Sport-scan daily brief

Three Leaf scrubeenies launched their NHL careers in this up-down-sideways-tied-OT-shootout encounter: Rielly, Spencer Abbott and Jamie Devane. But “Morgs” — as he’s known in the dressing room, diminutive further evidence of his comer status — is the most beguiling, a training camp hotshot who’s earned the guarded trust of the coaching staff, at least temporarily, including a bench boss who well remembers the heebie-jeebies of crashing into the league as a Leaf, which he did 37 autumns ago. “It’s like you were seen but not heard. Shut up and do what you’re told.”

It was hardly Rielly’s fault that he went into the dressing room after 40 minutes a minus-3 on the scoresheet. “You know, on paper it’s probably not the greatest game I’ve ever played but I’m pretty happy with how it went. I felt like I improved as I kept playing.”

Hours earlier, he’d admitted having a fantasy about how his first NHL game would unfold, though he wouldn’t share. “I don’t want to jinx it.”

Rielly was partnered with Franson, arguably the best defenceman in Toronto’s first three games. Unforeseen by everybody was that it would be Franson dragging Reilly down in their initial outing, two giveaways in a row equalling two goals for the Senators. So Reilly was really a standby casualty, more often bailing out his older half, and unscathed by his own worst-moment turnover in the third, just before just before James van Riemsdyk tied things 4-4.

It should be noted that Carlyle stuck with Rielly all evening, despite some blunders, denying him no regular shifts and sending him out on the power play early in the second, plus-minus statistics be damned.

“It was pretty heated,” Rielly said of the game, adding elliptically: “To have the game be as heated as it was, that was pretty cool.”

Franson had spoken highly of his tenderfoot D-mate earlier in the day, struck by Rielly’s apparent composure. “What’s impressive about him is that he feels totally normal. He walks around here totally confident. He’s just having a lot of fun with it.”

It couldn’t possibly have been any more nerve-wracking for the sturdy six-footer with the barely there chin stubble — a soft blond bristle — and pale blue eyes that dilated with excitement when his inclusion on the manifest was confirmed. “Toronto Maple Leaf home opener against Ottawa. That’s a good place to start.”

A first-round draft pick, fifth overall just a year ago, Rielly had been planted in the pressbox for Toronto’s first two games. The youngster’s opening arrived with a knee injury to Mark Fraser, who was placed on injured reserve Friday.

The Leafs get to keep Rielly around for a maximum of nine games, lineup dressed, without triggering the first year of his entry-level contract. Nine games and back to the Moose Jaw Warriors in the WHL — or, alternatively, stay with the parent club, which he might very well merit.

The advice had come fast and furious and Rielly was trying to absorb it all. “Just play your game, play with confidence. That’s been a pretty constant theme. I’m going to try to concentrate on the game and not be too worried about everything else that’s going on, with it being the home opener.”

By the time this sucker went into overtime, three hours after the opening-night festivities got off to a pipe-swirling start, Rielly probably had forgotten all about the game’s special aspects. And Coach Carlyle had him out on the first OT shift. In that extra frame, Rielly very nearly won it for Toronto. For a split-second, it was almost a dream come true, as fantasized, with Rielly believing he would bury the puck behind Craig Anderson. “I did. I did. I thought I had him. I think I just hit his pants there in front.”

This teen, methinks, isn’t going west, young man. And Maggie should be getting on a jet plane soon.

Toronto Star LOADED: 10.06.2013

719852 Toronto Maple Leafs

Ex-Leaf MacArthur sounds off on Carlyle

By: Kevin McGran Sports Reporter, Published on Sat Oct 05 2013

First Mikhail Grabovski sounded off about Randy Carlyle. Now Clarke MacArthur has done the same thing.

The Ottawa Senators forward sounded like a bitter ex-Maple Leaf, saying that being a healthy scratch in the post-season by Carlyle sucked the fun out of the game for him.

“It was a tough way to end it,” MacArthur told Sportsnet. “Just getting scratched in the playoffs, that was it for me. I came back and I scored some goals that were good for the team, but I was done here after that. That was it, the game of hockey, it wasn’t exciting coming in any more. It was time to move on.”

Carlyle shrugged off MacArthur’s comments Saturday night.

“How could they say something unkind about me?” said Carlyle. “When players are gone, we don’t throw any dirt. We thank them for their effort and we hold them with highest esteem.

“If he has something negative to say, that’s up to him. I choose to ignore (it). I’ve got a new set of players. I wish him all the luck in the world.”

MacArthur, whose role with the Leafs diminished under Carlyle, signed a two-year, $6.5 million deal with Ottawa over the summer. His former Leaf linemate, Grabovski, was bought out.

MacArthur had eight goals and 20 assists last year, playing in 40 of 48 games in the lockout-shortened season. He scored one goal in the last 18 games in which he was healthy.

Grabovksi called Carlyle an “idiot” in an expletive-filled interview with TSN after the buyout. Grabovski, too, saw his ice time shrink under Carlyle. Now he’s a second-line centre again with the Washington Capitals.

“He was a guy who had 30 goals and two years of 55 or whatever points, and then Randy came in and it just didn’t work out,” MacArthur was quoted as saying of Grabovski. “They turned him into a checker and look at him now — four points in his first game (with Washington), three goals.

“Who is right there? I don’t know.”

MacArthur acknowledged Carlyle won the 2007 Stanley Cup in Anaheim with the same gruff style.

“It’s one of those things where he runs the show there and everyone knows that and that’s the way it is,” said MacArthur. “It’s worked for him in the past, he’s got a (Stanley) Cup from that, but at the same time there’s other ways to do things, too.”

MacArthur said he didn’t have a working relationship with Carlyle, that the only time they spoke was when the coach criticized his play.

“Some guys are good with the criticism and some guys don’t want to hear it every single shift you come off the ice,” MacArthur said. “You’re old enough to know (you) made a mistake. You don’t need to hear it every five seconds.

“It weighs differently on different people and, for me, it was some long days.”

Toronto Star LOADED: 10.06.2013

719853 Toronto Maple Leafs

Maple Leafs to go with James Reimer and three rookies in home opener

By: Kevin McGran Sports Reporter, Published on Sat Oct 05 2013

There will be more than just Morgan Rielly making his NHL debut in the Maple Leafs home opener Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators.

Forward Spencer Abbott is also expected to play his first game for the Maple Leafs, replacing Nikolai Kulemin, who is out at least two weeks with a chipped bone in his ankle.

Abbott skated with Nazem Kadri and Joffrey Lupul in a spot that was supposed to be for David Clarkson, highly paid free agent winger who is serving a 10-game suspension for coming off the bench in a pre-season fight.

It was Marlies coach Steve Spott who phoned Abbott on Friday, waking him up, to tell him the news.

“It’s what you dream of as a kid, playing in the NHL,” said Abbott. “It’s one of the best moments in my life. It’s pretty special.”

The Leafs signed Abbott, now 25, as a free agent after he finished his career at the University of Maine. The Hamilton native will have an entourage of family and friends in for the game.

“He had a strong training camp for us,” Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said of Abbott. “When he went back to the Marlies, in their two exhibition games, he was clearly the best player on the ice. We need a player who can play higher in our lineup than what we have here.”

While Abbott’s arrival is a surprise, Rielly’s was more anticipated. The highly touted defenceman is replacing the injured Mark Fraser.

“I’m pretty excited. It’s a pretty cool opportunity,” said Rielly after the Saturday morning skate.

James Reimer, who is 8-1-1 against Ottawa in his career, will start in net for the Leafs.

In addition to Rielly and Abbott, the Leafs will have a third rookie in their lineup — Carter Ashton. A fourth, Jamie Devane, is expected to be a healthy scratch.

This many rookies is not exactly how Carlyle mapped out the beginning of the season. But the hole created by Clarkson’s suspension — which was a factor in the team trading Joe Colborne — has gotten bigger and bigger.

“We look at it as an opportunity” said Carlyle. “You’re going to have to add young players to your lineup. Every team does it. You add them through them outcompeting veterans, through sickness, through injuries.

“Now we’re getting young players vying for the opportunity to make it to the big club.”

Toronto Star LOADED: 10.06.2013

719854 Toronto Maple Leafs

You hate Sens fans too? Here's why

By Mike Strobel ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Saturday, October 05, 2013 07:29 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, October 05, 2013 10:03 PM EDT

TORONTO - I try to hate Senators fans, I really do.

But why? It makes no sense. Hating Ottawa Senators’ supporters is like hating plankton or tree moss or nitrogen dioxide.

Sure, it is possible to dislike them, but what’s the point? There is none of the joy, the delicious tingle, that a deep distaste for Habs fans brings you.

Senators fans seem too vague and quiet to hate. Look at them closely. They are actually slightly out of focus. As if they’re stuck in Casablanca in 1942.

Senators fan: You despise me, don’t you?

Humphrey Bogart: If I gave you any thought I probably would.

Likely, your feeling toward Sens fans has been akin to a dull headache or a stone in your shoe. Annoying, not infuriating.

Battle of Ontario? Marketing hooey.

But a chart in Thursday’s Sun finally pointed the way to a good, healthy revulsion.

It showed the median income of families in 33 Canadian metropolitan areas.

Ottawa-Gatineau topped the list at $93,440. Toronto trailed badly, at a meager $69,740, and every burg from Victoria to St. John’s floundered in the national capital’s wake.

Surprise, surprise. The city where the taxman lives, the city that demands an obscene cut of our sweat-stained wages, is home to the wealthiest citizens in the land. Worse, they become so by suckling at the teats of the nation, including your teat, your family’s teat, your friends’ teat, and your dog’s teat.

And they are Sens fans.

So that explains our subconscious loathing of them. But there’s more, if you bother to think about it.

For one thing, Ottawans, are getting uppity lately.

When I lived there for a spell in the 1970s, the locals were embarrassed about their city, and rightly so.

“The best thing about Ottawa,” outsiders used to say, “is it’s only two hours to Pembroke.”

Now, Ottawans gloat when a University of Toronto think-tank says their city is tops in the world’s “creative” economy. Seattle and Oslo are second and third and Toronto is 25th.

“Look at us!” they gush. “We beat Oslo!”

Big deal. “Creative economy?” It just means Ottawa is infested with nerds, bohemians and women in sensible shoes, many of whom can be found snoozing in the stands of Canadian Tire Centre at Senators games, presumably waiting to collect their play money and go home to their basements.

Mind you, the Air Canada Centre is not exactly Thrillsville on hockey night, either. But at least it’s blue and white.

That’s the thing. The thrill at Canadian Tire Centre is created by fans of the opposing team.

When the Leafs visit Ottawa, Sundin, Gilmour and Kessel jerseys outnumber the Alfredssons and Spezzas. With Les Canadiens in town, Lafleur or Price sweaters dominate.

It got so bad last season, the Senators offered discounts on tickets if purchasers promised not to re-sell them to rival fans.

“Any seats being re-sold will be subject to cancellation and loss of privileges,” the front office warned. (Tough talk in a town that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion was six. She was 46 when Toronto last had one.)

Ushers at the Ottawa rink have been known to order Leafs fans to sit down and shut up. Habs and Bruins fans often commandeer the parking lot.

At home, the Senators strive desperately to score first, so as to take the crowd out of the game.

See what I mean? Sens’ fans aren’t the “seventh man,” they’re the Invisible Man.

You only notice them if they sit right behind the bench and are dead-ringers for coach Paul MacLean, which was the high point of Senators fandom last year.

But who can blame them? If you suckled freely at the public bosom and had a job for life, you’d keep a low profile, too.

Toronto Sun LOADED: 10.06.2013

719855 Toronto Maple Leafs

NHL debut leaves Maple Leafs' Rielly in stitches

By Terry Koshan ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Sunday, October 06, 2013 12:03 AM EDT | Updated: Sunday, October 06, 2013 12:06 AM EDT

Morgan Rielly won’t forget his first National Hockey League game.

But chances are good that the 19-year-old Maple Leafs defenceman won’t frame a copy of the game sheet and gaze at it longingly years after his professional career is done.

“You know, on paper it’s probably not the greatest game ever played, but I am pretty happy with how it went,” Rielly said after the Leafs beat the visiting Ottawa Senators 5-4 in a shootout at the Air Canada Centre.

“I felt like I improved as I kept playing.”

The devil usually is in the details, and the written word was not pretty. Rielly, paired for the most part with Cody Franson, played 18 minutes seven seconds, was minus-3 and was charged with four giveaways.

But as his parents, Andy and Shirley, watched from the seats after flying across the country from Vancouver on Saturday, Rielly kept getting the tap on his shoulder from Leafs coach Randy Carlyle.

There were several shifts for Rielly late in the third period after James van Riemsdyk had tied the game 4-4, and two more in overtime, during which Rielly nearly won the game with a shot from the slot that was deflected wide.

“He’s a young kid who has skill and he earned it,” Carlyle said of the shifts in the crucial situations.

“You can see he can separate himself with his skating ability, he can read plays, he just needs to get his feet underneath him at the NHL level.

“We’re making a tough decision on the future of a young player.”

The window for that decision is down to eight games, now that Rielly has played in one. He can play in nine before the Leafs have to determine whether he stays or heads back to Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League. If Rielly steps on to the ice for a 10th game, he is going to stay.

With Mark Fraser nursing a knee injury that will keep him out for an extended period, it appears that Rielly will have every opportunity to demonstrate he is a capable NHL regular.

Franson was steady through the Leafs’ first two games, also victories, but struggled alongside Rielly on Saturday night. It wasn’t the kind of guiding hand Rielly needed, and the pair was on the ice for the first three Senators goals. On the third, Rielly got tangled up with goalie James Reimer, leaving Jared Cowen with an open net from 20 feet.

On the whole, the Leafs defence was not great, and certainly Rielly was not the only one who was part of some breakdowns. And it’s worth remembering that Rielly had not played in a game in a week, going back to the Leafs’ final pre-season game versus Detroit.

“I thought Rielly played well ... as the game went on he got better,” Carlyle said. “We got to see more of what he is about. I think he made some mistakes like we all do, and in the game, specifically in the first half, I don’t think he got a lot of support from his teammates.”

What was most important was the victory, the Leafs’ third of the season in as many games. Rielly had a physical souvenir in the form of several stitches on the bridge of his nose, courtesy of his visor.

There’s no question Rielly, the fifth pick overall in the 2012 draft by the Leafs, has long and successful NHL career in his future.

But they say you never forget your first.

“It was pretty heated, and it got down to it there at the end,” Rielly said. “It’s always cool to be in a game like that. There was a change of pace, but once I got used to it I was pretty comfortable.”

Toronto Sun LOADED: 10.06.2013

719856 Toronto Maple Leafs

Jonathan Bernier steals the show for Toronto Maple Leafs

By Rob Longley ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Saturday, October 05, 2013 10:47 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, October 05, 2013 11:44 PM EDT

Four words was all it took for Randy Carlyle to describe the current state of his team’s goaltending competition.

“It makes it easier,” the Leafs coach said when asked if the performance of James Reimer and Jonathan Bernier on Saturday night affects his decision-making process on the crowded crease.

That it does.

All Bernier did in a crazy 5-4 shootout win over the Ottawa Senators was steal the show, a victory and perhaps the incumbent’s shot at retaining the No. 1 spot in the Toronto net.

Premature or not, Bernier will be the talk of the town on Sunday for the poise he showed in the Leafs net in second-period relief of Reimer as the team climbed out of a 4-2 hole for an unlikely third win of the season.

Of the 15 Bernier saves, at least half a dozen were huge, the biggest arguably the last when he stymied Senators captain Jason Spezza in the shootout.

“It was just one of those games where (Reimer) got those unlucky bounces,” said Bernier, who had just one shootout win in five previous tries. “(The move) was more to get the guys into the game and react from that.”

We’re thinking it was a little more than that. The goalie competition may still be in its early stages, but whatever loyalty Carlyle had to Reimer can now be rinsed from the coach’s decision-making process.

Reimer let four get by him in 21 shots, including two in 15-second blitz in the second period that sent him to the bench. Bernier made big save after big save, had fans chanting his name during a third-period time out and on their feet after the kick-save on Spezza for the win.

In the 29:45 he played (plus shootout) Bernier earned his second consecutive star of the game performance and quite possibly the leading man in the Leafs rotation.

Game On

Mac Attack

Prior to his inability to bury a number of good scoring opportunities on Bernier, former Leaf Clarke MacArthur let it be known he’s no fan of Carlyle. And he sounded as though he couldn’t get out of town fast enough after being benched for a pair of games in the playoffs.

“I didn’t have a relationship (with Carlyle),” MacArthur told Ottawa Sun colleague Don Brennan on Saturday morning. “Not many guys do. It’s one of those things where he runs the show here and everybody knows that.”

“Some guy don’t want to hear it every single shift you come off the ice. I’m old enough to know I made a mistake. You don’t need to hear it every five seconds.”

Carlyle took the high road when asked to respond post game. “We don’t throw dirt any which way,” the coach said. “When a player leaves the organization we thank them for their effort. If he has something negative to say, that’s up to him. I’ve got a new set of players and I wish him all the luck in the world.”

Toronto Sun LOADED: 10.06.2013

719857 Toronto Maple Leafs

Maple Leafs top Senators in shootout

By Lance Hornby ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Saturday, October 05, 2013 10:25 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, October 05, 2013 10:32 PM EDT

TORONTO - The Maple Leafs' first troika of games can be compared to Mason Raymond’s controversial shootout goal on Saturday night.

The end result was achieved, but no one is quite sure of the route there. Despite vital cog David Clarkson suspended, four players injured, the first two games played back-to-back on the road and then pulling the starting goalie down 4-2 in the home opener, the Leafs woke up Sunday morning leading the Eastern Conference.

Raymond is tied for the team’s scoring lead after three points and a goal in the 5-4 shootout win over the Ottawa Senators, but Saturday’s first star was reliever Jonathan Bernier.

He stopped the final 15 of Ottawa’s 36 shots, two more in the shootout and unlike James Reimer, was able to clean up his share of the Leafs’ whopping 33 giveways.

“Coaches aren’t here to cut up wins,” Randy Carlyle said in wrapping up an eventful opening week. “Let’s not over analyze. We didn’t play to the level we’re capable. But we found a way to get two points so we’ll move on.

“The one thing you notice about Bernie when he went in is that there weren’t a lot of rebounds hanging around. The puck was either in his glove or he controlled the rebound which allowed us to box out and stop any wild scrambles.”

Such maddening moments plagued Reimer, though the defence pairing of Cody Franson and NHL neophyte Morgan Rielly weren’t helping. They ended minus three, though Rielly played better at the end.

Raymond and David Bolland were the glue for the Leafs many times in Montreal, Philadelphia and against the Sens. Raymond scored Saturday’s first goal, sent a sweet pass to Nazem Kadri with the Leafs down one and set up Joffrey Lupul on the power play after Bernier bumped Reimer.

“There has been a lot to (adjust) to here,” the former Canuck said of trying out at camp and getting a contract. “The more I’m on the ice, the more confident I get.”

And in a situation that would have fazed many players, a shootout chance on Hockey Night In Canada in his first home game, Raymond zigged, zagged, braked and back-handed in the only goal the Leafs would need. That had Ottawa coach Paul MacLean going crazy on the bench, claiming Raymond had forfeited by stopping.

MacLean said he was on a conference call with all coaches at the start of the year when the league said the spinnerama shootout move would be ‘seriously reviewed’ and possibly disallowed.

“We informed our players of that,” MacLean said. “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’.”