Trying to make a little white noise
The all-white uniforms come out in practice as Buds prepare for weekend trip
First, the Maple Leafs came out in the eye-glaring white-on-white uniforms they’ll wear for the March 3 outdoor game in Annapolis, Md. But they were without Jake Gardiner. Then forwards Josh Leivo and Matt Martin, the usual healthy scratches, practised as defencemen.
It certainly was a strange day at the MasterCard Centre as the Leafs prepared to take their show on the road — Saturday against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Sunday to Mike Babcock’s old stomping grounds in Detroit.
“It’s a lot of white,” Leafs centre Auston Matthews said of his white gloves, white pants, white socks, white helmet and white practice sweater. “A lot of white out there.”
Jerseys aside, the Leafs, and Matthews especially, will have their work cut out for them facing Crosby.
“He’s smart, he makes everybody around him better,” Matthews said. “You learn. You see what those top guys do. The ins and outs. The little things that give them an edge.”
“I promise you Sid is going to play good, so we’re going to have to play good too,” Babcock said. “He is a good player, and when you play a good player, you have to play him harder, play him tighter. You have a tendency against a real good player to back off and give him space. But what do they want? They want space.”
The Leafs and Penguins are among the hottest teams in the NHL. The Penguins are 14-4-1 since Jan. 1, sec- ond to only the Bruins. The Leafs are third at12-4-3 and coming off a 5-0-0 homestand.
“Anytime you have five in a row at home, you’re always worried that’s too much,” Babcock said. “But our guys did a real good job here. That’s all over with now.”
A growing concern, even with the winning, is the shots against. The Leafs were outshot in three of their five wins on the homestand, giving up an astounding 57 to Columbus. They had a video session to deal with that before they took to the ice.
“We’re in (our own zone) too much,” Babcock said. “Don’t be in there too much. Any time you’re going good and playing good, human nature is things start slipping. Sometimes you get away with more than you should. That (game against Columbus) was probably one of them.”
The Leafs’ play in their zone could get interesting with Gardiner’s status. He’s one of the team’s better puck-moving defencemen. He left Wednesday’s game with a spasm and was nowhere to be seen Friday.
Babcock said he wanted the veteran defenceman to play Saturday, but didn’t sound exactly sure if he would be ready.
“We’re planning on playing him,” Babcock said. “But when I come in (Saturday to the morning skate), they (the team’s medical team) will tell me the news.”
That might mean both Connor Carrick and Roman Polak will play. They have been taking turns as scratches. Carrick was paired with Nikita Zaitsev, Gardiner’s usual partner, in practice.
“I’m on notice. You have to be ready to be called upon in whatever capacity,” Carrick said. “He (Gardiner) plays a lot of minutes for us. It’s a big hole for us.”
As for Martin and Leivo, it seemed an odd experience to do defenceman drills.
“I used to play defence when I was younger, like10 years old,” said Leivo, who added he is not thinking of converting positions. “This was just for the day. This level is too good.”
Babcock said it balanced out the four lines with four sets of defencemen. “They could get more work instead of standing and missing reps. And we didn’t wear out six defencemen . . . It was about getting everybody the workload they needed in the shortest period of time.”
It’s public knowledge that Leivo is unhappy with his role as a constant scratch and would likely welcome a trade like the one that sent Nikita Soshnikov to St. Louis on Thursday for a 2019 fourth-round pick.