Sport-scan daily brief

As did Cooper.

“We understood everyone had each other’s backs. That’s the cornerstone of how he likes to build his team,” Kostka said. “It takes time. I got traded there in December and it wasn’t like that yet. But throughout the season, you plant the seed early, and it’s something guys kind of grow into.”

Other stuff from the morning skate: Defenseman Sami Salo skated with the team and is good to go against Chicago. Salo missed the season-opener Thursday at Boston and Friday’s practice with what the team said was an upper-body injury. Salo said he sat out the game with the Bruins as a precaution and that a check-up on Friday (he said he did not have an MRI exam) revealed nothing serious. He also said he has no limitations. … Ben Bishop gets the start in net. Cooper said the plan all along was for Bishop and Lindback to split the first two games. A decision on Tuesday’s started at Buffalo will be made after that. … With Salo back in, Mark Barberio is scratched along with forward Tom Pyatt and defenseman Keith Aulie. … Former Lightning goaltender Nik Khabibuilin, the Blackhawks’ backup, said he is happy to see Marty St. Louis is Tampa Bay’s captain. “He’s always been the motor, the engine of that team. It’s good for him,” Khabibulin said. “He’s also got, at least I hope so, so much respect from his teammates for what he’s done over his career and how he started and had to battle through and what he’s become. I think it is a very logical choice.” … One aspect of the power play Cooper acknowledged has to get better is Tampa Bay’s performance on faceoffs. The Lightning won just four of 17 power-play faceoffs against the Bruins. “If you count it, starting with possession, you got to go back and get (the puck); no guarantee you’re getting right back in,” Cooper said. “All of a sudden, you look up, 30 seconds are gone on the power play and you’re not even in synch. Your players are a little bit more tired. It has a huge effect.” … Defenseman Eric Brewer, whose rush down right wing set up Valtteri Filppula’s goal against the Bruins, got big ups from Cooper for playing an “exceptional” game against Boston. “He played both ends of the ice,” Cooper said. “He was moving his feet. He kept up with the pace and jumped into plays. Brewer had two hits, a blocked shot and was plus-1. But the key might have been his 16:23 of ice time, much less than the 20:30 he averaged last season. “We’re playing with a lot of pace,” Cooper said. “He’s upped his game in that department. He came in extremely good condition when he came into camp and he hasn’t tailed off. I think there’s still a lot of youth left in his legs.” … Center Nate Thompson turned 29 todau. Asked if he got anything, he said, “Shaving cream in the face.”

Tampa Bay Times LOADED: 10.06.2013

719846 Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs rally from two down to beat Senators in shootout

JAMES MIRTLE

TORONTO — The Globe and Mail

Published Saturday, Oct. 05 2013, 10:28 PM EDT

Last updated Sunday, Oct. 06 2013, 1:26 AM EDT

We’ll take it.

That was coach Randy Carlyle’s message after the Toronto Maple Leafs eked out their third straight win, taking the home opener 5-4 in a shootout over the Ottawa Senators.

The game was hardly won in pretty fashion, as the Senators took 2-1 and then 4-2 leads, chasing Leafs starter James Reimer by the midway point in favour of Jonathan Bernier.

But with Ottawa taking seven minor penalties (to just two for Toronto), the Leafs capitalized twice on the power play and got shootout tallies from Mason Raymond and Tyler Bozak to improve to 3-0-0 to start the season.

“We hadn’t played very well in the hockey game,” Carlyle said of the game’s turning point, which he pegged as when winger Joffrey Lupul pulled his team to within one late in the second period. “Coaches aren’t here to cut up wins. Let’s not overanalyze. We didn’t play to the level we’re capable of playing. It’s more of a hockey game we played in parts and were sloppy throughout it but we still found a way to get two points.”

There were plenty of areas to be critical of for both teams.

Ottawa blew a two-goal lead, spent far too much time in the box and had a hard time containing Toronto’s top players in close. The Leafs made several key turnovers (with defenceman Cody Franson particularly guilty) and didn’t get enough saves as Reimer allowed four goals on just 21 shots.

On the flip side, Sens centre Kyle Turris and Raymond both had three-point nights as part of what was an offensive showcase right from the start.

In all, the game had 78 shots (42-36 for the Leafs) and several key momentum swings, with what Carlyle called “sloppy” hockey proving to be terrifically entertaining for the sold out Air Canada Centre crowd.

“Bernier was very good, but we have a two-goal lead, we have to win the game, plain and simple,” said Sens captain Jason Spezza, who had his first of the season on the goal that chased Reimer in the second period. “A two-goal lead is one we have to take home if we want to be a good hockey club.”

Even so, the man behind the winning bench was hardly doing backflips in his postgame press conference.

“When you play as sloppy as we did tonight, there’s a long list,” Carlyle said of improvements he wants to see defensively. “Obviously we’ve got to play a tighter brand of hockey. And we know that.”

Leafs additions come up big

Overall, however, it was a good night for Leafs GM Dave Nonis’s roster makeover.

With three regulars out of the lineup due to suspensions (David Clarkson) or injuries (Nikolai Kulemin and Mark Fraser), Toronto’s depth forwards like Raymond and linemate David Bolland had excellent games, showing strong chemistry and earning big time minutes.

Add in Bernier’s strong showing in relief, and it was a glimpse of what Nonis and Co. had been hoping to bring in over the summer.

Former combatants in the Vancouver-Chicago rivalry, Raymond and Bolland were probably the biggest revelation and, in the small sample size so far this year, appear poised to have rebound seasons in their new home.

The Leafs outshot the Sens 12-6 at even strength and had a 58 per cent Corsi rating with Raymond and Bolland on the ice, putting them first and second on the team on the night.

“He’s a heckuva player,” Raymond said of Bolland. “He’s won two Cups and he’s done it all. It’s showing on the ice right now in how well he’s playing. It’s enjoyable to play with him.”

Raymond capped his big night with the shootout winner, as his slow motion spinorama fooled Sens netminder Craig Anderson.

The NHL had toyed with the idea of nixing the move in shootouts in the offseason but ultimately couldn’t get approval from players to make the change and so they’ve remained.

Even so, the Senators offered a small protest on the ice after Raymond scored what was ultimately the winning goal for an extra point that could be big come April.

“I think it’s a very unfair play for the goaltender for the guy to come in and blow snow on him,” Sens coach Paul MacLean said. “To me, he came to a full stop and the puck came backwards and came forwards. But that’s me. I’m only the fisherman from Nova Scotia so I don’t know nothing from nothing.”

“At the end of the day, I’m going out there doing my move,” Raymond said. “I’ve done it in the past and I’ve been successful with it. It raises some eyebrows, but so far, I haven’t had anything go wrong with it.”

Carlyle didn’t see what all the fuss was about.

“It went in the net,” Carlyle said when one reporter asked about the goal being controversial. “Where didn’t you understand?”

Rookies debut

The three absent Leafs opened holes for three different rookies to make their NHL debut on Saturday, with Morgan Rielly, Spence Abbott and Jamie Devane all drawing in.

Abbott and Devane played sparingly (less than seven minutes), but Rielly was given a regular shift, logging more than 18 minutes alongside Cody Franson.

The pair was on the ice for three of Ottawa’s goals, but that was more a fault of Rielly’s veteran partner, who had a tough night all around.

“I thought as the game went on he got better,” Carlyle said. “You got to see more of what he’s about… he’s a young kid that’s got skill and he earned [the ice time]. You can see he can separate himself with his skating ability, he can read plays. He just needs to get the speed under him at the NHL level.”

“It was a pretty cool feeling,” Rielly said of his debut, which he made in front of parents Andy and Shirley, who flew in from Vancouver. “It was pretty heated obviously… I think it was obviously a change of pace but once I got used to that I was pretty comfortable.”

Globe And Mail LOADED: 10.06.2013

719847 Toronto Maple Leafs

Downtown Toronto awash with blue and white ahead of Leafs home opener

GEORGE HALIM

TORONTO — The Globe and Mail

Published Saturday, Oct. 05 2013, 4:59 PM EDT

Last updated Saturday, Oct. 05 2013, 8:38 PM EDT

The 2013-2014 Toronto Maple Leafs season has finally arrived in Toronto, with a sea of blue and white flooding Maple Leaf Square for this year’s tailgate party.

A DJ, giveaways, a jumbo television and bar tables scattered around the square make for a party Leafs fans have been waiting for since last season’s crumbling finish at the hands of the Boston Bruins.

One fan is here for the party, but chooses to sport a Bruins jersey. A choir of boos follows him wherever he goes.

The tailgate party, running until the conclusion of the game, is attracting fans, not only from every corner of the GTA, but a few provinces over as well.

Draped in a Maple Leafs poncho, Tony Merritt made the trek from Alberta, just to see his beloved Maple Leafs play, saying it’s like a ritual for him.

“I’ve been coming here from Calgary for the home opener, banner raisings and other special events for the last 11 years,” said Merritt, a die-hard Maple Leafs fan since the sixties. “I used to watch with my father and grandfather every Saturday night. I just have the passion for the game.”

Hundreds of fans are showcasing the love for their hockey team despite brisk conditions that are expected to continue cooling as the game draws closer.

Regardless, it doesn’t stop these fans wearing helmets, boots and sporting face paint, who have been anxiously waiting for home opener since last season.

Andrew Teodoro woke up at 8 a.m., –nearly 12 hours prior to game time– to line up five hours before the gates were set to open.

“This is what we live for, there’s blue and white running through our blood,” said Teodoro, amid a booming, but frequent, ‘Go Leafs Go’ chant. “We’re here to have fun, we’re here to support our team and this is what we cherish in this city.”

The Ottawa Senators are in town for the battle of Ontario with puck drop slated for just after 7 p.m. at a sold out Air Canada Centre.

Globe And Mail LOADED: 10.06.2013

719848 Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs’ winger Kulemin out two weeks after suffering ankle injury in practice

Stephen Whyno

TORONTO — The Canadian Press

Published Saturday, Oct. 05 2013, 1:10 PM EDT

Last updated Saturday, Oct. 05 2013, 4:58 PM EDT

Already missing David Clarkson, the Toronto Maple Leafs will have to get through at least the next two weeks without Nikolai Kulemin, as well.

Kulemin is out with a bone chip in his ankle suffered when he blocked a shot in practice Friday.

“It’s just a small bone broken in the ankle,” coach Randy Carlyle said. “To say it’s not a significant injury would be incorrect. It’s one of those things.”

The 27-year-old right-winger could have played on the injured ankle for a month because it wasn’t a displaced fracture, Carlyle said, but the team and doctors decided not to talk that chance. Kulemin is wearing a walking boot to immobilize the ankle.

The Leafs called up Spencer Abbott from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies to take Kulemin’s spot alongside Joffrey Lupul and Nazem Kadri beginning with Saturday night’s home opener against the Ottawa Senators.

“He had a strong training camp for us and when he went back to the Marlies in the two exhibition games, from their coaching staff’s advice, he was clearly the best player on the ice,” Carlyle said. “So in our minds, that’s what we asked for: Who was the best player in the situation when we lost Kulemin and we need a player that’s going to come in and play higher in our lineup than what we have here, so we’ve done that.”

A couple of weeks ago it looked like the Leafs wouldn’t have any shortage of options. Clarkson was slated to play big minutes on the right side, but the free-agent acquisition won’t be available to play until Oct. 25 at the Columbus Blue Jackets after being suspended for the first 10 regular-season games for leaving the bench to enter an altercation in the pre-season.

Toronto traded Joe Colborne, who would have likely been the top option to replace Kulemin, to the Calgary Flames for a fourth-round pick. The cap-strapped Leafs would have had to put the 23-year-old through waivers and risk losing him for nothing if they kept him around but he did not remain on the NHL roster.

But those moves put the team in even more of a bind with Kulemin shelved. His spot on the penalty kill will have to be filled by committee, with Carlyle mentioning James van Riemsdyk, Dave Bolland, Mason Raymond, Carter Ashton, Troy Bodie and even Tyler Bozak as options.

“We’re going to need other people to step up and fill those minutes because as far as our first penalty-killing [forward] pair it was Kulemin and [Jay] McClement, so now we have to have somebody else step into that role,” the Leafs’ coach said.

Kulemin had two assists in the Leafs’ first two games of the season.

Globe And Mail LOADED: 10.06.2013

719849 Toronto Maple Leafs

Maple Leafs: Raymond’s spinarama shootout move leaves Senators reeling

By: Kevin McGran Sports Reporter, Published on Sun Oct 06 2013

The secret’s out.

Mason Raymond has a spinarama shootout move. And because of it — plus a three-point performance from the former Vancouver Canuck — the Maple Leafs are off to a 3-0-0 start.

Raymond’s controversial spinarama held up as the winner as the Leafs defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-4 on Saturday night in their home opener.

“I’ve been in the West for six years,” said Raymond, who signed a one-year deal with the Leafs in training camp. “Do they know it in the East as much? Maybe not. We’re in this market now. I’m sure that move will be the subject of a little bit of talk. It spreads quick.”

The Senators didn’t like the move at all. Senators coach Paul MacLean hated it and was screaming at the officials after it was allowed.

“I was on a conference call at the start of the year with all the other coaches and was informed at that time, I was with Bryan Murray, that that play would be seriously reviewed and you’re taking a chance that it would be an illegal play and the goal would be disallowed in the spinarama move,” said MacLean.

“And we informed our players of that, and we don’t do that. I think it’s a very unfair play for the goaltender for the guy to come in and blow snow on him. To me, he came to a full stop and the puck went backwards and came forwards, but that’s me. I’m only a fisherman from Nova Scotia, so I don’t know nothin’ about nothin’.

Raymond said it’s his go-to move.

“What I like most about it is I’ve been successful at it. It’s one that seems to raise some debate. It’s been successful, why not?” said Raymond. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. From my standpoint, I don’t know why I can’t keep using it.

“I’ve been stopped a few times on it, too. It’s not a move you can use every day.”

The Leafs went 0-5 in the shootout last year and are a team historically bad at the novelty tiebreak.

“It went in the net,” said Leafs coach Randy Carlyle. “Which word didn’t you understand?”

Toronto Star LOADED: 10.06.2013

719850 Toronto Maple Leafs

Maple Leafs win home opener, Jonathan Bernier stands tall: Cox

By: Damien Cox Sports Columnist, Published on Sat Oct 05 2013

It’s been about the hockey future for so long in these parts that one surely wondered if we would be able to recognize the hockey present when it arrived.

Apparently, however, it has.

The long nightmare of Maple Leaf Nation that began a decade ago and included season after painful season of waffling ownership, questionable management, inconsistent coaching and lots and lots of bad players may finally be over.

You can say that not just because the Leafs won their first two games of the 2013-14 season on the road, and then followed up on Saturday night in their 96th home opener with a thrill-a-minute, come-from-behind 5-4 shootout triumph over the Ottawa Senators that showed how entertaining the sport can be some nights.

It’s not about just three games, and it’s not just about a new goaltending hero in town in 25-year-old Jonathan Bernier, who surely made a lot of believers in a fabulous relief performance against the Senators.

No, you can say the nightmare appears to finally be over because for the first time in a decade, the Leafs appear to have their house in order.

They not only are saying they want to win. They seem to know how to go about it, and are trying to do it properly and patiently.

There’s a recognizable scent of, yes, competence in the air.

Finally, after all kinds of turmoil and errors, this is an organization that is emphasizing the right things and making good, solid hockey decisions. It’s a young team that sometimes (like for much of Saturday night) looks not-quite-ready-for-prime-time, but is growing together and making its better players, like Phil Kessel and Tyler Bozak, want to stay and be part of it.

The serious rebuilding of this franchise started five years ago when Brian Burke — who was in the building Saturday night — brought a new level of focus and ambition to town, which should be a reference point for other franchises, and the Leafs.

It takes that long, and lots and lots of losing, to fix a mess if you make one.

As of today, the Leafs aren’t world beaters or Stanley Cup contenders, but they’re no longer laughingstocks and they’re absolutely nobody’s punching bag.

Three games into an 82-game schedule, GM Dave Nonis, who succeeded Burke last January, is looking as though he had as good an off-season as any hockey GM. David Bolland, picked up from the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks, scored two goals Wednesday in the road victory in Philadelphia, and Mason Raymond, signed to a tryout six weeks ago, was outstanding on Saturday night with a goal, two assists and a spectacular spin-a-rama score for the shootout winner.

Bernier, picked up from L.A. in a big summer trade, delighted the more prehistoric Leaf fans in the pre-season by getting into one of those goofy goalie fights, and on Saturday night made ACC patrons happy a more conventional way.

He took over for a struggling James Reimer partway through with the Leafs trailing 4-2, stopped 15 shots without error and ultimately helped push the game to a shootout.

He faced two shooters and neither could score, leaving new CEO Tim Leiweke — also an L.A. import — pumping his fist and hugging other fans in the plush platinum seats while a packed Maple Leaf Square outside went berserk.

So that’s how the week in Leafland ended, a week that began with the signing of Kessel to an eight-year, $64 million contract, the richest in Leaf history.

The Leafs then walked into Montreal on Tuesday and stole a win, wrecking the Habs home opener, then did the same in Philly the next night.

Suddenly, a 10-game suspension to expensive free agent David Clarkson during the exhibition season doesn’t seem quite as devastating a blow.

The absence of Clarkson and other regulars due to injuries created a void, and the Leafs filled it with three young players making their NHL debuts on the biggest hockey stage in North America.

Morgan Rielly, 19, was Toronto’s first-round pick in 2012. He had a difficult first period, but by overtime head coach Randy Carlyle was turning to him like a trusted veteran.

Wingers Spencer Abbott and Jamie Devane, the long and short of it, didn’t play as much, but both represent interesting elements in the Toronto rebuild.

The six-foot-five Devane was drafted four years ago, one of Burke’s first picks as he began remodelling the team into a big, intimidating unit. The 25-year-old Abbott was regarded as too small to be a serious pro prospect and was never drafted, but caught the eye of the Leafs two years ago while putting up big offensive numbers at the University of Maine.

Both were trained last season by Toronto’s farm operation, as was Rielly in the AHL playoffs last spring.

Teaching and training players. What a concept.

These are all small pieces in a big, complicated puzzle that seems to be coming into focus for the Leafs after a painful process that at times seemed to be leading the team nowhere.

The Cup? That’s still a distant dream.

But dreams are at least possibly now that the nightmare is over.

Toronto Star LOADED: 10.06.2013

719851 Toronto Maple Leafs

Maple Leafs: Young D-man Rielly right at home in debut outing: DiManno

By: Rosie DiManno Columnist, Published on Sat Oct 05 2013

Now playing: I Was a Teenage Maple Leaf Defenceman.

Traditionally, this would be a horror movie — the kid who opens the creaky door at the top of the NHL staircase while audiences are screaming at management DON’T DO IT! The Leaf landscape is littered with bodies of baby-faced naïfs, most tragically greenhorn rearguards rushed into the big team’s lineup, only to be buzz-sawed in the first reel or axed in the head before the closing credits.

Morgan Rielly may be the exception, a 19-year-old who not only survives the slasher gore but gets the pretty girl at the end. Or, in this kid’s case, a Labrador called Maggie, the pet pooch left behind in Vancouver and kennelled Saturday morning by Rielly’s parents as they rushed to make a Toronto flight, arriving in time to witness their son’s NHL debut in the Leafs’ Air Canada Centre curtain-raiser against Ottawa, and, golly, a shootout 5-4 win at that.

Repeat: A shootout win. There were zero (0) of those last season, which was actually this year, in the lockout-truncated schedule.

If Rielly sticks, Maggie gets a ticket to the centre of the universe too, where the Leafs are now savouring their 3-0 start out of the chute.

He is a stud, the highest-drafted Leaf in 23 years, which speaks as much to Rielly’s innate talent as to the franchise’s ruinous habit of trading away draft picks.

First time out, though, he got a bit bloodied, drawn into the dark side of turnovers and giveaways by his D-duo partner Cody Franson while the eye-popping heroics were served up by free-agent acquisition Mason Raymond: a goal to start things (second as a Leaf), two assists and (gotta say) a helluva cheesy shootout spinarama trick that earned a tick in the scoring column and went down as da winnah! on the game.

“Things are going well so far,” Raymond understated.

As it turned out, it was The Nightmare on Bay Street for Toronto starter James Reimer instead, fright night between the pipes — ah yes, there’s the puck-handling conniption we all remember so well — yanked halfway through the second, by which point the Senators had pumped a rubber quartet past him, No. 3 and No. 4 only 15 seconds apart, Toronto trailing by a pair. Coach Randy Carlyle, no slouch with the hook, propelled Jonathan Bernier over the boards for his ad lib initiation as Leafgoalie@home. He gave up nothing in regulation and was the eventual SO victor.

A bit tough to watch for the hoisted Reimer? “I’m not going to sit on the bench and hope my teammate plays bad,” the stopper-interruptus said afterwards to a TV reporter who’d asked a very dumb question. “That’s not your mindset. I know what kind of team we have in here and I knew we were going to come back. I was disappointed getting pulled because I have a good feeling about this group and I know we can come back. I kind of figured we would.”