Kristen Shilton TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter Follow|Archive

TSN Toronto reporter Kristen Shilton checks in daily with news and notes on the Maple Leafs. The team held a noon practice at Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, Fla., on Wednesday.

In the grand scheme of Toronto’s 82-game schedule, Thursday’s contest against the Tampa Bay Lightning is simply the first time divisional rivals will clash this season. That the Lightning also happen to be perched atop the NHL standings, with the Maple Leafs sitting second, isn’t a storyline Toronto’s players and head coach are interested in wading far into. Nor are they already looking ahead to a potential playoff meeting down the road.

“It gives you guys something to talk about,” said centre Nazem Kadri after the Leafs’ practice on Wednesday. “We’re going to give them all the credit in the world but we want to go out there and beat them [tomorrow]. Our division is just pretty deadly at this point…we’re going to have to go through those teams [like Tampa] regardless, that’s the way we look at it.”

Leafs head coach Mike Babcock has made a concerted effort since training camp to keep his team’s focus on the here and now, not letting any outside expectations influence how the Leafs see themselves. That’s the same strategy he’s employing ahead of what could be Toronto’s biggest test of the season to date.

“I’m trying to win every night,” he shrugged. “Instead of worrying 100 games down the road or what the schedule is or what the next back-to-back is, I know we play Tampa, so we’re getting ready to play Tampa. Ideally all the rest of that stuff works itself out.”

Several Leafs players, including John Tavares and Patrick Marleau, lamented the NHL’s playoff seeding system, where divisional opponents are pitted against one another in the first round as opposed to the former more traditional method, which put the first seed against the eighth, and so forth.

But even if April was just around the corner, and the prospect of seeing the Lightning in a postseason round was not so far removed from Thursday’s task, Babcock wouldn’t be getting caught up in uncontrollable decisions.

“If we just stay in the process and focus on getting better and cleaning up our details and improving our players, then things look after themselves,” he reiterated. “In the end, what are you going to do? Wherever you end up, you’re excited to be in the playoffs and excited for the opportunity.”

Until that time, Toronto is taking stock of a high-powered Tampa team that, in many ways, is a mirror of the Leafs. Tampa’s goal-differential (plus-39) is the only one higher than Toronto’s (plus-28) in the NHL, and they average a league-high four goals per game (compared to 3.65 by the Leafs).

“[They have a] lot of depth. They can obviously score at will, too, kind of like us,” said Auston Matthews. “Lot of speed. You want to stay disciplined against them, they have a good power play and they’ve been obviously very hot lately, probably the top team in the league right now. So it’ll be a really good test for us tomorrow.”

----

The start of this season has been unique for Kadri. He didn’t score his first goal of the season until the Leafs’ 10th game, and hasn’t had consistent linemates or a consistent matchup assignment like in years past.

So the fact that Kadri, who tallied 30-plus goals in each of his last two seasons, has only eight goals and 17 points through 31 outings this year isn’t shocking to Babcock.

“When we have more depth on our roster, more guys have people to play with,” Babcock explained. “[Matthews] and [Tavares], we gave them more help right from the get-go, and I don’t want to say [Kadri’s] by himself, but it wasn’t the same kind of experience and the same kind of players [on his line]. Now, he seems to be coming around.”

Babcock said Tuesday’s 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes was among Kadri’s best games of the season. He tallied one assist in the outing, bringing his point total in the last 13 games to four (one goal, three helpers). For a player who thrives on scoring as much as Kadri has in the past, he’s comfortable with his role now, even if the offensive output is comparatively lower so far than before.

“I know the value I bring to this team,” he said. “We have a lot of talented players. That’s what you need in order to win a championship, so we’re nothing but excited. I don’t need a pat on the back every single day; I just go about my business.”

Most recently, Kadri has been settling in on a line with Marleau and the newly returned William Nylander. While Kadri detailed a number of ways that line could start generating more scores (“our forecheck has been good and gives us more time and space”), his teammates see a lot more being offered nightly by Kadri than just goals.

“Naz is very consistent,” said Tavares. “Competes really hard, gets in people’s faces, can agitate a bit and he’s got great finish, touch and hockey sense out there. [He’s a] guy that can do a lot for us, and his ability to mix it up and especially when you need that guy to go out there and provide a spark physically or kind of turn up the tension a little bit so to speak, he brings a lot of that for us.”

“I don’t think there are too many players who are tough like him,” added Matthews, “who like to get under guys’ skin and are as skilled, can score, can do what he does. So you get the best of both worlds from him. He brings the competitive presence to the locker room and it’s definitely a guy you love to have on your team and probably hate to play against.”

----

For the last decade, the Leafs have rounded up team dads – to players, coaches and staff – and schlepped them out on the road for a couple of games to offer them a taste of NHL life. For the first time this year, it’s the Leafs’ moms who will get the experience, joining the team in South Florida for games against the Lightning on Thursday and Florida Panthers on Saturday.

“For these guys to have some time to say thanks on this trip and spend some time is a special thing,” said Babcock, who lost his own mother to cancer. “I’ve been in the league a long time, had a lot of dads’ trips, this is the first moms’ trip; I think it will be great.”

Indeed, the trip felt like a long time coming for some of the Leafs’ moms as well.

“In my career in the NHL we’ve never gotten the opportunity to do this and she’s been asking for years, every single year. We did what we could for her,” Kadri said. “My mother means a lot to me, she’s been my rock since day one.”

Kadri went on to say how different his parents were in shepherding him as a young hockey player, calling his dad “the realist” while his mother was more positive. It’s a familiar dynamic, cropping up in many Leafs’ reflections on their formative years around the game.

“She wasn’t too hands-on [with hockey], she was just supportive,” Matthews said of his mom. “Anything I needed, anything I would do, she was always right there supporting me. I know it’s [different] than the role my dad played, but I think it was just as big. I think it’s going to be fun for her to see what we do on the road.”

“My mom was a school teacher, but she would stay home with my brother and sister and let my dad go on the road with me for all the games on the weekends,” shared Marleau. “Not all the time, but a lot of the time. So she had to pull double duty doing all the school work and then doing all the chores on the farm.”

An extra bit of good fortune for the Leafs’ moms is they’ve drawn a warmer destination than the fathers have in recent years. The Leafs’ last two fathers’ trips have included stops in Boston, New York and Washington – all during winter months.

“I know my mom; she’s not a fan of the cold weather,” Matthews said. “So for her to come to the warm weather, I think she’s kind of got the bragging rights on the dads right now.”

----

Maple Leafs lines at practice:

Forwards

Brown-Tavares-Marner

Johnsson-Matthews-Kapanen

Marleau-Kadri-Nylander

Lindholm-Gauthier-Ennis

Suspended: Hyman

Defencemen

Rielly-Hainsey

Gardiner-Zaitsev

Dermott-Ozhiganov

Marincin-Holl

Goaltenders

Andersen

Sparks