William Nylander will play for Team Sweden at the 2017 World Championships, Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Cup win, Senators playoff attendance woes, and more in Monday’s links.
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Nikita Soshnikov – 2016-17 Player Review (MLHS)
Soshnikov was undoubtedly told he would be in a battle to make the opening night roster next season in his exit interview with the coaching staff last week. He was eligible to join the Marlies for their playoff run, but it appears the two sides agreed it was best to allow Soshnikov to get started on his offseason. Showing up to camp in the Fall healthy and in great shape is an important first step toward earning more opportunity next season.
William Nylander to compete for Sweden at 2017 World Championships (MLHS)
Nylander is the second Maple Leaf to accept an invitation to the Worlds, with Mitch Marner arriving in Paris, France yesterday to start preparation for the tournament with Team Canada. Frederik Andersen, James van Riemsdyk and Morgan Rielly declined invites from Team Denmark, Team USA and Team Canada, respectively.
Josh Leivo – 2016-17 Player Review (MLHS)
Overall, Leivo tallied two goals and eight assists in 13 games while playing 12:34/game on average — good for a 3.12 points-per-60 at 5v5, which was highest on the team (small sample, of course). His 55.3 CF% was the best on the team (again, limited sample), including a 57.7% CF in his 72 minutes of even strength ice time on Nazem Kadri’s wing.
Hockey in May a big help to Marlie newbies (Toronto Sun)
“I give (GM) Kyle Dubas a lot of credit,” Clune said. “He has a good feel of when to pick his spots and he hit the team with some truth in January, from the coaches down to the players. We turned this ship around and almost won the division. Development and winning go hand and hand here,” Clune said.
Marner excited to continue season with Team Canada (TSN)
Having finished his rookie season with a playoff run that lasted six games, Mitch Marner decided he wasn’t done playing hockey yet, and the opportunity to represent Canada made his choice even easier. Laura Daikun has more.
Maple Leafs say sorry to Twitter fans after unfollowing everyone (CTV News)
“The Maple Leafs social media channels are one of the team’s most important tools to engage and communicate with you, our fans,” the statement said. “Yesterday, as we begin work this off-season to make improvements to all of our social media channels, we reset the list of Twitter accounts we follow to make sure it is current and represents the team, and all of its fans, accurately and fairly.”
50 years since Leafs sipped from Stanley Cup (Toronto Sun)
Tuesday marks exactly 50 years since the Leafs won their last Stanley Cup, the longest drought in the NHL not counting the expansion St. Louis Blues. While the youthful Leafs of today are in pursuit, those surviving Leafs are still revered. Lance Hornby takes a look back to 50 factoids connected to that season, the upset playoff wins against Chicago and Montreal and the big night, May 2, 1967.
Cam Talbot takes blame for Oilers’ Game 3 loss to Ducks (NHL.com)
“They caught us on a sneaky play there right off the bat and I didn’t make the save, really, that I needed to,” Talbot said. “And I didn’t make a lot of other saves during the game that I needed to. That’s on me to make some of those big saves that I’ve been making that I didn’t make tonight.”
Jakob Silfverberg ‘tremendous’ for Ducks in Game 3, playoffs (NHL.com)
Silfverberg scored two goals and had an assist to help the Ducks to a 6-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Place on Sunday. The Oilers lead the best-of-7 series 2-1 with Game 4 here on Wednesday.”[Silfverberg] is a tremendous hockey player,” Carlyle said. “If you look at the stats sheet tonight, he was all over it. He’s the type of guy that’s kind of [an] unsung, unassuming individual. But he really is a tremendous hockey player.”
Mike Yeo pledges lineup changes after Game 3 loss (Puck Daddy)
On the podium, Yeo added, “We obviously have to be way better [in Game 4]. Make a couple changes, personnel wise, for the next game, and look at the tape and see what we can do a little bit differently, a little bit better than tonight because it wasn’t good enough.”
Alain Vigneault Costs The Rangers … Again (Blueshirt Banter)
Once again, Brady Skjei and Brendan Smith found themselves stapled to the bench with five minutes remaining in the third and the Rangers protecting a lead. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s exactly the same thing that burned the Rangers against Montreal. What happened? Exactly the same thing. Skjei (who had two goals and was easily the Rangers best defenseman) didn’t even see 18 minutes in a double overtime game. Smith – Skjei was easily Vigneault’s best pairing, and they got the least amount of time of any defenseman at evens.
Attendance figures overshadow Senators’ Game 1 performance (The 6th Sens)
Rather than patiently develop and nurture a young roster while emphasizing the importance of maximizing the returns on its players, in hopes that the core grows together and culminates with a window of Cup contention, the Senators’ playoff mandate is rooted in their “get in and anything can happen mentality” where it’s not Ottawa’s true talent level but lucking into easier matchups that plays a bigger role in whether the team goes deep into the playoffs.
