Happy for Kappy
Keefe thinks Kapanen is good enough to stick with the Leafs
Tight-checking, intense hockey.
Gaps that close almost immediately, if they were there in the first place.
That’s what the Maple
Leafs figure on experiencing, for the most part, in the final couple of months of the 201718 regular season.
“After you have played a few years, you learn that when you come back from these breaks we have had, the bye week and the all-star break, it’s a different game,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said.
“Teams are much more competitive in the checking aspect and you don’t want to give up much either. You want to get ready to play playoff hockey.”
Thanks largely to the goaltending of Frederik Andersen, the Leafs on Wednesday night scraped out a victory in a shootout against the Nashville Predators, four days after Toronto was smothered by the Boston Bruins for its only loss in its past seven games.
With 26 games to play, the Leafs have settled into third place in the Atlantic Division with 69 points. Despite their recent success, the Leafs have not been able to gain ground on the Bruins, who have 74 points and four games in hand; the Bruins were one
How he prepares to play every day, the effort that he gives, figuring out what he is or what he needs to do to be able to play every day for the Leafs. Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe
point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning before Tampa played host to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
After a day off, the Leafs will return to practice on Friday to prepare for a visit by the Ottawa Senators, a onceproud group that has nothing left to play for other than a solid shot at winning the draft lottery, on Saturday night.
While the Leafs are unlikely to face an overwhelming opponent in the Senators, Rielly’s premise rings true: Just about every inch gained in the next eight weeks will come only through hard work.
It’s why a player such as Kasperi Kapanen, who seemingly has left his days in the American Hockey League behind, has the potential to have an impact. We saw it on Wednesday when Kapanen avoided a sprawling P.K. Subban and then eluded Craig Smith to score a shorthanded goal. Kapanen’s quickness, strength and smarts made the goal, which gave the Leafs a 2-0 lead, happen.
It’s seven games Kapanen has played since being recalled from the Toronto Marlies, and whether he has been on the ice at evenstrength or while the Leafs are down a man, he has been a factor.
None of this comes as a surprise to Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe.
“There has been a lot of maturing that has gone on with Kappy, in everything,” Keefe told the Toronto Sun on Thursday. “How he prepares to play every day, the effort that he gives, figuring out what he is or what he needs to do to be able to play every day for the Leafs … (with the Marlies), it was focusing on his time on the penalty kill, focusing on being good away from the puck, focusing on being competitive, all those little things.
“You add the fact he is a dynamic player and he has elite speed. He has created a real defensive foundation.”
Those factors lead Keefe to believe Kapanen will be able to sustain his play with the Leafs.
“When things get tight and are at the most competitive, when you have legs, you can really skate, it creates opportunity for you and it creates challenges for the opposition,” Keefe said. “Kappy is stronger now, he is confident, he wants to play in the NHL every day and he has figured out how to do that in the short term. I look forward to watching him continue to do it.”
Said Kapanen: “Speed is something I work on mostly in the summers and coming in this year, I felt faster than ever.”
In Kapanen, Rielly sees a player who has “a bit more confidence” and one that can be “a difference-maker.” And that’s in tight, intense hockey.
Count on Leafs coach Mike Babcock to continue to put Kapanen’s assets to proper use.