The Leafs finished their regular season on a high note last night. defeating the Rangers 3-2 in a game where several players hit milestones, including William Nylander getting his fortieth goal of the season. Here's our recap of the game:
Adam Seldo
The NHL has announced the first two games of the series will be on Tuesday and Thursday here in Toronto. That was assumed to be the case, but now it's official. Unfortunately, that's all they announced. The dates for the rest of the games and game times will be announced sometime later today. I guess there's still a few venue or broadcast conflicts to sort out, but presumably the game #3 in Tampa will be on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Marlies wrap up their regular season this weekend with back-to-back home games against the Belleville Senators. All that's left to be decided now is who they will play. It will be the winner of a play-in best-of-three tournament which will happen next week and will be between two of the Utica Comets, Laval Rocket, and Cleveland Monsters, but which two of those three is still to be determined. Either way, the only hockey this weekend is at the Coliseum at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Other News
Canada defeated Sweden last night at the Women's World Championship to get a spot in the semi-finals, though it was a tough fight and the game went all the way to overtime until Sarah Nurse ended it with this shot.
SARAH NURSE SENDS CANADA TO THE SEMI-FINALS!#WomensWorlds pic.twitter.com/lSdSiPIXMS
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) April 13, 2023
The updated schedule is:
| GAME | DATE | TIME | TEAMS | TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Placement | Friday, April 14 | 3:00 pm EDT | FIN vs GER | TSN 5 |
| Placement | Friday, April 14 | 7:00 pm EDT | JPN vs SWE | TSN 5 |
| SF 1 | Saturday, April 15 | 12:00 pm EDT | USA vs CZE | TSN 4, RDS, NHLN |
| SF 2 | Saturday, April 15 | 4:00 pm EDT | CAN vs SUI | TSN 4, RDS, NHLN |
| 5th Place | Sunday, April 16 | 9:00 am EDT | TSN 4 | |
| Bronze | Sunday, April 16 | 3:00 pm EDT | TSN 4, RDS 2, NHLN | |
| Gold | Sunday, April 16 | 7:00 pm EDT | TSN 1/3/4, RDS, NHLN |
Craig Anderson won what is presumably his final career game last night and there was a rare salute from both teams on the ice for one of the very few players in the league over the age of 40, and I think possibly the only one left older than me (he was born three months before I was). In an ironic twist, the team he beat in the game was the Senators, the team where he spent all of last decade and was an occasional thorn in the Leafs side.
Finally, Ontario is cracking down on gambling advertising, including a proposal to ban athletes, playing now or retired, from appearing in commercials.
This won't stop the flow of money to advertising, but it's going to change where it lands quite a bit. I expect a major reduction in the TV commercials that feature celebrities and athletes who have expensive appearance fees and that freed-up cash to instead be dumped into significantly more online native advertising and sponsored segments in podcasts.
