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The Maple Leafs still have a game to go on their Western road trip Sunday night, slipping south a few miles to play the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
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The very streaky Kraken had a nine-game win streak up to Jan. 13, then lost the last three of six consecutive road contests, in which they produced just four goals. But Seattle will have some rest before Toronto arrives and though the recent defeats cost it some ground in the Pacific Division, they’re much better at puck protection and retrieval than the Leafs according to most league metrics.
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Jared McCann, the forward the Leafs acquired to expose to Seattle in the expansion draft, has goals in his past two games, leading the team with 18.
Toronto’s back-to-back and a light schedule next week (two games) leading to the all-star break could see a lineup change or two Sunday with idled defenceman Conor Timmins and wingers Nick Robertson or Ryan Reaves. The latter, a healthy scratch since he had to miss a few days with a kneecap injury in mid-December, turned 37 on Saturday.
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CURTIS: NO COURTESY FOR AUSTON
Curtis Joseph, a guest on CITY-TV’s Breakfast Television the morning after Auston Matthews’ three-goal, four-point game in Calgary, was asked his thoughts when watching a potential 70-goal year from the Leafs’ star centre.
“He’s incredible. What goes through my mind is ‘could I stop him?,” said the 454-game winning goalie, a Leaf between 1998-2002. “If he’s coming down on me, what would I do? Certainly, guys like that have a knack. You give him one chance and it’s in the net.
“You have to over-play them. I’d be telling my defence ‘just don’t let him shoot’. I used to say that about Jaromir Jagr, ‘hey, just cover him. I have a better chance stopping everybody else. Just stay on his back’.
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“So, when I see him get open and Mitch Marner fire one over to him, I say ‘ha, ha, how can they not cover this guy? How do you not know where he is?’
“That’s how you win, cover the best players.”
HILDEBEAST HOT
Rookie AHLer Dennis Hildeby made 24 saves on Saturday as the Toronto Marlies beat the Charlotte Checkers 5-2 in North Carolina.
Captain Logan Shaw scored twice including an empty netter, Alex Steeves added a goal and assist with a team-high five shots, while defenceman Maxime Lajoie contributed two helpers.
ROGERS A MOUNTAIN FOR LEAFS
Saturday marked 53 years since Toronto’s first win in Vancouver at the now-razed Pacific Coliseum in the Canucks’ expansion year. That 5-1 victory featured four assists from stay-at-home defenceman Bobby Baun.
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But success at PNE or the newer digs at Rogers Arena has been difficult for the Leafs. In addition to an overall road record of 26-42-11-3 in B.C. before Saturday, the Leafs’ six losses at Rogers are the most in a non-conference city the past five seasons in data prepared by betway.com to determine the hardest rinks for all NHL teams to play in.
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The Leafs have also lost six times in five years to division rival Montreal in the Bell Centre, but flip the script on the Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena, beating them eight times to make Bay St. the Habs’ toughest stop on the circuit.
Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay is the hardest of all, denying six different teams four to six times in the five-year study.
lhornby@postmedia.com
X: @sunhornby
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