NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE RINKS

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds/DUBNetwork MJ Warriors Beat Writer

1. The negative: You have all heard pretty much every bellyache from Leafs fans, and jubilation from Leafs haters after the Game 7 debacle, but I am genuinely going to try to keep my head on straight about it. BUT let’s start with the negatives: Marner didn’t show up in the series, Campbell let in some brutal goals, including in Game 7, and as a team, the Leafs didn’t show up in that final game really at all. I hated how Toronto Coach Sheldon Keefe kept leaning on Rasmus Sandin, especially on PP1, game after game, when he consistently showed he wasn’t ready just yet to contribute like that at this level. I hate when coaches put players in a position where they aren’t going to succeed, but clearly, that relationship back from the Soo Greyhounds days made Keefe think he knew something we didn’t. So of course, I am frustrated, but before the series started I wrote on this very website that I had lots of fear and respect for the Montreal Canadiens, and just about the ability of this Toronto core to breakthrough. The Leafs also have almost no picks next year after a shocking trade deadline that brought in Nick Foligno (who was injured most of the series), and then a bagful of guys that didn’t contribute at all for those picks. So yes, there is a lot to be upset about, but I am not THAT upset. Why? Read on.
2. Some perspective: So, let’s have a little perspective: Carey Price stole the series, every single game the Habs won Toronto had a whole bunch of great Grade A chances (it felt like Zack Hyman could have 300 breakaways and never score on Price). From Games 1 to 6, I don’t feel like the Leafs played poorly, and were, in general, the better team (except for a couple of the starts), and did so without John Tavares, a healthy Foligno, and who knows who else. I even was wondering if Marner wasn’t healthy given how tentative he was to shoot…I know he’s frustrating in his decision-making regularly when it comes to odd-man rushes and the power play, but he looked so tentative to shoot that it made me wonder. I am not making excuses for this group, I just don’t think it was that shambolic. 
3. Also, full credit: Full credit to the Habs, a group much lighter on talent and experience (outside of Price and Shea Weber), that bought into Coach Dominique Ducharme was preaching, and as I said earlier: Price stole it. Weber, Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson, and Ben Chiarot just played a ton of ugly, heavy, glass-and-out hockey on the back end (to channel my inner Brian Burke), and we’ve seen teams like this be hard on more perimeter, “pretty hockey”-type teams over and again these past number of years. This series reminded me a lot of how Team Europe made its run at the last World Cup of Hockey with a bunch of journeymen and Anze Kopitar, etc – low on stars, low on experience, high on buy-in and enthusiasm and grit and luck. 
4. Moving forward: People want Toronto GM Kyle Dubas to blow it up, but I don’t see how he could do that. Working closely with teams the last 15 years, the hardest thing I’ve found for GMs at any level is to stockpile guys who can put the puck in the net. Sure, you can find some foot soldiers, upfront and on the back end, and they are critical; but Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews and Willy Nylander (Willy was awesome in this series, by the way) are so hard to find, and that’s why they get paid so much. Goals are the most expensive stat in any sport! Can they do it when the real pressure is on? When the moment is getting big? Nobody knows if they’ll figure it out one day, but for better or worse Dubas has saddled his horse to these guys, with Tavares, to win Toronto a cup. Say what you want about them, but the second Dubas ever puts any of them on the trade wire, he’s going to get a million calls – most teams in the league would take these guys, and that’s the truth.
5. Jets-Habs: Emotionally, I want to say the Habs have no shot against the well-rested, Nik Ehlers-healthy Winnipeg Jets. But Carey Price is the truth right now, so who knows. I’m still going to take the Jets in six against what has to be a tired Montreal team, but I’ll say it again – Price looks incredible.
6. Canada sneaks in: The team that didn’t look incredible a lot of May was Team Canada’s entry into the World Hockey Championships, but guess what? They found a way into the playoffs! Gerard Gallant’s team is undefeated since a disappointing loss to Germany about a week ago (in which they didn’t play that badly, to be honest), and snuck in Tuesday because of a victory of the same Germans over the host Latvians. Getting Andrew Mangiapane in the line-up, after he had to miss the start of the tournament in quarantine because his Calgary Flames ended the season late (thanks Canucks!), was enormous, and though they have to face the Russians in the quarterfinals Thursday, I think they are now the favourites to get to the semis. Hope springs eternal! As I wrote a couple of weeks ago: any team with Mario Ferraro on it is never going to quit, and always going to stay positive! Love that guy a lot.
7. Power: The biggest winner of the Worlds so far, in my opinion, is Owen Power. The Canadian defenceman was considered one of the popular picks for the No. 1 slot at the next NHL Draft, but he’s been Canada’s best defenceman (and they are all established NHLers other than Braden Schneider), and just been generally awesome. No matter what his Michigan teammate Matty Beniers has done with Team U.S.A., I feel Power has solidified No. 1 overall with his play in Latvia, and for an 18-year-old draft-eligible kid to become Team Canada’s top D at a senior men’s World Championship is just incredible. Whoever is getting him (Buffalo?), is getting a Top Pair NHL D-man right away starting next year: I don’t make wild predictions like that pretty much ever, but I am now. Mark it down right now.
8. Dub lottery: Speaking of drafts, the Western Hockey League draft lottery goes Wednesday morning, and as a Moose Jaw Warriors beat writer, it’s a little frustrating because they could very easily nab the first overall pick, but it won’t belong to them, because they dealt it to the Brandon Wheat Kings in 2018 as part of the Kale Clague deal. On the flip side, the Warriors own the Saskatoon Blades first-rounder, which they got as part of the Brayden Tracey deal to Victoria, so they will be picking considerably lower than they would have. Oh, the complications of CHL draft-pick trading! The draft itself will be dominated by Prep School kids, after the Connor Bedard success, but Saskatoon Contacts Berkley Catton is still believed to be the 1a consensus top pick, along with Shattuck St. Mary’s (where Sidney Crosby went, of course) superstar Macklin Celebrini, who as a Vancouver boy is considered 1b.
9. Manoah!: Pretty cool to see Blue Jays’ rookie Alek Manoah jump right in and dominate the Yankees last week! Pretty infectious personality on the kid. Given there were no minor leagues last year, and as a result such a tiny amount of innings against pro hitters, it is so impressive that he looked as polished as he did after only being drafted in 2019 out of West Virginia! If I were an MLB GM I would only draft college kids early (who cares about later?) – so hard to know what a high school kid will become, and that little bit more information is so valuable. Kind of like how I wish the hockey people out here would draft 15-year olds like back home instead of the 14s they do now!
10. National Soccer and Basketball Teams: Finally, I’ll indulge my soccer and basketball loves a bit by touching on the news that both the Canadian World Cup soccer qualifying and Olympic Basketball qualifying squads were announced this past week, and I have to simply say ‘Wow’. These are the best national soccer and basketball teams that have ever worn the Canadian national jerseys, with 13 NBA players on the team that will try to get Canada to the Japan Olympics at the qualifier in late June in Victoria, BC, and all sorts of great European-based and Major League Soccer talent on the soccer team! If you’ve never paid attention to our national teams of those sports before, now is a good time to get on those bandwagons! It’s to a point where I will be very seriously disappointed if those teams don’t make their respective pinnacle international events.

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)