Brooks learns hunger beats hype
Team of draft picks, including Liljegren, lose in scrimmage to undrafted free agents
Adam Brooks was the first to suggest there was nothing to read into the fact a team filled with undrafted free agents handily beat a team of highly touted Maple Leaf draft picks in a scrimmage on Tuesday.
“They worked hard, and they beat us,” Brooks said. “When you’ve been passed over (in the NHL draft), you’re that much more motivated. You want to go out there and work and prove yourself against the guys that were picked. They came to work today and beat us all over the ice.”
Brooks has seen it from both sides. He was passed over by teams twice before the Leafs selected him in 2016, his third and final year of eligibility. Now he has a two-year, NHL entrylevel deal and will play with the Marlies come the fall.
And the Leafs development camp is not so much about impressing the brass — and everyone, including team president Brendan Shanahan, was watching — but about learning from the coaches and adapting to the professional way of life.
“They’ve been around all week,” Brooks said. “You have to take care of what you do on the ice. If you start looking up in the stands and get nervous, that’s when you start having bad performances.”
Brooks, taken 92nd overall from the Regina Pats last summer, has discovered there’s a lot to work on.
“Everything. These guys throw so much stuff at you, whether it’s picking pucks up in the corner, or the way you turn, to skating down the ice. They have an unbelievable staff here. You try to take stuff from all of them, and try to make your game more complete.
If you were keeping score — and the Leafs were, complete with their video coaches and analytics staff — Brooks scored once in the 7-4 loss, jumping on a rebound from J.J. Piccinich, the former London Knights captain taken 103rd overall in 2014.
The biggest name in camp is Timothy Liljegren, the 18-year-old defenceman from Sweden and the Leafs’ first pick in this year’s draft. He was held off the scoresheet in his first game of hockey since April.
“First game is always a bit bad with the timing,” Liljegren said. “I got a bit gassed the first couple of shifts. But after a while, you get that feeling. I got a couple of good passes through. A couple of shots.” But, like Brooks, he’s here to learn. “You try to do the stuff they’re teaching you on the ice. It’s hard because some stuff is totally new for me, so it’s hard to translate right into a game right away. They want me to get away from crossovers, to go backwards in a straight line, and a couple of things in the defensive zone.”
The standout player offensively was Jakob Tortora, the smallest player on the ice at five-foot-six. He had a hat trick, with the six-foot-five Austin Rueschhoff assisting on all three goals.
Both are bound for U.S. college programs, Tortora to Boston College and Rueschhoff to Western Michigan University.
“We have a lot to prove. They’re a great team. But we came out flying. It’s good that we won,” Tortora said. “It’s good to score but it feels way better to get the win.”
The camp concludes Wednesday with a final scrimmage of draft picks against undrafted free agents.
The loss to the free agents was part of an important lesson for Brooks.
“It’s going to be a big step,” he said. “Everyone here is a great player, everyone here works hard. There’s not going to be anything easy . . . you have to be prepared to work day in, day out.”