TORONTO — The opening days of NHL training camp are all about hope. They are a chance to get excited about top prospects and cobble together imaginative lineups and celebrate the unheralded players that begin to make a name for themselves.
Then suddenly the fun is over.
Reality tends to set in quickly and, as the Toronto Maple Leafs are currently experiencing, reality is full of difficult choices.
It’s one thing to bring 17 forwards on one-way contracts to camp and say that some will leave disappointed; it’s quite another to see that gameplan through, especially with a couple youngsters entering the mix by outplaying veterans.
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Moreover, Monday night’s game in Detroit will be the seventh over a frantic eight-day stretch for the Leafs and it leaves just one final exhibition outing on the calendar before they start counting for real.
Yes, it’s shaping up as an interesting week.
Still to be clarified is whether this team is actually going to go through with the changes it hinted at over the summer. That starts in the immediate term with the final roster decisions, but will soon include the way that 23-man group is employed and performs together.
Sitting in the Air Canada Centre press box on Sunday night, it was hard to miss the troubling similarities to last year. An AHL-filled Buffalo Sabres lineup controlled possession and the shots clock — the Leafs have been outshot 146-100 over their past four exhibition games — while Phil Kessel played 21 minutes and Colton Orr saw four in the shootout victory.
Of all the ways the Leafs have vowed to change, employing a more balanced lineup seems most crucial. That is why general manager Dave Nonis acquired so many depth players in the off-season. It’s also why the competition here is said to be wide open.
In other words, this isn’t the time to change course or fall back into old habits.
After the game, Randy Carlyle provided one potential glimpse into the new universe on Sunday when speaking about Brandon Kozun, a 24-year-old with no NHL experience who was completely under the radar entering this camp.
The pint-sized winger has managed to stand out in exhibition games because of his skating ability and non-stop effort. In fact, he’s been impossible to miss. As a former junior scoring star, Kozun would also seem to be exactly the kind of skilled down-the-lineup player the organization wants.
Still, to even consider putting him on the team right now would mean having to demote one more veteran, but Carlyle seemed to hint that his place was set. While indicating that he wanted “tamper enthusiasm” when it came to Kozun, he added: “I don’t think we’re making decisions based on the people you’re talking about right tonight.”
“He jumps out at you because of his speed,” said Carlyle. “The challenge will be and is for the small guy, for the smaller player in stature, to make an impact. The same impact that he was making at the American Hockey League, can that continue on into the NHL against bigger, stronger, faster-skating defencemen?”
Sure, we’re looking for clues in parsed words here, but those statements threw yet more uncertainty into cuts that need to be made by next week.
These can’t be comforting times for Mike Santorelli or Matt Frattin or Colton Orr or David Booth or Petri Kontiola. They are all veteran players — Kontiola paid $600,000 out of his own pocket to leave the KHL this summer and take another shot at the NHL — and aren’t assured of a spot on the Leafs opening night roster.
Injuries are sure to dictate some of the decisions. There will likely be one extra forward spot available to start the year after David Clarkson suffered facial injuries in a fight while Booth left Sunday’s game with a bruised foot after blocking a shot.
As for the bubble players, it has been youngsters like Kozun and Josh Leivo that have attracted the most attention. It’s clear when speaking with both that they believe a job is now within reach.
“The biggest piece of advice anyone’s ever given me is just to worry about yourself,” said Kozun. “That’s all you can control. You can’t worry about what decisions people are making or what contracts people are on.
“I’m just here to get better every day and do my best while I’m here.”
Leivo added the he likes a “challenge.” The 21-year-old winger wasn’t discouraged while seeing the team add so many forwards in July and August.
“The coaches have to make some decisions,” he said. “I’m just going out and playing every game the way I’ve been playing and hopefully it impresses them enough to keep me on the squad.”
What that often means is a lot of calculation.
Players will be looking at the depth chart, looking around the dressing room, looking at who is getting what exhibition assignments and projecting how they fit into the bigger puzzle.
“You’re only human, right?” said centre Peter Holland, who appears to be on the right side of the bubble at the moment. “You’re definitely going to feel some stress, especially with the quality of players that are here — not just the quantity. There’s only a certain amount of spots.
“So yeah, there’s a little bit of pressure.”
The real pressure begins once the roster decisions are made.