Islanders @ Leafs - Mar. 9, 7:30pm - SNO, Fan 590

[CarltonTheBear]

@

42-21-4, 88 pts | 26-35-5, 57 pts

Projected Lines

Lee-Tavares-Bailey Kulemin-Nielsen-Strome Grabner-Nelson-Clutterbuck Martin-Cizikas-McDonald de Haan-Hamonic Leddy-Boychuk Hickey-Visnovsky Halak ​

JVR-Bozak-Kessel     Komarov-Smith-Panik    Lupul-Holland-Booth Sill-Lindstrom-Kozun Gardiner-Phaneuf Rielly-Polak Brewer-Erixon Bernier​

Scratches

Eric Boulton Matt Donovan Tyler Kennedy Kael Mouillierat Brian Strait​

Nazem Kadri Stephan Robidas​

Game Notes

NYI
?Halak will likely start for the Islanders
?Jon Tavares currently leads the league in points with 70 in 67 games

TOR
?Bernier likely starts for the Leafs
?Kadri missed a team meeting on Sunday and was sent home from practice, Horachek hinted that he may be a healthy scratch as a result

Injuries

?Tyler Kennedy - Upper Body - Questionable Monday ?Mikhail Grabovski - Concussion - Injured Reserve ?Casey Cizikas - Upper Body - Injured Reserve ?Kyle Okposo - Eye - Injured Reserve​

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?Stephane Robidas - Shoulder - Out for season        ​

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Stream Options

http://www.reddit.com/r/NHLstreams
http://vaughnlive.tv/leafstreamer
http://ourleafs.blogspot.ca/
​

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

March 9th

 

[LittleHockeyFan]

way to wreck my Criminal Minds bingewatch!

>:-(

 

[CarltonTheBear]

March 9th

whoops, fixed.

 

[Kaberle15]

Tavares with a couple, nothing short of another beating tonight!

Go Tank Go!

 

[Redleaf]

Tavares with a couple, nothing short of another beating tonight!

Go Tank Go!

Tavares is a good example of what a franchise type player can do for a team. No, he's not the sole reason for their climb, but he's certainly an integral part of it.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Tavares with a couple, nothing short of another beating tonight!

Go Tank Go!

Tavares is a good example of what a franchise type player can do for a team. No, he's not the sole reason for their climb, but he's certainly an integral part of it.

But he's the same as any other franchise player - while they were great, the team didn't have success/become great until the whole was vastly improved.  Stamkos has been an elite talent in the league since '09-10 but Tampa missed the playoffs 3 out of 4 seasons (not including last season because he was injured for more than half of it).

But of course it's better to have a talent like that than not.  And I'm not saying you don't realize any of this.

 

[Joe S.]

This is the season that just won't end.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Kadri will indeed be scratched tonight.

 

[Chev-boyar-sky]

Kadri will indeed be scratched tonight.

Ridiculous IMO.

 

[Kin]

You know what they say, accountability really does work best when it starts at the bottom.

 

[Deebo]

I don't think scratching players for things like this is exclusive to the Maple Leafs.

 

[Frank E]

You know what they say, accountability really does work best when it starts at the bottom.

Well, they did fire the coach.

I wouldn't consider Kadri the bottom anyways.

And we don't really know if this is a culmination of issues with Kadri, so I'm not going to be critical of the decision.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

I don't think scratching players for things like this is exclusive to the Maple Leafs.

I remember the Devils scratched Kovalchuk one game for being late to a meeting.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

And we don't really know if this is a culmination of issues with Kadri, so I'm not going to be critical of the decision.

This is going to be my new go-to.

Leafs sign Clarkson: "We don't really know how the negotiations went so I'm not going to be critical of the signing."

But in all seriousness, I don't see why you can't be critical of it.  You can only operate based on what you know - if you learn new info then you can amend your views of it accordingly, but it seems odd to say you're not going to be critical of something because of some hypothetical that may not exist at all.

 

[Kaberle15]

Kadri will indeed be scratched tonight.

Ridiculous IMO.

Yep, But Tank Nation is happy

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Kadri will indeed be scratched tonight.

Ridiculous IMO.

It's a standard consequence for missing a meeting/practice. Especially the fault is solely yours (as opposed to when Franson/Polak had a flat tire). Lupul said he slept in once in Anaheim and was scratched the next game, but nobody knew about it.

He messed up, he's apologized to all those involved, he's taking his punishment. That's all there really is to this story.

 

[herman]

Kadri will indeed be scratched tonight.

Ridiculous IMO.

It's a standard consequence for missing a meeting/practice. Especially the fault is solely yours (as opposed to when Franson/Polak had a flat tire). Lupul said he slept in once in Anaheim and was scratched the next game, but nobody knew about it.

He messed up, he's apologized to all those involved, he's taking his punishment. That's all there really is to this story.

So will Feschuk be talking to Kadri's mom about this and all the times he slept in for school?

 

[ZBBM]

What CTB said.  Story over. 

Well, except on tonite's telecast, when it will provide fodder to the Boys on the Panel.  Much more interesting to talk about this than the players who actually will take to the ice for the Leafs.

 

[Kin]

He messed up, he's apologized to all those involved, he's taking his punishment. That's all there really is to this story.

Maybe when looked at in isolation, sure, but I think the reason are going to be inclined to look at this as being slightly more than that is how it looks within the larger framework of the Leafs right now. Rightly or wrongly, respected media folk like Elliotte Friedman are describing the atmosphere around the current team as the worst they've ever seen. I know we're going to be quick to ascribe this to Daylight Savings but if true then that makes this a really bad time for this sort of thing to happen and feed into that fire.

Even if it was a relatively innocent mistake brought on by a bad alarm clock it still speaks to a larger issue with the team. I mean assuming that you agree that this sort of thing shouldn't happen with regularity and that unlike you or I professional Athletes have a whole host of reasons not to do this then ideally you'd want this behaviour corrected. After what we just watched on Saturday, who on the Leafs right now could sit Nazem down and have a frank discussion about the professionalism a pro hockey player should have with any real authority?