Tuesday FTB: Family reunion

Good morning Toronto Maple Leafs fans!

It's a day off for the team as they travelled to Phoenix from St. Louis after the matinee game yesterday.

It's a great game to attend as a hockey fan from Arizona as local legend Auston Matthews once again returns to the barn the Coyotes play in.

The other great hockey player from Arizona, Matthew Knies, is making his NHL debut for his home team and he's bought out, like, a tenth of the arena for friends and family.

Matthew Knies says he has about 50-60 people going to the game against Arizona “which is probably a section in that arena.”
— David Alter (@dalter) February 19, 2024

Shots fired, yet again at the Coyotes inability to play in / afford rent on an NHL arena. Seriously, it's almost as embarrassing as the owners kid tweeting on the team account.

Is this a post or a tweet?
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) February 16, 2024

L-O-L, right?

But it's fantastic that Knies will have the chance to play for so many people that have supported him on his journey to this moment. One of those people was Auston Matthews.

auston saying the thing he remembered about knies and his brother when he played with him when they were younger was that they've always been jacked. "they had like 8 packs when they were 8 years old"
— resting mitch face (@34sixteen) February 19, 2024

Happy for you Matthew. Now score a hat trick of your own tomorrow.

I said the Leafs were going to win every game of Rielly's suspension and we are one game away from that being correct.

The Leafs are constantly getting a new teammate to bring into the fold. The new guys are being held up by the other new guys.

Hey, should we get an Iginla of our own?

This was a good day for Jarome Iginla, both of his sons (Joe & Tij) scored goals in the WHL today. Here’s the 2 scored by Joe for Edmonton earlier today. pic.twitter.com/RvJynhGKjk
— Jérôme Bérubé (@Jerome_Berube) February 20, 2024

Community owned teams do well - Peterborough Petes and the Kitchener Rangers are examples - and now the QMJHL Acadie-Bathurst Titan are trying this method to keep the team around.