ANDERSEN NOT RUSHING BACK
LEAFS NETMINDER STILL NURSING A SORE NECK AFTER PAIR OF COLL ISIONS
Notice to Maple Leafs fans, your Fredex delivery could be delayed at least one more game. While sore-neck goaltender Frederik Andersen stayed the full length of an hourlong practice on Monday, his own “day- to- day” assessment and ever-cautious club clinicians will likely keep him out of Tuesday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes. That’s in part because there’s no reason not to come back with Jack Campbell in net, but more on that later.
Andersen dove right into his first full team workout after solo skates the past few days. However, while Campbell took a flurry of pucks at the end, Andersen stayed at the boards talking with goaltending coach Steve Briere.
“I want to see how it responds later on today,” said Andersen in his first comments since two separate collisions a week ago in the game against Florida shelved him. “Tomorrow’s not ruled out, but we’ll see.
“I don’t want to get into specifics. I’m having a good process so far, taking the right steps in the right time fashion. I’m just making sure I can play to a level I need to be at and making sure there are no symptoms.
“Any time I’ve been forced to miss time, the process we’ve been going through with Stevie has been great. Just taking the good steps, one before two, and progressing. Me and the medical staff have been patient, making sure we don’t rush anything.”
Andersen was asked was it the Frank Vatrano crease crash that hurt him in the Florida game or an accidental hit from a teammate clearing traffic.
“I was definitely bumped a couple of times. I can’t tell you which one was the worst. It’s just the nature of the position.”
Pressed further, he did lament that goalie protection from reckless forwards, intent on skulduggery more than scoring, should be an ongoing concern for the NHL.
“I’ve thought about that a bit this week. I’m not that confident in it. They’ve taken a really good step in putting the onus on players hitting other players, especially in a vulnerable position. I think the same could be done for the goalies and making sure nothing bad like that happened too often.”
Andersen began skating again late last week, just as the Leafs traded for Campbell when Michael Hutchinson could not effectively hold the fort. Coach Sheldon Keefe would not say with 100 per cent certainty that Andersen wouldn’t play against the Coyotes, but there wasn’t a lot of blame to be assessed for Campbell’s two starts, back- to- back on the wrong end of poor third periods by the whole team that resulted in an overtime win and loss against Anaheim and Montreal, respectively. He made 56 totals saves was closing in on a shutout against the Habs.
“We’ll see how Fred wakes up tomorrow and make a decision then,” Keefe said. “Reports are good. I know he put in a lot of work last week while we were away to get up to speed. We’re going to have he and Soupy ready.”
JACKED TO PLAY
Campbell was just a few minutes away from debuting with two regulation victories, but the Port Huron, Mich., native took both letdowns personally in his post- game comments. Former Kings defenceman Jake Muzzin said that’s in Campbell’s DNA, but that his teammates in L. A. had tried to reason with him.
“He’s got a lot better at it,” Muzzin said. “I think that comes with getting comfortable in the league with the teams and stuff like that. He puts a lot of pressure on himself to be the best he can be and hates letting the team or himself down. But a lot of times he’s not ( to blame), he puts that on himself.
“( Saturday in Montreal), he played a hell of a game. That’s the kind of guy we have here — and we’re lucky to have him.”
Campbell says his drive came from watching Jack Sr., a college track athlete, who arrives at his electrical equipment distribution store in Port Huron in the early hours and usually stays late.
“He grinds, hats off to him,” Jack Jr. said. “He enjoys it.”
Andersen’s first interaction with his potential long- term understudy has been cordial.
“From the time I’ve been with him, a super- positive attitude. From what I can tell from Muzz and the guys that know him, his whole demeanour and upbeat attitude is nice.”
THIRD AND GOALS
A flu bug has been going through the Leafs dressing room the past week, but Keefe wants to make sure a plague of third-period pestilence isn’t next.
Blown leads or lack of focus late in the game have become an issue, and while it was convenient to finger the likes of Hutchinson, the last two came with him on the bench.
Keefe preferred to think the worst of the late jitters is over.
“The trend of course is that they all ( the letdowns) were third periods. But when we look at the issues of each game, there is no trend. We’re hoping it’s just a funny week in the way that things worked out,” he said.
“I thought the Montreal game we did a good job defensively and that’s a big focus of ours, reduce scoring chances. We got outshot pretty bad in that third period ( their only one was a John Tavares goal), even though we had chances to generate and missed the net to give us a better number than one.
“You lose sight that we had a dominant second period. It was just kind of the ebbs and flows of the game and after we scored, we got on our heels. Our issues were more related to our inability to move the puck up with any sort of rhythm.
“All their shots, including their goal ( tying it with three minutes to go), were from the outside and that’s relative to what we’ve been giving up. We’ve done a pretty good job of closing things out previous to last week.
“There’s reasons for us to use our resources, to dig in and spend time on video, but it’s also important we don’t overreact and create much of a complex around here. Just continue to work, look at the greater sample and trust ourselves.”
WELCOME BACK
Andersen wasn’t the only Leaf to reappear Monday.
William Nylander, the third hottest shooter on the team behind Auston Matthews and Tavares, missed the weekend games with the aforementioned bug, though Tavares and defenceman Justin Holl weren’t feeling hot and stayed home. Keefe expected both to be ready for the Coyotes.
Also on the ice — for the first time since Dec. 27 — was rookie winger Ilya Mikheyev. His wrist and tendon were accidentally sliced by a skate blade in New Jersey and a delicate operation followed. There is no change in his three- month projected absence.
“Great to see him,” Keefe said. “He’s got a lot of the casting and bandages off and he’s taken a step. He’s still a long away from ever practicing, let alone playing, so we won’t get carried away. But I’m sure it’s great for him.”