The Auston Matthews era is here. After a symbolic jersey handover yesterday from Tavares to Matthews it's a whole new Maple Leafs.

Well, actually it's not. Nothing has really changed here, a fact that all the speakers appeared to have in their talking points and repeated repeatedly. This was already his team according to Tavares, with this move simply to make that public, though it also throws accountability onto his shoulders, but what happens "in the room" such as that means to the players it that this move already happened long ago.

Here's the post-announcement scrums in full:

Also in that video we got one little tidbit of info from Bread Treliving on the continuing off-season mystery of what happened with the signing of defenceman Jani Hakanpää in free agency which Treliving himself announced on a Zoom call over a month ago, but has still never been formalised on the NHL website, or with any official press release by the Leafs.

So it remains a mystery what exactly is happening with that contract, though it seems obviously to have something to do with his knee injury and surgery earlier this year, unless there's something totally out of left field that is yet to be revealed.

Other News

Because someone challenged them to make DoPS worse.

Getzlaf joins NHL Department of Player Safety | NHL.com
Former center played 17 seasons for Ducks, won Stanley Cup in 2007
NHL logoNHL Public Relations

VERWHRLGBRGLBRGL will be bringing the Cup to Hamilton on August 19, though he's from Waterdown, something of which he would probably remind you of as those water townies are all too bourgeoisie to admit they actually live in Hamilton.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/carter-verhaeghe-stanley-cup-1.7294676

Finally, in honour of the new Captain's favourite, here's a recipe for tortilla soup. I assume Auston's mom doesn't make a vegan version, but the base is probably very close, so you can simply sub out the squash for chicken or steak if you like, but squash is good!

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for three sisters tortilla soup | The new vegan
The three sisters are corn, beans and squash, which go together just as well as they grow together, as proven by this thick soup with avocado and tortilla
The GuardianMeera Sodha

From The Branches