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After a day off following their fourth straight win in Boston, the Toronto Maple Leafs skated in Etobicoke, ON on Monday, where a few notable players did not take to the ice, but one did before anyone was there to see him.
Auston Matthews skated prior to the club practice at the Mastercard Centre and could be on a path to returning to the Leafs lineup on Thursday, when they face the New Jersey Devils at Air Canada Centre.
“We’re not gonna know, he’s got to practice with the team.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “He skated today, he’ll skate tomorrow and he’ll practice with the team (on Wednesday), and we’ll see if he’s ready to go or not.”
Matthews has been out since a 3-2 victory over Vegas last Monday with an unspecified upper body injury.
Tyler Bozak (maintenance) and William Nylander (illness) were absent, which forced extra defenseman Roman Polak to shift to forward.
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Listen to the Leafs Convo, with myself and CTV’s Norman James:
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Former Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke said during a radio interview on Monday spoke with some pride regarding players he drafted during his four-year tenure, including 2009 first round pick Nazem Kadri, but also took a stab at the Toronto media.
“(Kadri) had a pile of goals. This is a guy that is belligerent, truculent and obnoxious and still put up 60 points.” Burke said to
TSN 1050’s Michael Landesberg. “Last year, I remember watching him and taking great pride. He was a bit of a project, kind of cocky. (Former Marlies coach) Dallas Eakins had to whack him upside the head with a 2-x-4 a couple times.”
In town for his Prime Time Sports Conference and the Hockey Hall of Fame ceremonies, Burke said that the Toronto media thrive on the club struggling.
"The problem [in Toronto] is there's a 100 people in the dressing room after practice and when the team loses, 80 of them are picking up the biggest rock they can find. That's the problem here.” Burke said. “There's actually a significant chunk of the media that want you to fail."
The Calgary Flames team president said that Toronto is a more critical and reactionary market than other Canadian cities like Calgary or Edmonton, and cited the example of 2014 top pick Sam Bennett, who is struggling in his third NHL season, and how he would be treated if he played for the Leafs.
"If (Bennett) were in Toronto, they would have traded him 70 times, shot him six times, condemned his parents four times," Burke said. "But yeah, (Calgary’s a better market. If he was going through that here he'd be getting crucified."
For being a critic of the Toronto media, Burke never fails to use it to his own ends. Last season in an appearance on the same radio station, he came to the defense of blueliner Dougie Hamilton, who struggled at the start of the season and became the subject of trade rumors.
In this instance, Burke is coming to the defense of Bennett, who has one point in 16 games and getting more shots in on the media that showed him no mercy when he was fired by MLSE in 2013.
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