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Toronto Maple Leafs: Thoughts on News from Around the NHL

By James Tanner

TORONTO, ON - DECEMBER 17: Jack Eichel #9 of the Buffalo Sabres skates against John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on December 17, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3.(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - DECEMBER 17: Jack Eichel #9 of the Buffalo Sabres skates against John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on December 17, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3.(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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The Toronto Maple Leafs had an incredibly busy week in the news department. 

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed their coach, cut a couple players, signed a couple players, their documentary series was released, and a couple of players in camp made some news (Michael Bunting for a hattrick, Nick Robertson for running over Mitch Marner).

Though the two most pressing points remain unanswered (Matthews health, Rielly’s extension) the Leafs training camp has been quite eventful.

What about the rest of the league?

News from Around the NHL

Ex-Toronto Maple Leafs goalie (for about two minutes) Robin Lehner made some news with a bunch of somewhat coherent tweets about NHL team doctors giving out unsanctioned drugs to players.   This will certainly be an interesting story to follow.

The Canucks made watching out of town games way more fun by singing both Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson to long-term contract extensions.   Pettersson only played about a half season last year, so hopefully he is healthy and back in MVP form (especially now that he’s out of the Toronto Maple Leafs division).

The lone holdout among star players seems to be Brady Tkachuk of the Senators, which is terrible news for the them.  They already have a tiny chance of making the playoffs, so you’d think that they’d want to get their best player in camp, but of course, this is Ottawa we’re talking about.

They are the NHL’s smallest market team, and they act like it.  Bad GM, worse owner. What can you do?  This is terrible news also for my hockey pool team that also counts Jack Eichel among it’s keepers.

Speaking of Eichel, still no news on when he’ll have the surgery that he wants and will obviously get. There were some interesting quotes from his doctor, and of course, the Sabres are in constant competition with the Senators for being the NHL’s biggest joke.

I think that about covers it for around the league, but one thing does warrant mention: The Toronto Blue Jays.

The Jays are having a remarkable season that will culminate in today’s win-or-else game against the Orioles.  One thing that is crazy about the Jays is that if they didn’t have their entire bullpen go on the DL in the early part of the season, they’d probably be playing for the division title and not the Wild Card.

And also consider that they didn’t play a home game for like the first 200 days of the season.  Considering the circumstances, where they are is quite incredible, and I think they might actually be the MLBs best team.

Next. Michael Bunting Is the Real Deal. dark

Crazy to think too that if they do make the playoffs, they’ll be adding Cavan Biggio and the 103MPH throwing Nate Pearson to what was already close to the best team.

Here is hoping they pull it off.

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