Anunoby adjusting to life on the road
The Toronto Raptors will play six times over the next 12 days, starting Monday in San Antonio. It is the longest trip of the season and even though the NBA has cut down significantly on back-to-back and three games in four night slogs, surviving and thriving on extended road stretches is one of the biggest challenges of being an NBA player.
ItissomethingrookieOGAnunoby is going to have to get used to quickly after playing only 34 games as a freshman at Indiana, then 16 more last season before injuring his knee. The far shorter NCAA schedule usually has games going 3-5 days apart. Though Anunoby played tournaments in college and went on AAU trips where games came in quick succession, he hasn’t been through anything like this, as his teammates are quick to remind him. They try to give him advice, but mostly, they say it’s just about living and learning.
“It just feels weird at first because you just go from hotel, to hotel, to hotel,” second-year centre Jakob Poeltl explained to Postmedia before the team left for San Antonio.
“I think he got a taste of it in the pre-season when we went from Victoria, then Hawaii and then Portland. Now, you’ve got double that with six different cities, but it’s just something that is going to take time. You’re going to have to get used to it if you want to stay in this league, that’s just how it is. These long road trips are tough. You’ve just got to play anyway.”
Fellow sophomore Fred VanVleet echoed those thoughts.
“We can try to prep him for it, but you don’t really experience it until you experience it, right?” VanVleet said.
You can tell by chatting with the laid back Anunoby that he hasn’t wasted too much time worrying about adapting to life on the road.
But his teammates give him pointers, nevertheless.
“Stay hydrated, sleep as much as possible, try to get good meals in because it’s a grind,” VanVleet said.
“Hotel to hotel, a game very other night. It’s different when you are sleeping at home and coming into your own building vs. being on the road and taking flights, taking buses. It can build up and you may not even realize it, but your play might start to drop off or just little small details. It can be a cumulative effect sometimes. It’s not impossible to get through, but definitely a challenge.”
Unlike Anunoby, VanVleet was not in the rotation as a rookie, yet, he says he still had issues getting used to the travel.
“I wasn’t even playing, (but) I couldn’t get my sleep right. I was sleeping in the morning, energy levels, small things that you do really add up,” he said.
Veteran C.J. Miles entered the NBA straight out of high school, as big a jump as it gets, but he kept his advice for Anunoby basic.
“Pack enough underwear, but at the same time, don’t overpack,” said a smiling Miles.
“It’s pretty simple. And be ready for somebody to tell you to do something stupid.”
Most likely a veteran, though Anunoby isn’t yet carrying around a ridiculous, gaudy backpack, a time-honoured Raptors tradition bestowed on the team’s first-year players.
The good news for Anunoby is that while this might be a grind for the next few weeks, the schedule turns significantly later on, with most of Toronto’s later games and trips taking place in the Eastern time zone.
Mike Babcock has a long memory, and certainly can recall what happened almost a year ago when the Los Angeles Kings visited the Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre.
The Kings, who will be the Leafs’ opposition on Monday night at the ACC, beat the Leafs 7-0 last Nov. 8.
“They smacked us around,” Babcock said on Sunday following practice at the MasterCard Centre. “But I also think you need lessons in your life. When everything goes good all the time, that’s not good for you.
“You need a good tightening every once in a while. I thought we got it last night (in a 6-3 loss in Ottawa against the Senators)
“We have the best team in the league coming in, they have not lost yet, they have real good back end, good forwards, playing well, good goaltending, it’s going to be a real challenge for us and that’s what we need. We need a real challenge. We did not handle it really well last night.”
With a record of 6-0-1, the Kings are the lone National Hockey League club in 2017-18 which has not lost in regulation and their plus13 goal differential is best in the NHL. The Leafs, who start a threegame home stand before heading to California to start a four-game trip, aren’t far behind at 6-2-0, but the loss in Ottawa stung.
When the Leafs and Kings met in Los Angeles last March, the Kings won 3-2 in a shootout.
The Kings won’t have Jeff Carter, who is recovering from surgery to mend a cut on his left leg. Veterans Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, though, have paced the Kings and are tied for the team scoring lead with 11 points each.
Then there’s Drew Doughty, who ranks among the top dynamic defencemen in the game.
“He’s a hell of a player,” Babcock said. “Can stickhandle in a phone booth. Great offensive instincts. He is as loose as they come when it comes to the game, it’s competitive and he wants to win. Makes the big plays at the right moment.”
In 12 career games against the Leafs, Doughty has nine points (two goals and seven assists).
Babcock wouldn’t confirm that Calle Rosen, who skated with Connor Carrick at practice, will be back in the lineup on the blue line after Andreas Borgman played the past two games.
And thought it appeared Dominic Moore, who played in Ottawa, will stay in the lineup ahead of Eric Fehr as the fourth-line centre, Babcock wouldn’t confirm that either.
Mitch Marner was back on the fourth line, while Leo Komarov was back with Nazem Kadri and Patrick Marleau.
What was Marleau’s scouting report on the Kings, a team he knows all too well from his days as a San Jose Shark?
“It’s going to be more of the same as what we saw against Ottawa,” Marleau said. “Pretty sound defensively and we’re going to have to right our wrongs against Ottawa to try to be successful.”