FAMOUS FAN
Sidney Crosby has been keeping a close eye on the Leafs’ Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly, and he’s been impressed by what he’s seen,
Leo Komarov didn’t have a visor on his helmet Friday, and he didn’t want to talk about it. Komarov removed the pane Wednesday against Calgary after two months of pestering from officials — wear it properly or don’t wear it at all — and promptly got high-sticked. Harrumph. It’s too bad you had to do that, someone said.
“He doesn’t have to,” broke in Tyler Bozak, grinning, from the other side. “He could just wear his visor like normal and then he wouldn’t have to (remove it). So he doesn’t have to at all.”
On Leo’s other side sat Nazem Kadri, who knows what it’s like to deal with the man. Kadri was being asked about Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk, who speared Toronto’s Matt Martin Wednesday while sitting on the bench and was suspended for one game. Leo, his visor grumbling complete, leaned in.
“They’re asking why I’m never getting suspended again,” said Kadri, who has just 14 penalty minutes so far this season.
“(I) just heard how good a player you are,” said Komarov, with his bright-eyed Peter Stormare grin. “He’s getting better, I have to agree.”
It’s not the highest bar when you haven’t been suspended since April of 2016, but it’s something. Kadri has spent his career playing on the emotional edge. He has been suspended and fined. Kadri was asked: Do you ever regret the fines?
“Oh, so much,” the 27-year-old Kadri said. “It’s disgusting. It makes me sick. But you know, that’s what happens. I’m man enough to admit my mistakes, and that was a consequence I had to go through, and whether it be sitting games or paying fines or whatever the case may be, I did it and it’s done.”
It was a lot of money, though, right? It was a lot of money.
“It’s like $400,000. Six figures, boys.” Kadri made it clear that he was not complaining, just as Komarov made it clear he was not complaining. Kadri said, “I’m not arguing with what I get paid, I make a good living. I just have to stop doing stupid s---, that’s all.”
He has done some stupid . . . well, stuff. The bulldozing of Minnesota goaltender Nik Backstrom in 2013; the shoulder to the head of Edmonton’s Matt Fraser in 2015. The crosscheck to the face of Detroit’s Luke Glendening in 2016. (Kadri says he was trying to hit him in the arm.)
There was also the unsuspended but borderline check to the head of Vancouver’s Daniel Sedin a year ago, some diving incidents, the throatslash thing. Kadri has spent his life in the grey areas of hockey. Agitating, as they say. Hell, even the team has suspended him. But now, he’s on a streak of relatively responsible behaviour. Combined with his 32 goals last season and his 37-goal pace this season, along with the defensive responsibility, Kadri is a nice luxury to have with Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid on the schedule this weekend. He will see a lot of both.
But even then, Kadri was always a whoops-I-hit-him guy, more than anything. And he’s always been . . . emotional.
“Just how I grew up, how I was raised,” Kadri said. “My dad raised me that way to never be afraid of anything. ‘Never back down from nothin’.’ That’s my old man’s mentality, and that’s how I tried to pursue my entire life. Fearless, and if something was going to hurt me, or make me suffer a consequence, I’d deal with it. I wouldn’t think about it; I’d say go for it, and whatever happens, happens.”
But then the consequences came, and in the NHL that’s an expensive hobby. So Kadri believes he has adjusted. Like Komarov, he might not have had to. But the man got on his case, and he did.
“You keep your body positioning lower, you keep your arms down, you keep your shoulders tucked,” Kadri said. “A lot of those plays are because guys make contact with the head. If you keep your arms down and your shoulders in, chances are you’re not going to hit him in the head. You may hit him in the head, but it won’t be the main point of contact. I know when I go hit a guy not to have my arms up, not to lunge.”
So, you’re a success story for supplemental discipline, is what you’re saying?
“Yeah, I don’t want to give ’em too much credit,” said Kadri, smiling. “But they certainly helped, for sure. Now, when I go hit somebody I’m thinking about that stuff. I don’t want to hurt them, and I want to have enough respect and integrity for the game not to be dirty and cheap-shot people. That’s one of the things I think about. I’ve got that structure down, and the hitting technique. I think that’s important.”
Komarov may yet return to the visor; he wants to wear his visor up high, like it’s constantly saluting, and he hasn’t been broken by the man. His buddy Naz, meanwhile, has entered a reflective stage. Asked which bad play he regretted, Kadri said, “Too many to think about. There was that one in Edmonton when I hit (Fraser) and I actually hurt him, coming behind the net there. So that one I felt bad about. I mean, all of them. All of them, in a way.”
All of them, in a way. We all have different ways of growing up.