Sports: Hockey NHL: Maple Leafs off to training camp, big game against Canadiens next Saturday

Whew!  The clock is ticking, the coach is still picking, the training camp is clicking, and there's a Maple Leafs game scheduled next Saturday with the Montréal Canadiens at MasterCard Centre, Etobicoke, Ontario.  That's probably all that shoud be said at this point, nobody wants to jinx the first engagement on the ice of one's own home team.  So ...

— Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports newspotter, analyst, columnist



Brantford Expositor (Jan13,2k13)
by Terry Koshan

Hockey, NHL style.

It came to pass late on Saturday night when the NHL and NHL Players’ Association completed a written memorandum of understanding hours after the players ratified the new collective bargaining agreement.

The lockout, which started on Sept. 15, officially was over.

And the Maple Leafs are about to find out whether a 48-game regular season, starting Saturday night in Montreal against the Canadiens, is enough time for them to learn the defensive ways of head coach Randy Carlyle and earn a playoff berth for the first time since 2004.

With training camp opening on Sunday in the form of medicals and an on-ice session in the afternoon at the MasterCard Centre in Etobicoke, the Leafs won’t have much time, like the 29 other NHL clubs, to get their feet under them. But with four dozen games packed into a season that ends on April 27 when the Canadiens visit the Air Canada Centre, the Leafs won’t have much choice but to get it right as quickly as possible.

Carlyle will have a full roster of players when camp starts, as the Leafs are expected to announce the signing of restricted free-agent defenceman Cody Franson. The lone regular who might not be on the ice to start is sophomore defenceman Jake Gardiner, who has been nursing whiplash-concussion symptoms. But Gardiner, who made the NHL all-rookie team in 2011-12, is thought to be close to returning.

The Leafs also are expected to sign free-agent defenceman Mike Mottau, who spent last season with the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders. But Mottau likely will sign a two-way deal and he probably will be with the Toronto Marlies.

The biggest question with the Leafs, of course, surrounds goaltending, and whether the club will be successful in its pursuit of the Vancouver Canucks’ Roberto Luongo. There had been an offer in the past of Tyler Bozak, Nazem Kadri and a draft pick, but that was when Brian Burke was the general manager. Whether his replacement, David Nonis, makes a different pitch to Canucks GM Mike Gillis for Luongo will be known in the coming days.

Burke said on Saturday that he still believes in James Reimer as a No. 1 goaltender. But Burke’s views carry much less weight now that he is a senior advisor, and one that will consult with the MLSE board, not the hockey operations side.

In the bigger picture, the Leafs will need more than Luongo or some other form of aid in goal to get them over the hump and back into the playoffs.

This is a team that doesn’t have a lot of depth, either at forward or on the blue line. All Burke could do last summer after saying he wanted a No. 1 centre and goaltending help was to acquire winger James van Riemsdyk in a trade with Philadelphia and sign centre Jay McClement as a free agent. Both players should help, van Riemsdyk especially, but neither in the areas that Burke identified.

Read more ... including Maple Leafs season schedule ...

There could be an infusion of new blood, whether it is first-rounder Morgan Rielly or one of Mark Fraser, Mike Kostka or Korbinian Holzer on the blue line.

And if Kadri is not traded, is now the time the Leafs’ first-round pick in 2009 finally sticks with the Leafs and makes an impact? It’s getting close to now or never in a Toronto uniform for the talented forward, who can amaze a coach and drive him nuts on the same shift.

The questions around Kadri, the goaltending, the depth, will begin immediately.

Let the games begin.

Finally.

2013 SCHEDULE FOR MAPLE LEAFS

Jan. 19: at Montreal, 7 p.m.

Jan. 21 vs. Buffalo, 7 p.m.

Jan. 23 at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.

Jan. 24 vs. N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m.

Jan. 26 at N.Y. Rangers, 7 p.m.

Jan. 29 at Buffalo, 7 p.m.

Jan. 31 vs. Washington, 7 p.m.

Feb. 2 vs. Boston, 7 p.m.

Feb. 4 vs. Carolina, 7 p.m.

Feb. 5 at Washington, 7 p.m.

Feb. 7 at Winnipeg, 8 p.m.

Feb. 9 at Montreal, 7 p.m.

Feb. 11 vs. Philadelphia, 7 p.m.

Feb. 14 at Carolina, 7 p.m.

Feb. 16 vs. Ottawa, 7 p.m.

Feb. 18 at Florida, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 19 at Tampa Bay, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 21 vs. Buffalo, 7 p.m.

Feb. 23 at Ottawa, 7 p.m.

Feb. 25 at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.

Feb. 27 vs. Montreal, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 28 at N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m.

March 4 vs. New Jersey, 7 p.m.

March 6 vs. Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.

March 7 at Boston, 7 p.m.

March 9 vs. Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.

March 12 at Winnipeg, 8 p.m.

March 14 vs. Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.

March 16 vs. Winnipeg, 7 p.m.

March 20 vs. Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.

March 21 at Buffalo, 7 p.m.

March 23 vs. Boston, 7 p.m.

March 25 at Boston, 7 p.m.

March 26 vs. Florida, 7 p.m.

March 28 vs. Carolina, 7 p.m.

March 30 at Ottawa, 7 p.m.

April 4 vs. Philadelphia, 7 p.m.

April 6 at New Jersey, 7 p.m.

April 8 vs. N.Y. Rangers, 7 p.m.

Apr. 10 at NY Rangers, 7:30 pm

April 13 vs. Montreal, 7 p.m.

April 15 vs. New Jersey, 7 p.m.

April 16 at Washington, 7 p.m.

April 18 vs. N.Y. Islanders, 7 pm

April 20 at Ottawa, 7 p.m.

April 24 at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.

April 25 at Florida, 7:30 p.m.

April 27 vs. Montreal, 7 p.m.