The Leafs lost a heartbreaker in OT after playing great hockey and getting goalied by Igor Shesterkin.

Toronto Maple Leafs fall to the Rangers 2-1 in OT

The long lists for the Olympic men’s teams were due this month, and there was an aside in a Chris Johnston article in the Star that said Hockey Canada is not making theirs public. This is sensible, since the list has to allow for both NHL and non-NHL participation, and will get people riled up over the “bad” players on the list.

The Russians named their coaches, showing they aren’t immune from looking only at guys of a certain age who played in the NHL. That first assistant is better known as Sergei Fedorov, by the way.

No one knows why he did this, not even him:

Every time someone talks about faceoffs, even to just mention it as trivia as here, they prove that faceoffs don’t correlate to game outcomes, and don’t matter except when they really do. The trouble is, you can’t choose to be good when they really do matter.

This is the kind of “but the bounces, though” talk that is actually true:

The Kraken had a bad, bad night, last night, and that puts Philipp Grubauer and Carter Hutton, now driving the tank for the Yotes, tied with 14 goals against each. Hutton has managed it in less than half Grubauer’s minutes, though.

Hutton’s results come on 3.82 xGA and Grubauer’s on 10.75, leading one to think the Kraken may have really, really been bad last night.

As mentioned in comments, Joe Woll is now on the Marlies roster, so he had to be healthy to be moved. Look for him to start appearing at practices. They don’t play again until Saturday afternoon.

The Leafs are off until Friday, giving them a chance to practice pretty much right when they don’t need it. It’s good rest for Campbell, though. This schedule is really weird.

That’s it for today, and have a good week, everyone, see you Friday for a visit from the Sharks.

From The Branches