Good morning Toronto Maple Leafs fans!

The rosters for the fake world championships Four Nations Face Off and every team did what they should, and added a Maple Leaf to the roster.

  • Canada: Mitch Marner
  • USA: Auston Matthews
  • Sweden: William Nylander
  • Finland: Jani Hakanpää
Jani Hakanpää on Team Finland
No OEL, though. This is my super serious look at this NHL festival of nationalism.
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

The tournament will take place February 12-20 in lieu of an All-Star Game and Montréal and Boston will play host.

Mitch Marner is on the Canadian team, after the roster was announced last night:

Auston Matthews was named earlies to Team USA:

So, we'll get a break in February for everyone else to heal up and cross our fingers bone of our big names in the tournament get hurt. Or Jani Hakanpää.

Speaking of Maple Leafs, they beat the Nashville Predators in a burst of offense.

Leafs beat the Predators in five minutes of sustained greatness
The Mitch Marner experience is a hell of a ride. That new sidekick of his isn’t bad either.
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

In other news, do we like suspensions?

The Soo Greyhounds are without their coach for two games after he badmouthed the refs at the end of a loss on Saturday.

Dean suspended, fined by OHL
The suspension comes after a weekend incident against the North Bay Battalion
SooToday.comBrad Coccimiglio

Also, top prospect Michael Misa was suspended one game for throwing an object into the stands during a game.

That object? A teddy bear thrown during the teddy bear toss. Real big crime.

The Utah Hockey Clubs are making themselves known in the community.

Utah Hockey Club visit kids at Primary Children’s in Lehi
Utah Hockey Club visit kids at Primary Children’s in Lehi
Yahoo NewsKTVX Salt Lake City

Defense? We're talking about defense?

Craig Berube on the Leafs ranking second-best in the NHL in goals against: “We protect the middle of the ice as best as we can, and we try not to give up odd-man rushes”
Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators, which improved the team’s record to 16-7-2. On the team’s performance: That is a good team over there. I know the record doesn’t show it, but that is a good team. I knew it was going to be a tight […]
Maple Leafs HotstoveMLHS Staff

That's not good.

Study: Odds of CTE increase 34% per year for male hockey players
According to the findings, 18 of 19 deceased NHL player brains studied were found to have CTE.
Daily FaceoffTyler Kuehl

Finally, bad news for the Dallas Stars as they lose one of their star players, and he may not be back this season.

Seguin out 4-6 months for Stars with hip injury | NHL.com
Forward will have surgery, 3rd on team with 20 points this season
NHL logoNHLdotcom

Enjoy your day everyone!

From The Branches