per season, have died down in December, but in light of Carlyle not being able to find a consistent answer defense, a rekindling of that interest is possible, as is the possibility of other blueliners becoming available as non-playoff contending teams like Buffalo, Florida, Calgary and Edmonton begin to shed assets as the March 5th trade deadline draws closer. *******
World Junior Update
Leafs 2013 first rounder Frederik Gauthier had an assist on Josh Anderson's opening goal in Team Canada's 7-2 victory over Germany in their first game of the 2014 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Malmo, Sweden.
Toronto draft picks Fabrice Herzog(SUI) and Andreas Johnson(SWE) each scored a goal in Sweden's 5-3 victory over Switzerland.
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