Who will be the Leafs starter tonight following the home loss to Pittsburgh is still up in the air, according to Sheldon Keefe, despite Matt Murray being ruled out for the double header against Vancouver.

Erik Källgren stopped 17 of 20 shots in the loss on Friday night, so it’s possible they might want to give him both games, but at this point give the net to the kid, Keith Petruzzelli.

Last night in the HHOF ceremony, the Leafs honoured Börje Salming in an emotional moment for him, Darryl Sittler, and all of us.

On the prospect front, William Villeneuve scored his first career pro goal last night as he joined the rush. The AHL rookie has five points in eight games so far this season, a rate that’s not too far off his best QMJHL season.

The Marlies also signed a goalie yesterday to backup Dryden McKay since Petruzzelli is up with the Leafs. After playing for the Kingston Fronts in the OHL, Bonello split last season with York University where he didn’t get much playing time and the ECHL. After going unsigned to start the season, the Mississauga born goalie is now on a tryout with Marlies.

Pittsburgh grinds out a win against a Leafs team that can’t seem to score | from: Katya

Sheldon Keefe Post Game, Penguins 4 vs. Leafs 2: “Sequences are ending too quickly [offensively]” | from: Maple Leafs Hot Stove

Leafs Mailbag: Getting a chance to show Borje Salming what he means to us | from: Toronto Star

Why ‘emotional’ Borje Salming reception hits home for young Maple Leafs | from: Sportsnet

Maple Leafs dealt yet another painful lesson on what it means to be elite | from: Sportsnet

Zach Aston-Reese is fitting in as a piece of the Maple Leafs’ puzzle | from: Toronto Star

Mark Giordano’s strong play should allow for more opportunity in the Maple Leafs lineup | from: The Leafs Nation

The NHL is pushing the World Cup of Hockey back a year to 2025. This is for many reasons, but namely the Russian one. I give a bit more context into this issue in this article, if you’re interested.

Zach Werenski is out for the season. They also lost Gudbranson and some guy named Nick Blankenburg to injury in the same game so they were playing with only three defenders — Blankenburg was playing on his broken ankle and skated for 20 mins.

Now the caveman stuff. Nicolas Aubé-Kubel blindsided Cal Foote across the offensive blueline last night, causing a huge brawl. Foote didn’t return to the game and is going to be reevaluated. Contact was late, NAK reached, it was all arm on head, resulting in a match penalty and what is surely going to be a suspension.

DURING THE REVIEW, Pat Maroon jumped the boards and fought Garnet Hathaway. That should also be a suspension based on jumping the boards, but it’s likely the refs allowed players on the ice during the review. There were far more than five players on each side on the ice as the players were skating around and staying warm when the jawing and punching started. You’ll notice near the end of the clip Nick Paul wanting to jump in from the bench but someone very quickly told him to get his ass back on the pine.

Same game, but in the late third period with Washington holding a 4-1 lead, John Carlson really did a number of Ross Colton along the boards, causing Colton to retaliate and another brawl to ensue. Corey Perry was fighting Anthony Mantha, Namestnikov was fighting Gustavsson. The game featured a mild 79 total penalty minutes between the two playoff rivals (Washington beat Tampa to get to the finals in 2018).

The two videos are age restricted for violence by Sportsnet so you can click the links in the cards or here: brawl 1 brawl 2

From The Branches