Quick Shifts: Auston Matthews hyped to duel Patrick Kane

Game, set, match to Patrik Laine as he completed the hat trick to stun Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and silly, and rolling four lines deep.

1. Maple Leafs super rookie Auston Matthews didn’t take much time to answer when I asked him which U.S. player he was most excited to skate against.

Patrick Kane. For me, being American and watching him since he’s been in the league, he’s one of my favourite players today. A very fun player to watch. He does something new every game,” Matthews said.

The NHL’s leading goal scorer (yep) was eager to play Kane at the World Cup, but since neither Team North America nor Team USA survived the preliminary round, it never happened. It should come as no surprise, then, that Matthews has circled Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada tilt in Chicago as a special date — the first battle between the most recent U.S.-born No. 1–overall draft picks.

“I haven’t met him personally,” Matthews said of Kane. “I’ve talked to him on the phone a couple of times.”

Last month, Kane was quick to cite Matthews (along with Jack Eichel and Johnny Gaudreau, another Kane fanboy) while explaining why the future of USA hockey is in good hands.

2. Remember how zero Canadian teams qualified for the post-season last spring? Well, the Disappointing Seven has a combined record 18-8-4 through Thursday, and that’s with the Leafs blowing leads like children do dandelions.

Most shocking are the come-from-behind Vancouver Canucks, who stand as the NHL’s only undefeated team. The last time Vancouver won each of its first four games was 1992-93.

The turnaround of those well-summered Canadian clubs shows on the NHL’s stats-leader page:

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3. With the Maple Leafs unveiling their 100 greatest players, I dug up this nugget from my sit-down with P.K. Subban over the summer.

“Growing up in Toronto, I went to the Toronto Maple Leafs professional hockey school. It was run by a minor hockey coach who coached me for eight or nine years, and I remember meeting a ton of ex-Leafs players: Johnny Bower, Darryl Sittler,” Subban said.

“Even though I never saw them play, they were seen as Stanley Cup winners. Legends of their time. When you hear that, you understand what they bring. I got to meet a lot of those guys growing up being a younger player.”

4. In Round 1 of the 2016 playoffs, the Philadelphia Flyers handed out glow-in-the-dark bracelets to fans in honour of Ed Snider. Nice idea, disastrous result.

Ticked off by the home team’s 6-1 loss to Washington that night, about 100 fans chucked their free gift onto the ice, incurring a third-period penalty.

The Flyers again handed out glowing bracelets Thursday night, to commemorate the club’s 50th season.

A reporter asked goalie Steve Mason if he was worried about a repeat performance from Philly fans.

“I guess it’s up to us to give them reasons to keep them on their wrists,” he said.

The Flyers lost 3-2 to Anaheim but kept the score close enough that there was nothing embarrassing to report.

Whew.

5. Last month I asked a handful of players about Jonathan Quick because I was readying a feature on Jonathan Quick for when he stole a World Cup game for Team USA. That never happened.

With Quick out three months and L.A. facing a dilemma in net, here is a feel for what they’re missing.

Carey Price: “He’s very athletic, and he battles. He competes. He reminds me a lot of Mike Richter. I have a lot of respect for Jon and what he’s done in the NHL and the two Stanley Cup rings that he has. There’s a reason that he’s had success in this league—it’s his compete level. Every young goalie that wants to make the NHL should look at him and say, ‘That’s how hard I need to compete every day.’ ”

Drew Doughty: “He’s almost always on, but when he’s really on in practice, you might see two goals go by him the whole time. That’s how good he is.”

Ryan Getzlaf: “Quickie battles right to the end all the time and does a great job of covering the bottom half of the net with his pads. You have to find ways to get second opportunities on him.”

Anze Kopitar: “The first word that comes to my mind is he’s very powerful. His ability to move and cover the bottom part of the net is one of the best, if not the best, in the league. His legs are very powerful. He goes post-to-post in a heartbeat. It’s tough to beat him low. I guess it’s tough to beat him anywhere.”

6. How fun was the “Hat Trick” Laine game in Winnipeg Wednesday? Matthews (first game) and Laine (fourth) are now the earliest top two draft picks to score hat tricks in NHL history. So great to see another the skilled, young Finn in the ‘Peg — and to see Teemu Selanne tweeting at the kid.

“What was Teemu’s rookie record again?” Laine asked reporters after the game. Seventy-six goals. “OK. So, I can have six off-games.”

More SeLaine love!

7. Finally, Carey Price played another game for the Montreal Canadiens. It’s almost eerie how focused and calm the guy is. Where does that Zen-like demeanour come from? He says it’s a mix of personality and preparation.

“I’ve done all my thinking in practice. When I get to the game, I let the instincts take over. I’m pretty good at keeping everything in perspective for the most part and not getting too riled up. I’ve always thought that was a strength of mine,” he says.

“I think about scenarios before the game, but I don’t sit down and meditate a whole lot. I iron out all the details in practice.”

What details?

“In-zone play, making strong pushes. Visualizing all the small things, like beating passes and positioning.”

If you think Price is hyped up over the Habs’ 3-0-1 record, think again.

“It’s not how you start that matters; it’s how you finish,” he says. “You can ask us and the Pittsburgh Penguins that.”

8. Hearty congratulations to General Fanager creator Tom Poraszka for turning his passion project into a job with the Las Vegas NHL franchise.

Poraszka ran the NHL’s best salary cap information site. He says he can’t talk about his transition just yet, but this is a guy who worked tirelessly to keep his site up to date and progressive (e.g. the expansion draft simulator).

I interviewed Tom when the site launched in May of 2015.

Despite holding down a full-time job, Poraszka said he was working an additional 30 to 60 hours a week to make General Fanager hum.

“I wake up a few hours early to work on the site, work on it at night, and then on the weekends it’s pretty much all I do,” he said. It paid off.

We’re living in a CapFriendly world now.

9. Ilya Kovalchuk is rejuvenated. The KHL’s most handsomely paid player has an incredible 32 points in 24 games, as he and new teammate Pavel Datsyuk have SKA St. Petersburg head and shoulders above the rest of the league. SKA has lost one of 24 games in regulation, and Kovalchuk celebrated his 100th KHL goal this week and leads the league in that category.

Remember: The sniper’s contract expires April 30. Will he come back to the NHL at 34 years old?

10. Shout out to colleague and rabid Florida Panthers fan Rory Boylen for digging up this team promo from 2006. Olli Jokinen will now give me night terrors.


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11. How much respect do the Tampa Bay Lightning have? The club was just named the best of all 122 major North American sports franchises by ESPN The Magazine. Coach Jon Cooper says that the excellence starts from committed owner Jeff Vinik and runs down. The next highest-ranked NHL team on the list is the Nashville Predators at No. 6.

Often dead last in these annual rankings, the Maple Leafs hopped over the 49ers, Rams, Suns and Browns to improve to No. 118, but Toronto is still the worst-ranked NHL franchise.

12. Spoke to new Carolina Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen. He said he was initially shocked by his trade out of Chicago but quickly got excited by the prospect of warmer winters and more minutes.

We’re only four games deep, but the forward’s ice time has actually dipped from 15:20 as a Blackhawk last year to 12:42. Still, he’s already scored twice.

Interestingly, the main takeaway Teravainen (5’11”, 178 lbs.) had from his time playing with NHL MVP and near identical build Patrick Kane (5’11”, 177 lbs.) was not his shooting or his dangles but his work in the corners.

“He’s a small guy, but he can still protect the puck,” Teravainen says. “That’s the main thing.”

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