Back home for a week light on game action and heavy on practice days, can the Maple Leafs exact revenge on the Utah Mammoth and get their six-game homestand started on the right foot? (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes
Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny on the challenge against the Leafs:
Toronto has Tanev back, and a few guys back. They score a lot of goals; they’re a good offensive team. For us, it’s about getting back to our identity and playing our A-game.
Darren Raddysh on Sergei Bobrovsky’s approach since the Seattle loss:
Bob’s unreal with the way he goes about his business. If it’s a good game or a bad game, you flush it, and you move on to the next one. He’s been doing it for a long time, and he’s had a great career. I think that’ll continue for however long he goes.
Mammoth forward Anders Lee on Bobrovsky:
He’s very technical, but also extremely athletic. If you put one in on him, that one means a lot. We’ve got our work cut out tonight. He’s a Hall of Fame goaltender, and he’s had a phenomenal career and still has a ton of games (left). We’ve need to get a lot of work for him and make it tough on him tonight as much as we can.
Raddysh on the importance of simplifying decisions and limiting turnovers in the rematch against the Mammoth:
I think we can just try and play simple. Try to move the puck up, make smart decisions, and try to limit our turnovers. I think that game we had a few too many, and they cost us. Just make smart decisions and play the right way.
They’re a rush team, so we got to have four or five guys back, try and limit their time and space, and make sure we’re skating and skating both ways, up and down..
Raddysh on his shooting opportunities and shot selection:
I think I’d like to shoot the puck a little bit more. There are times when maybe I’m passing it too much, or I do shoot it, and no one’s at the net front. That’s maybe not a good shot for me. But I think I’m trying to keep doing what I do. Try to go about my business, and eventually one will fall.
Raddysh on still waiting for his first goal as a Leaf after scoring 22 last season:
It’s a new year. Whatever you did last year is in the past. If I don’t score a goal all year, and we go on a long run and win the Stanley Cup, I’m okay with that. I’m just trying to help the team win as best as possible and go about my business each and every day.
Zack MacEwen on the process of warming up Bobrovsky in morning skates:
It’s different every time. He comes up to you and he tells you exactly where he wants it, and then if you miss one, you’re like, “Ah, sorry, man.” But he’s good about it, too, that way, if you miss one.
He’s just super meticulous. He knows exactly what he’s trying to accomplish whenever he goes out on the ice, every time, and it’s really cool to see.
MacEwen on his confidence after a couple of recent goals:
It’s good. I had a lot of confidence coming into this year. I think it’s taken me a little bit to kind of get my looks and feel back. Now that I have, and now I’m getting some momentum going, I think it’s just going to keep building and keep getting better.
MacEwen on the loss in Utah:
It was a fast game. I wasn’t playing in that game, but I think there was definitely a lot of speed. I think we had success whenever we put pucks in behind their D and kind of forechecked them and got it back. I think that’s going to be a big part of the game plan tonight.
Hiller on the importance of limiting turnovers against Utah:
Again, and I hate to sound like a broken record, but you can’t turn the puck over against them. They’re a dangerous offensive team. You can name four or five players. You can look at the stats, but if you make it a short track for them, if you let them come from the red line, and if you let them come from your blue line, then you make it hard on yourselves. And I think that’s what we did in Utah. They had those rush goals.
Hiller on the need for more offensive-zone time:
There are different reasons for that. It could be just some practice time. If you noticed in practice yesterday, a large portion of the practice was spent on that. Hopefully, we see some results of that, but that’ll get worked in more and more.
As we came into the season, we felt like we wanted to try to get skating and do some things without the puck first. We probably gave the defensive side a little bit more. Now we can turn this month into working on that.
Hiller on the keys to generating more offensive-zone time:
You got to put the puck in right spots on the forecheck. That’s really where it starts. And if I go back to the Utah game, we gave the puck to their goaltender too many times. If you do that, you can’t forecheck.
The second period in Vancouver, we got it in. We stopped the puck. We came with the second guy and won the puck. Then you play in the ozone. It’s not one or the other; they’re connected, and it starts with good dumps.
After Wednesday's practice, head coach Jim Hiller discussed John Tavares’ return to practice and potential move to the wing, the need to generate more...
