Taking Care of Business
Those of us in Korea have been enjoying a nice, five-day Lunar New Year holiday weekend, which is why it ain't just "Chinese" New Year...
Anyhoo, there's been little rest for this weary scribe/husband/dad the past couple of days. Helped out my parents on Monday preparing for the big family meal for the New Year's Day on Tuesday, and put in a night shift at work just a few hours later. Filed a few stories, including one on the first anniversary of the 2018 Winter Olympics, the very first Winter Games to be held around these parts.
Speaking of the anniversary, Korea will host a four-nation men's hockey tournament this weekend in commemoration of that anniversary. Korea, Latvia (coached by Bob Hartley, who won the Cup with the Avs in 2001), Kazakhstan and Japan will be in action at the same rink that hosted Olympic hockey games a year ago. How time flies! I haven't been back to the venue since the Olympics myself and I am looking forward to getting out there.
But first things first: Both the Raptors and the Leafs won at home this week. I am a day late on the Raptors' 121-103 win over the Clips. Then the Leafs dismantled the Ducks 6-1 earlier today.
The Clips are a solid team, still in the playoff hunt, but that's really the team we're supposed to beat. The Ducks have been reeling, just a couple of wins in their past 17 games before arriving in T.O., and now THAT is the team we're supposed to handle with ease.
I wrote earlier about both the Raps and the Leafs have had some trouble getting past those pesky underdog and how we have often played down to the levels of our competition.
Given that recent history, I've decided not to take these wins for granted.
With the Raptors, we needed an easy win like that after the deflating loss to the Bucks earlier, and some garbage time late gave our starters some breather.
Serge Ibaka, in particular, has been logging heavy minutes in JV's absence. He's been on a double-double streak of late but his outside shooting has all but disappeared. I think his slump from the perimeter and three-point range has to do with the fact that he just doesn't have the legs. The man had been playing 35+ minutes for pretty much the entire 2019 and then got a nice little 22 minutes of action against the Clippers.
No starter played more than 26. We're going on the road to play the Sixers, the Hawks and the Knicks in a five-day span. After Phila, that's two teams that we're expected to beat right there.
The Leafs absolutely dominated the Ducks. After a scoreless first period, we just ran (skated?) them out of our building in the second.
Jake Muzzin really made an impact in this one. I loved this late sequence in the 2nd period. He landed a huge check on Corey Perry, drew a retaliatory penalty, and then scored on a slapper on the ensuing power play.
That was his first goal as a Leaf, which means we got to see his elbow bump (Ed-wing, anyone?) for the first time in a Toronto uniform. Muzz said he's only doing it after hurting his hand during celebration. Either way, it's different.
What's also different... is we finally have a defenseman who can slap one home from the point. We have some skilled D-men with Mo, Gardiner and Dermott, and they won't beat any half-decent NHL goalies with a slap shot from the blue line.
Muzzin brings that hard shot. Our second goal, scored by Johnsson, was off a rebound after a hard Muzzin shot. And on his own goal, Muzzin beat John Gibson cleanly.
Now, Gibson is a great goalie, one of the very best in the league. But he's been having a rough year, and he just got peppered with shots in the 2nd. His defense hung him out to dry, and by the time we got the power play after a silly penalty, I bet Gibson was just mentally not in it. He was way deep in the crease when the shot came, rather than at the top or just outside the crease. He wasn't ready for the shot.
That said, it was nice to see the new guy get his first goal with the new team on home ice. That trade looks better by the day.
Going to be a busy stretch for the Leafs. We'll host the Sens Thursday morning and then a six-game (!) road trip is on the horizon. Habs, Rangers, Avs, Vegas, Yotes and Blues. I hope we get to avenge earlier losses on home ice to Colorado and Arizona. Vegas will be tough to beat because our guys will be, um, distracted once they land in Sin City. It'll be nice to beat those Habs and put some distance between ourselves and those guys, although I'd love for them to stay in 3rd place in Atlantic, ahead of Boston, so that we'll meet in the first round of the playoffs. Scheduled series win for us, in that case!
Anyhoo, there's been little rest for this weary scribe/husband/dad the past couple of days. Helped out my parents on Monday preparing for the big family meal for the New Year's Day on Tuesday, and put in a night shift at work just a few hours later. Filed a few stories, including one on the first anniversary of the 2018 Winter Olympics, the very first Winter Games to be held around these parts.
Speaking of the anniversary, Korea will host a four-nation men's hockey tournament this weekend in commemoration of that anniversary. Korea, Latvia (coached by Bob Hartley, who won the Cup with the Avs in 2001), Kazakhstan and Japan will be in action at the same rink that hosted Olympic hockey games a year ago. How time flies! I haven't been back to the venue since the Olympics myself and I am looking forward to getting out there.
But first things first: Both the Raptors and the Leafs won at home this week. I am a day late on the Raptors' 121-103 win over the Clips. Then the Leafs dismantled the Ducks 6-1 earlier today.
The Clips are a solid team, still in the playoff hunt, but that's really the team we're supposed to beat. The Ducks have been reeling, just a couple of wins in their past 17 games before arriving in T.O., and now THAT is the team we're supposed to handle with ease.
I wrote earlier about both the Raps and the Leafs have had some trouble getting past those pesky underdog and how we have often played down to the levels of our competition.
Given that recent history, I've decided not to take these wins for granted.
With the Raptors, we needed an easy win like that after the deflating loss to the Bucks earlier, and some garbage time late gave our starters some breather.
Serge Ibaka, in particular, has been logging heavy minutes in JV's absence. He's been on a double-double streak of late but his outside shooting has all but disappeared. I think his slump from the perimeter and three-point range has to do with the fact that he just doesn't have the legs. The man had been playing 35+ minutes for pretty much the entire 2019 and then got a nice little 22 minutes of action against the Clippers.
No starter played more than 26. We're going on the road to play the Sixers, the Hawks and the Knicks in a five-day span. After Phila, that's two teams that we're expected to beat right there.
The Leafs absolutely dominated the Ducks. After a scoreless first period, we just ran (skated?) them out of our building in the second.
Jake Muzzin really made an impact in this one. I loved this late sequence in the 2nd period. He landed a huge check on Corey Perry, drew a retaliatory penalty, and then scored on a slapper on the ensuing power play.
That was his first goal as a Leaf, which means we got to see his elbow bump (Ed-wing, anyone?) for the first time in a Toronto uniform. Muzz said he's only doing it after hurting his hand during celebration. Either way, it's different.
What's also different... is we finally have a defenseman who can slap one home from the point. We have some skilled D-men with Mo, Gardiner and Dermott, and they won't beat any half-decent NHL goalies with a slap shot from the blue line.
Muzzin brings that hard shot. Our second goal, scored by Johnsson, was off a rebound after a hard Muzzin shot. And on his own goal, Muzzin beat John Gibson cleanly.
Now, Gibson is a great goalie, one of the very best in the league. But he's been having a rough year, and he just got peppered with shots in the 2nd. His defense hung him out to dry, and by the time we got the power play after a silly penalty, I bet Gibson was just mentally not in it. He was way deep in the crease when the shot came, rather than at the top or just outside the crease. He wasn't ready for the shot.
That said, it was nice to see the new guy get his first goal with the new team on home ice. That trade looks better by the day.
Going to be a busy stretch for the Leafs. We'll host the Sens Thursday morning and then a six-game (!) road trip is on the horizon. Habs, Rangers, Avs, Vegas, Yotes and Blues. I hope we get to avenge earlier losses on home ice to Colorado and Arizona. Vegas will be tough to beat because our guys will be, um, distracted once they land in Sin City. It'll be nice to beat those Habs and put some distance between ourselves and those guys, although I'd love for them to stay in 3rd place in Atlantic, ahead of Boston, so that we'll meet in the first round of the playoffs. Scheduled series win for us, in that case!
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